Home      Discussion      Topics      Dictionary      Almanac
Signup       Login
Gerontology

Gerontology

Overview

Gerontology (from Greek: γέρον, geron, "old man"; and λόγος, logos
Logos
' is an important term in philosophy, analytical psychology, rhetoric and religion.Heraclitus established the term in Western philosophy as meaning both the source and fundamental order of the cosmos....

, "speech" lit. "to talk about old age") is the study of the social
Social
The term Social refers to a characteristic of living organisms...

, psychological
Psychology
Psychology is an academic and applied discipline involving the systematic, and sometimes scientific, study of human or animal mental functions and behavior...

 and biological
Biology
Biology is the natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy...

 aspects of aging
Ageing
Ageing or aging is the accumulation of changes in an organism or object over time. Ageing in humans refers to a multidimensional process of physical, psychological, and social change. Some dimensions of ageing grow and expand over time, while others decline...

. It is distinguished from geriatrics
Geriatrics
Geriatrics is the branch of medicine that focuses on health care of the elderly. It aims to promote health and to prevent and treat diseases and disabilities in older adults....

, which is the branch of medicine that studies the disease
Disease
A disease or medical condition isan abnormal condition of an organism that impairs bodily functions, associated with specific symptoms and signs...

 of the elderly.

Gerontology includes these and other endeavors:
  • studying physical
    Body
    With regard to living things, a body is the physical body of an individual. "Body" often is used in connection with appearance, health issues and death...

    , mental
    Mind
    Mind is the aspect of intellect and consciousness experienced as combinations of thought, perception, memory, emotion, will and imagination, including all unconscious cognitive processes. The term is often used to refer, by implication, to the thought processes of reason. Mind manifests itself...

    , and social
    Society
    Society or human society is the manner or condition in which the members of a community live together for their mutual benefit. By extension, society denotes the people of a region or country, sometimes even the world, taken as a whole....

     changes in people as they age;
  • investigating the aging process itself (biogerontology);
  • investigating the interface of normal aging and age-related disease (geroscience);
  • investigating the effects of our aging population on society, including the fiscal effects of pensions, entitlements, life and health insurance, and retirement planning;
  • applying this knowledge to policies and programs, including a macroscopic (i.e.
Discussion
Ask a question about 'Gerontology'
Start a new discussion about 'Gerontology'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum
 
Encyclopedia

Gerontology (from Greek: γέρον, geron, "old man"; and λόγος, logos
Logos
' is an important term in philosophy, analytical psychology, rhetoric and religion.Heraclitus established the term in Western philosophy as meaning both the source and fundamental order of the cosmos....

, "speech" lit. "to talk about old age") is the study of the social
Social
The term Social refers to a characteristic of living organisms...

, psychological
Psychology
Psychology is an academic and applied discipline involving the systematic, and sometimes scientific, study of human or animal mental functions and behavior...

 and biological
Biology
Biology is the natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy...

 aspects of aging
Ageing
Ageing or aging is the accumulation of changes in an organism or object over time. Ageing in humans refers to a multidimensional process of physical, psychological, and social change. Some dimensions of ageing grow and expand over time, while others decline...

. It is distinguished from geriatrics
Geriatrics
Geriatrics is the branch of medicine that focuses on health care of the elderly. It aims to promote health and to prevent and treat diseases and disabilities in older adults....

, which is the branch of medicine that studies the disease
Disease
A disease or medical condition isan abnormal condition of an organism that impairs bodily functions, associated with specific symptoms and signs...

 of the elderly.

Gerontology includes these and other endeavors:
  • studying physical
    Body
    With regard to living things, a body is the physical body of an individual. "Body" often is used in connection with appearance, health issues and death...

    , mental
    Mind
    Mind is the aspect of intellect and consciousness experienced as combinations of thought, perception, memory, emotion, will and imagination, including all unconscious cognitive processes. The term is often used to refer, by implication, to the thought processes of reason. Mind manifests itself...

    , and social
    Society
    Society or human society is the manner or condition in which the members of a community live together for their mutual benefit. By extension, society denotes the people of a region or country, sometimes even the world, taken as a whole....

     changes in people as they age;
  • investigating the aging process itself (biogerontology);
  • investigating the interface of normal aging and age-related disease (geroscience);
  • investigating the effects of our aging population on society, including the fiscal effects of pensions, entitlements, life and health insurance, and retirement planning;
  • applying this knowledge to policies and programs, including a macroscopic (i.e. government planning) and microscopic (i.e. running a nursing home) perspective.


