The Longevity Revolution: The Benefits and Challenges of Living a Long Life - Hardcover

Dr. Robert N. Butler

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1586485539 ISBN 13: 9781586485535

Publisher: PublicAffairs, 2008

Synopsis

Pulitzer-prize winning author Dr. Robert Butler coined the term "ageism" and made "Alzheimer's" a familiar word. Now he brings his formidable knowledge and experience in aging issues to a recent and unprecedented achievement: the extension of human life expectancy by thirty years. As Butler shows, our society had not yet adapted to this change.

The U.S. has not made a research investment in aging. Only eleven medical schools out of 145 have geriatrics departments compared to England where geriatrics is the number two specialty. We have not solidified private pension plans or strengthened Social Security to ensure that people do not outlive their resources. In this urgent and ultimately optimistic book, Dr. Butler shows why and how we must re-examine our personal and societal approach to aging right now, so that the boomers and the generations that follow may have a financially secure, vigorous, and healthy final chapter life.

About this title

About the Author:

Physician, gerontologist, psychiatrist, public servant and Pulitzer Prizewinning author of Why Survive , Robert N. Butler, M.D. is president and CEO of the International Longevity Center. In 1975, he became founding director of the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health, and in 1982 he founded the first department of geriatrics in a U.S. medical school at The Mount Sinai Medical Center.

From Publishers Weekly:

There is probably no one who knows more about aging than Butler, who coined the term ageism, and founded the federal National Institute on Aging and the first medical school department of geriatrics. Winner of a Pulitzer for Why Survive? Butler now examines the health, economic and social consequences of the growing elderly population. Increasing longevity brings a host of challenges, such as finding better (and cheaper) treatments for chronic health problems; building a health-care system capable of handling the load; and legal protection against age discrimination. Many of Butler's topics overlap with family and women's issues, whether creating a fair elder-care system or strengthening profamily work policies. The author supplies plenty of hard data and lengthy notes. Although his discussions of Alzheimer's and various theories of aging are too technical for the average reader, most of his points are clear and concise, and quite optimistic; for example, Butler urges the need to reinvent ourselves to stay in the workforce. He presents a strong argument for why everyone, from individuals to doctors, marketers and policy makers, should pay far more attention to the growing elderly population worldwide. (Mar.)
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About this edition

• Publisher: PublicAffairs
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1586485539
• ISBN 13: 9781586485535
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 576