Ageing: Eternal Youth?

Ivan, Laszlo

The wish to understand the process of ageing is as old as mankind itself but scientific research into ageing started only a few decades ago. Gerontology is a multi-disciplinary science, the purpose of which is to learn about ageing and to guarantee the best possible quality and longest possible duration of life. Although there is still no definite answer to the question of why we grow old, the most plausible is that it cannot be associated with an actual process. There are new problems concerning ageing: life expectancy has doubled in developed countries over the past hundred years, but this only means the number of years one can expect to live, and not the quality of life during these years. The other major problem is the dramatic increase in the number of elderly people: who will support these people if they can no longer work and what kind of life can they expect? A continuous increase in the number of elderly people can be seen in all developed countries, and the life expectancy of men is shorter than that of women everywhere. Caring for an increasing number of elderly people is a problem not properly solved anywhere - different cultures are searching for an answer to this issue within the social network or through technology. People living today will probably live a longer and better quality life than ever, especially if technological development continues at the current rate.

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