The multidisciplinary focus of gerontology means that there are a number of sub-fields, as well as associated fields such as psychology and sociology that also cross over into gerontology. However, that there is an overlap should not be taken as to construe that they are the same. For example, a psychologist may specialize in early adults (and not be a gerontologist) or specialize in older adults (and be a gerontologist).

The field of gerontology was developed relatively late, and as such often lacks the structural and institutional support needed (for example, relatively few universities offer a Ph.D. in gerontology). Yet the huge increase in the elderly population in the post-industrial Western nations has led to this becoming one of the most rapidly growing fields. As such, gerontology is currently a well-paying field for many in the West.

Biogerontology


Biogerontology, is the subfield of gerontology dedicated to studying the biological processes
Senescence
Senescence refers to the biological changes which take place in organisms as they age. It encompasses all of the biological processes of a living organism's approaching an advanced age...

. Some skeptics have worked to show that aging is a biological process that we are far from being able to control. Conservative biogerontologists who have only an intellectual interest in the aging process, like Leonard Hayflick
Leonard Hayflick
Leonard Hayflick , Ph.D., is Professor of Anatomy at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, and was Professor of Medical Microbiology at Stanford University School of Medicine. He is a past president of the Gerontological Society of America and was a founding member of the...

, have predicted that the human life expectancy numbers will top out at about 85 (88 for females, 82 for males).

Biomedical gerontology, also known as experimental gerontology and life extension, is a sub discipline of biogerontology, that endeavors to slow, prevent, and even reverse aging in both humans and animals. Curing age-related diseases is one approach, and slowing down the underlying processes of aging is another. Most 'life extensionists' believe the human life span can be altered within the next century, if not sooner. 'Optimists' have predicted a changing human life span, though this has not yet been demonstrated.

Many biogerontologists take an intermediate position, emphasizing the study of the aging process as a means of mitigating aging-associated diseases
Aging-associated diseases
An aging-associated disease is a disease that is seen with increasing frequency with increasing senescence. Age-associated diseases are to be distinguished from the aging process itself because all adult animals age, but not all adult animals experience all age-associated diseases...

, while denying that maximum life span
Maximum life span
Maximum life span is a measure of the maximum amount of time one or more members of a group has been observed to survive between birth and death.-Definition:...

 can be altered (or denying that it is desirable to try).

Notable biomedical gerontologists

  • Ana Aslan
    Ana Aslan
    Ana Aslan was a Romanian biologist and physician. She is considered to be a founding figure of gerontology and geriatrics in Romania. In 1952, under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Ana Aslan, the Geriatric Institute in Bucharest was founded...

  • L. Stephen Coles
    L. Stephen Coles
    Leslie Stephen Coles is a Visiting Scholar in the computer science department at the UCLA. co-founder, and the Executive Director of the Gerontology Research Group, and an Assistant Researcher in the Department of Surgery, at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, in Los Angeles, California...

     - a key member of the Supercentenarian
    Supercentenarian
    A supercentenarian is someone who has reached the age of 110 years, something achieved by only one in a thousand centenarians...

     Research Foundation
  • Alex Comfort
    Alex Comfort
    Alexander Comfort was a medical professional, gerontologist, anarchist, pacifist, conscientious objector and writer, best known for The Joy of Sex, which played a part in what is often called the sexual revolution...

     - studied and popularized the biology of aging, while promoting life extension
  • João Pedro Magalhães - works on genomics of aging at the University of Liverpool
    University of Liverpool
    The University of Liverpool is a university in the city of Liverpool, England. It is a member of the Russell Group and the N8 Group for research collaboration, and founded in 1881 it is also one of the six original "red brick" civic universities...

  • Kelvin Davies - has greatly advanced research into understanding of damaged protein aggregates and their contribution to age-related diseases.
  • Caleb Finch
    Caleb Finch
    Caleb 'Tuck' Finch is a professor at the University of Southern California's Leonard Davis School of Gerontology who studies aging in humans, with expertise in cell biology and Alzheimer's disease. He was the founding Director of USC's NIH funded Alzheimer Disease Research Center in 1984, and is...

