Being Healthy, Staying Healthy: UVic Studies The Secrets Of Successful Aging

A long life full of love, happiness and good health—it’s clear we all want it, but is it possible? What steps do we have to take to ensure “healthy” aging? Is there anything we can do to prevent our health from deteriorating?
       UVic researchers are studying this issue, trying to get a better understanding of aging across the lifespan. The results of the study will help to inform policy makers about the factors that contribute to longevity and quality of life.
       Volunteers are being recruited from southern Vancouver Island, aged 18 years or older, to take part in the “Physical Aging, Cognition and Health” (PACH) study.
       “Understanding how individuals change across the lifespan is very important,” says UVic psychology PhD student Janet Love, PACH’s principal investigator. “It isn’t enough to group people together by age groups. It is all about individual differences and life experiences. For too long we have assumed that all 70-year-olds are the same age. This is simply not true. Take Betty White for example. She’s an accomplished working actress who just celebrated her 89th birthday. So really, what is 89?”
       For more information contact Janet Love at 250-853-3838 or pach@uvic.ca
       The study runs until January 2012 and is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

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