     - has received a variety of the major awards in biomedical gerontology. He currently directs the NIH-funded Alzheimer Disease Research Center.
  • Michael Fossel
    Michael Fossel
    Michael B. Fossel, M.D., Ph.D. is a professor of clinical medicine at Michigan State University and editor of the Journal Of Anti-Ageing Medicine who is best known for his views on telomerase therapy as a possible treatment for cellular senescence...

  • Aubrey de Grey
    Aubrey de Grey
    Aubrey David Nicholas Jasper de Grey is an English author and theoretician in the field of gerontology, and the Chief Science Officer of the SENS Foundation....

     - originated the concept and theory of engineered negligible senescence
    Engineered negligible senescence
    Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence is the name Aubrey de Grey gives to his proposal to research regenerative medical procedures to periodically repair all the age-related damage in the human body, thereby maintaining a youth-like state indefinitely...

  • Steven A. Garan
    Steven A. Garan
    Steven A. Garan is currently a research scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. While at the University of California, Berkeley, he played a major role in the invention and the development of the Automated Imaging Microscope System . While at UC Berkeley, Garan collaborated for many...

  • Leonid Gavrilov - suggested the reliability theory of aging and longevity
    Reliability theory of aging and longevity
    Reliability theory of aging and longevity is a scientific approach aimed to gain theoretical insights into mechanisms of biological aging and species survival patterns by applying a general theory of systems failure, known as reliability theory.-Overview:...

  • David Gems - works on aging in roundworms at University College London
    University College London
    University College London is a British university institution and a constituent college of the University of London, based primarily in Bloomsbury, London...

  • Leonard Guarente - proposed that sirtuins mediate the beneficial effects of caloric restriction
  • Denham Harman
    Denham Harman
    Denham Harman , MD, PhD, FACP, FAAA biogerontologist is Professor emeritus at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Harman is widely known as the "father of the free radical theory of aging".-Background:...

     (born 1916) - developed the free radical theory of aging
  • Robin Holliday
    Robin Holliday
    Robin Holliday PhD, FRS, FAA has a distinguished career in molecular biology. Heproposed a mechanism of DNA-strand exchange that attempted to explain gene-conversion events that occur during meiosis in fungi. That model first proposed in 1964 is now known as the Holliday Junction.-Education and...

     - discovered "Holliday junctions" as homologous recombination; extensive work on testing the error catastrophe theory of aging; putforward the ideas about the role of DNA methylation and epimutations in aging.
  • Kenneth Howse - UK Oxford philosopher and ethicist, expert on Longevity
  • Thomas E. Johnson - discovered long-lived mutant
    Mutant
    A mutant is an individual, organism, or new genetic character arising or resulting from an instance of mutation, which is a base-pair sequence change within the DNA of a gene or chromosome of an organism resulting in the creation of a new character or trait not found in the wild type. The natural...

    s of C elegans
    Caenorhabditis elegans
    Caenorhabditis elegans is a free-living, transparent nematode , about 1 mm in length, which lives in temperate soil environments. Research into the molecular and developmental biology of C. elegans was begun in 1974 by Sydney Brenner and it has since been used extensively as a model...

  • Matt Kaeberlein
    Matt Kaeberlein
    Dr. Matt Kaeberlein is an American biologist best known for his research on evolutionarily conserved mechanisms of aging. He is currently at the University of Washington where he is a professor in the Department of Pathology....

     - discovered the anti-aging role of sirtuins  and proposed that the mammalian target of rapamycin
    Mammalian target of rapamycin
    The mammalian target of rapamycin also known as FK506 binding protein 12-rapamycin associated protein 1 is a protein which in humans is encoded by the FRAP1 gene...

     (mTOR) mediates the beneficial effects of caloric restriction
  • Brian Kennedy
    Brian K Kennedy
    Brian K. Kennedy is an American biologist best known for his research on aging in yeast. Dr. Kennedy began his research in aging in the lab of Dr. Leonard at MIT. He is currently a professor of Biochemistry at the University of Washington....

     - challenges the hypothesis that sirtuins mediate the beneficial effects of caloric restriction instead proposing that the mediator is the mammalian target of rapamycin
    Mammalian target of rapamycin
    The mammalian target of rapamycin also known as FK506 binding protein 12-rapamycin associated protein 1 is a protein which in humans is encoded by the FRAP1 gene...

     (mTOR)
  • Cynthia Kenyon
    Cynthia Kenyon
    Cynthia Jane Kenyon is an American molecular biologist known for her genetic dissection of aging in a tiny worm, Caenorhabditis elegans.-Career:...

     - quadrupled the lifespan of specimens of the small worm Caenorhabitis elegans by altering a single gene
  • Thomas Kirkwood
    Thomas Kirkwood
    Thomas Burton Loram Kirkwood CBE is an English biologist who made his contribution to the biology of ageing by proposing the concept of Disposable soma. He is currently a researcher in Newcastle University and heads The Institute for Ageing and Health in its School of Clinical Medical Sciences...

     - developed the disposable soma theory, contributing to the evolutionary biogerontology
    Evolution of ageing

    Enquiry into the evolution of ageing aims to explain why almost all living things weaken and die with age. There is not yet agreement in the scientific community on a single answer...

  • Marios Kyriazis
    Marios Kyriazis
    Marios Kyriazis is a medical doctor and gerontologist who helped launch and formalise the concept of ‘Anti-aging medicine’ worldwide.-Education:...

     - proposed carnosine
    Carnosine
    Carnosine is a dipeptide of the amino acids beta-alanine and histidine. It is highly concentrated in muscle and brain tissues....

     as a general anti-aging supplement, and disapproved the notion that cosmetics and beauty products form part of anti-aging medicine
  • Valter Longo - advanced research in the field of gene manipulation and its relation to life extension.
  • John Walsh
    John Walsh
    John Walsh is the host of the TV show America's Most Wanted. Walsh is known for his anti-crime activism, which he became involved with following the murder of his son, Adam, in 1981...

     - research professor in USC Davis School of Gerontology
  • Linda Partridge
    Linda Partridge
    Dame Linda Partridge DBE FRS FRSE is a British geneticist.She has been Weldon Professor of Biometry at University College London since 1994. She was elected to the Royal Society in 1996 and appointed CBE in 2003. Her second husband, Michael J. Morgan was also elected FRS in 2005...

     - works on Drosophila aging at University College London
    University College London
    University College London is a British university institution and a constituent college of the University of London, based primarily in Bloomsbury, London...

  • Christian Pike
    Christian Pike
    Christian Pike is an Associate Professor at the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology and a member of the USC Neuroscience Program. His ongoing work focuses on Alzheimer's disease and other age-related neurodegenerative disorders. His laboratory studies the role of neuronal apoptosis in neural diseases...

     - studies the role of neuronal apoptosis in neural diseases. Also leads research on testosterone's effects on the development of Alzheimer's disease.
  • Durk Pearson
    Durk Pearson
    Durk Pearson was born in 1943 and grew up on a farm in Illinois. He was reading by the age of four, and decided to become a scientist at that early age. While a student at MIT, he was a member of the MIT Science Fiction Society and one of the writers for the early underground comic God Comics...

     - mostly self-taught on biology research, published the book Life Extension
  • Suresh Rattan
    Suresh Rattan
    Suresh Rattan is a biogerontologist - a researcher in the field of biology of aging, biogerontology....

     - coined the terms gerontogenes and virtual-gerontogenes; is a pioneer of application of mild stress-induced hormesis
    Hormesis
    Hormesis is the term for generally-favorable biological responses to low exposures to toxins and other stressors...

     as an aging modulatory strategy in human cells; and is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the journal "[Biogerontology]http://www.springer.com/life+sci/cell+biology/journal/10522".
  • Michael R. Rose
    Michael R. Rose
    Michael R. Rose is a Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Irvine. His advisor was Brian Charlesworth. His main area of work has been the evolution of aging. In 1991, he published Evolutionary Biology of Aging exploring a view of the...

     -- bred long-lived fruit flies
    Drosophila
    Drosophila is a genus of small flies, belonging to the family Drosophilidae, whose members are often called "fruit flies" or more appropriately pomace flies, vinegar flies, or wine flies, a reference to the characteristic of many species to linger around overripe or rotting fruit...

    , a founder of evolutionary biogerontology
    Evolution of ageing

    Enquiry into the evolution of ageing aims to explain why almost all living things weaken and die with age. There is not yet agreement in the scientific community on a single answer...

  • Edward L. Schneider
    Edward L. Schneider
    Edward L. Schneider, M.D., is a professor of gerontology at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology and a professor of medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, with a joint appointment in biological sciences and molecular biology....

     - the former director of the NIA's Gerontology Research Center and the first recipient of the William and Sylvia Kugel Chair of Gerontology.
  • David Sinclair
    David Sinclair
    David Sinclair may refer to:* Dave Sinclair, keyboardist* David Sinclair * David Sinclair * David Sinclair * David Sinclair * David Sinclair , British actor...

     - proposed that resveratrol slows aging and mimics caloric restriction by activating Sirtuins
  • John Speakman - works on metabolism and aging at the University of Aberdeen
    University of Aberdeen
    The University of Aberdeen is an ancient university founded in 1495, in Aberdeen, Scotland. It is the fifth oldest university in what is now the United Kingdom, and in the wider English-speaking world....

  • Roy Walford
    Roy Walford
    Roy Lee Walford, M. D. was a pioneer in the field of life extension. He died at age 79 of respiratory failure as a complication of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis...

     (June 29, 1924 San Diego, California – April 27, 2004) - an early advocate of caloric restriction

Notable biogerotechnologists (business/applied)

  • Robert Lanza
    Robert Lanza
    Robert Lanza, M.D. is a leading American scientist and is currently Chief Scientific Officer of Advanced Cell Technology and Adjunct Professor at the Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Wake Forest University School of Medicine....

  • Thomas Okarma
    Thomas Okarma
    -Education:Dr. Okarma earned his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College and his M.D. & Ph.D. from Stanford University.-Previous Work:Dr. Okarma worked at the Stanford University School of Medicine as a faculty member from 1980 until 1985. He left the university to become the scientific...

  • Michael West
    Michael D. West
    Dr. Michael D. West is CEO of BioTime, Inc., of Emeryville, California, a company engaged in stem cell research and development, development of low temperature medicine , and development of artificial blood plasma solutions for the treatment for blood loss due to trauma and elective surgery...


Notable demographic gerontologists

  • Eileen Crimmins
    Eileen Crimmins
    Eileen M. Crimmins is a gerontologist and Edna M. Jones Professor of Gerontology at the University of Southern California. Her work focuses on the connections between socioeconomic factors and life expectancy and other health outcomes.-Biography:...

     - director of the USC/UCLA Center on Biodemography and Population Health. Currently researches the links between education, income level, and health in old age.
  • Sarah Harper
    Sarah Harper
    Sarah Harper is a British gerontologist. She achieved particular acclaim when she established Oxford's Institute of Ageing, and became the University of Oxford's first Professor of Gerontology. She holds the first Professorship of Gerontology at the University of Oxford...

    , UK Professor Gerontology, Oxford University , described social implications of population ageing, expert on work, family and ageing in Asia
  • George Leeson UK Oxford statistician and demographer, worked extensively on Scandinavian ageing and global migration; Heads Global Ageing Survey
  • Jay Olshansky
    S. Jay Olshansky
    S. Jay Olshansky received his Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Chicago in 1984. He is currently a Professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a Research Associate at the Center on Aging at the University of Chicago and at the London School of Hygiene...

     - a noted skeptic of life-extension claims
  • Jean-Marie Robine
    Jean-Marie Robine
    Jean-Marie Robine is a French demographer and gerontologist who is best known as being the co-validator of the Jeanne Calment case, the oldest verified supercentenarian of all time....

     - validated the Jeanne Calment
    Jeanne Calment
    Jeanne Louise Calment was a French woman with the longest confirmed lifespan in history at age 122 years 164 days . She lived in Arles, France, for her entire life, and outlived both her daughter and grandson...

     case
  • James Vaupel
    James Vaupel
    The demographer James W. Vaupel, Ph.D. is a leading scientist in the fields of aging research, biodemography, and formal demography...

     - lead the push for the internationalization of demographic data on the human life span

Notable non-biomedical biogerontologists

  • Leonard Hayflick
    Leonard Hayflick
    Leonard Hayflick , Ph.D., is Professor of Anatomy at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, and was Professor of Medical Microbiology at Stanford University School of Medicine. He is a past president of the Gerontological Society of America and was a founding member of the...

     (born 1928) - discovered the Hayflick limit, asserts elimination of aging is neither possible nor desirable
  • Raymond Pearl
    Raymond Pearl
    Raymond Pearl was an American biologist, regarded as one of the founders of biogerontology. He spent most of his career at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore....

     (3 June 1879 - 17 November 1940)
  • Elizabeth Zelinski - studies memory and cognition in older adults.

Social gerontology


Social gerontology is a multi-disciplinary sub-field that specializes in studying or working with older adults.

Social gerontologists may have degrees or training in social work
Social work
Social Work is both a profession and social science. It involves the application of social theory and research methods to study and improve the lives of people, groups, and societies...

, nursing
Nursing
Nursing is a healthcare profession focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life from birth to the end of life....

, psychology
Psychology
Psychology is an academic and applied discipline involving the systematic, and sometimes scientific, study of human or animal mental functions and behavior...

, sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the scientific or systematic study of human societies. It is a branch of social science that uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop and refine a body of knowledge about human social structure and activity, often with the goal of applying such...

, demography
Demography
Demography is the statistical study of all populations. It can be a very general science that can be applied to any kind of dynamic population, that is, one that changes over time or space...

, gerontology, or other social science professions. Gerontologists are responsible for educating
Education
Education in its broadest sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character or physical ability of an individual...

, researching, and advancing the broader causes of older people by giving informative presentations, publishing books and articles that pertain to the aging population, producing relevant films and television programs, and producing new graduates of these various disciplines in college and university settings.

Because issues of life span and life extension need numbers to quantify them, there is an overlap with demography
Demography
Demography is the statistical study of all populations. It can be a very general science that can be applied to any kind of dynamic population, that is, one that changes over time or space...

. Those that study the demography of the human life span are different than those that study the social demographics of aging.

Notable social and psychological gerontologists

  • Alexis Abramson
  • Vern Bengston -- Professor emeritus at the USC Davis School of Gerontology. His research covers the sociology of life course, family sociology, social psychology, and ethnicity and aging.
  • James Birren
    James Birren
    Dr. James E. Birren, Ph.D. is one of the founders of the field of gerontology since the 1940s. He is a past president of The Gerontological Society of America, and author of over 250 publications.-Theories:...

     considered to be the "founding father" of gerontology. Dean emeritus at the USC Davis School of Gerontology. An expert in the areas of neurocognition and psychology, he established much of the framework of modern gerontological theory.
  • Eileen Crimmins
    Eileen Crimmins
    Eileen M. Crimmins is a gerontologist and Edna M. Jones Professor of Gerontology at the University of Southern California. Her work focuses on the connections between socioeconomic factors and life expectancy and other health outcomes.-Biography:...

     - Edna M. Jones Professor of Gerontology at the USC Davis School of Gerontology and director of the USC/UCLA Center on Biodemography and Population Health. Currently researches the links between education, income level, and health in old age.
  • Linda George
  • Pearl German
  • Sarah Harper
    Sarah Harper
    Sarah Harper is a British gerontologist. She achieved particular acclaim when she established Oxford's Institute of Ageing, and became the University of Oxford's first Professor of Gerontology. She holds the first Professorship of Gerontology at the University of Oxford...

     Professor of Gerontology, University of Oxford
  • Elizabeth Zelinski -- principal investigator of the Long Beach Longitudinal Study, which evaluates cognition, memory and language comprehension in older adults.
  • Mara Mather
    Mara Mather
    Mara Mather is a cognitive psychologist and gerontologist who studies memory, emotion, decision making and aging at the USC Davis School of Gerontology. In 2005, she received the Springer Early Career Achievement Award in Research on Adult Development and Aging. In 2007, she received the Richard...

     - cognitive psychologist and gerontologist whose research focuses on memory, emotion, decision making and aging
  • Erdman Palmore - noted for the International Handbook on Aging
  • Jon Pynoos
    Jon Pynoos
    Jon Pynoos Ph.D.UPS Foundation Professor of Gerontology, Policy, Planning and DevelopmentDirector, Division of Policy and Services Research.Jon Pynoos is the UPS Foundation Professor of Gerontology, Policy, Planning and Development at the of the University of Southern California. He is also , and...

    -- UPS Foundation Professor of Gerontology, Policy, Planning and Development at the USC Davis School of Gerontology. Expert on housing and long term care policies and programs for the elderly. Co-director of the Fall Prevention Center of Excellence.
  • K. Warner Schaie
    K. Warner Schaie
    K. Warner Schaie, Ph.D. is an American social gerontologist and psychologist best known for co-founding the Seattle Longitudinal Study in 1956....


Alan Walker
  • Kathleen Wilber
    Kathleen Wilber
    Kathleen Wilber Ph.D., is a professor of gerontology and policy planning and development at the University of Southern California. At the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, she holds the title of Mary Pickford Foundation Professor of Gerontology. Wilber also holds an appointment in Health...

     -- Mary Pickford Foundation Professor of Gerontology at the USC Davis School of Gerontology. Her research is focused on improving the quality of life of people with chronic physical and mental health conditions by improving the formal health and long term care delivery systems.

History of Gerontology


It may be said that the history of gerontology begins with agriculture; prior to this the hunter-gatherer societies that existed could only support a marginal existence: food supply was short; frequent movement a necessity. These and other reasons meant that extremely few reached 'old age'. However, it could be argued that in a society with a life expectancy of 14 (such as 10,000 BC), being '40' was 'old'.

Things changed with the coming of agriculture. A more stable food supply and the lack of frequent movement meant that humans could now survive longer, and beginning perhaps around 4000 BC, a regular segment of the population began to attain 'old age' in places such as Mesopotamia and the Indus river valleys. Agriculture didn't simply bring a steady food supply; it also suddenly made older persons an economic benefit instead of a burden. Older persons could stay and watch the farm (or children); make pottery or jewelry, and perform social functions, such as story-telling (oral tradition, religion, etc). and teaching the younger generation techniques for farming, tool-making, etc.

After this change, the views of elder persons in societies waxed and waned, but generally the proportion of the population over 50 or 60 remained small. Note that in ancient Egypt, Pharaoh Pepi II was said to have lived to 100 years old. Certainly Ramses II lived to about 90; modern scientific testing of his mummy supports the written record. Ancient Greeks valued old persons for their wisdom (some reaching 80, 90, or 100 years old), while old age was devalued in Roman times.

In the medieval Islamic world
Islamic Golden Age
The Islamic Golden Age or the Islamic Renaissance, is traditionally dated from the 9th to 13th centuries for 400 years C.E., but has been extended to the 15th century by recent scholarship...

, elderly people were valued by Muslim physicians
Islamic medicine
In the history of medicine, Islamic medicine or Arabic medicine refers to medicine developed in the medieval Islamic civilization and written in Arabic, the lingua franca of the Islamic civilization. Despite these names, a significant number of scientists during this period were not Arab...

. Avicenna
Avicenna
, known as Abū Alī Sīnā or Ibn Sīnā , and commonly known in English by his Latinized name Avicenna , was a Persian polymath and the foremost physician and philosopher of his time...

's The Canon of Medicine
The Canon of Medicine
The Canon of Medicine is a 14-volume medical encyclopedia written by Islamic scientist and physician Ibn Sīnā...

(1025) was the first book to offer instruction for the care of the aged
Ageing
Ageing or aging is the accumulation of changes in an organism or object over time. Ageing in humans refers to a multidimensional process of physical, psychological, and social change. Some dimensions of ageing grow and expand over time, while others decline...

, foreshadowing modern gerontology and geriatrics
Geriatrics
Geriatrics is the branch of medicine that focuses on health care of the elderly. It aims to promote health and to prevent and treat diseases and disabilities in older adults....

. In a chapter entitled "Regimen of Old Age", Avicenna was concerned with how "old folk need plenty of sleep", how their bodies should be anointed
Anointing
To anoint is to pour or smear with perfumed oil, milk, water, melted butter or other substances, a process employed ritually by many religions. People and things are anointed to symbolize the introduction of a sacramental or divine influence, a holy emanation, spirit, power or god...

 with oil
Oil
An oil is any substance that is liquid at ambient temperatures and is hydrophobic but soluble in organic solvents. Oils have a high carbon and hydrogen content and are nonpolar substances. The general definition above includes compound classes with otherwise unrelated chemical structures,...

, and recommended exercises such as walking
Walking
Walking is the main form of animal locomotion on land, distinguished from running and crawling. When carried out in shallow waters, it is usually described as wading and when performed over a steeply rising object or an obstacle it becomes scrambling or climbing...

 or horse-riding
Equestrianism
Equestrianism refers to the skill of riding or driving horses. This broad description includes both use of horses for practical, working purposes as well as recreational activities and competitive sports.-Overview of equestrian activities:...

. Thesis III of the Canon discussed the diet
Diet (nutrition)
In nutrition, the diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism. Dietary habits are the habitual decisions an individual or culture makes when choosing what foods to eat. Although humans are omnivores, each culture holds some food preferences and some food taboos. Individual...

 suitable for old people
Old age
Old age consists of ages nearing or surpassing the average life span of human beings, and thus the end of the human life cycle. Euphemisms and terms for old people include seniors , Senior Citizens , or the elderly...

, and dedicated several sections to elderly patients who become constipated
Constipation
Constipation, costiveness, or irregularity is a condition of the digestive system in which a person experiences hard feces that are difficult to expel. This usually happens because the colon absorbs too much water from the food...

.

The Canon of Medicine recognized four periods of life
Life
Life is a characteristic that distinguishes objects that have self-sustaining biological processes from those that do not—either because such functions have ceased , or else because they lack such functions and are classified as "inanimate."In biology, the science of living organisms, "life"...

: the period of growth
Human development (biology)
Human development is the process of growing to maturity. In biological terms, this entails growth from a one-celled zygote to an adult human being.- Biological development:...

, prime of life
Adult
The term adult has at least three distinct meanings. It can indicate a biologically grown or mature person. It may also mean a plant, animal, or person who has reached full growth or alternatively is capable of reproduction, or the classification legal adult, generally determined as a person who...

, period of elderly decline
Middle age
Middle age is the period of life beyond young adulthood but before the onset of old age. Various attempts have been made to define this age, which is around the third quarter of the average life span of human beings....

 (from forty to sixty), and decrepit
Muscle weakness
Muscle weakness, also known as muscle fatigue, is a direct term for the inability to exert force with one's muscles to the degree that would be expected given the individual's general physical fitness. A test of strength is often used during a diagnosis of a muscular disorder before the etiology...

 age. He states that during the last period, "there is hardness of their bone
Bone
Bones are rigid organs that form part of the endoskeleton of vertebrates. They function to move, support, and protect the various organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells and store minerals. Bone tissue is a type of dense connective tissue...

s, roughness of the skin
Skin
The skin is the outer covering of the body. In humans, it is the largest organ of the integumentary system made up of multiple layers of mesodermal tissue, and guards the underlying muscles, bones, ligaments and internal organs. Skin of a different nature exists in amphibians, reptiles, birds...

, and the long time since they produced semen
Semen
Semen is an organic fluid, also known as seminal fluid, that usually contains spermatozoa. It is secreted by the gonads and other sexual organs of male or hermaphroditic animals and can fertilize female ova...

, blood
Blood
Blood is a specialized bodily fluid that delivers necessary substances to the body's cells — such as nutrients and oxygen — and transports waste products away from those same cells....

 and vaporal breath
Breathing
Breathing is the process that takes oxygen in and carbon dioxide out of the body. Aerobic organisms require oxygen to release energy via respiration, in the form of the metabolism of energy-rich molecules such as glucose...

". However, he agreed with Galen
Galen
Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus , better known as Galen of Pergamum , was a prominent Greek physician and philosopher and probably the most accomplished medical researcher of the Roman period. His theories dominated and influenced Western medical science for well over a millennium...

 that the earth element
Earth (classical element)
Earth, home and origin of humanity, has often been worshipped in its own right with its own unique spiritual traditio.-Greek and Roman tradition:...

 is more prominent in the aged and decrepit than in other periods. Avicenna did not agree with the concept of infirmity, however, stating: "There is no need to assert that there are three states of the human body—sickness, health and a state which is neither health nor disease. The first two cover everything."

The famous Arabic physician
Islamic medicine
In the history of medicine, Islamic medicine or Arabic medicine refers to medicine developed in the medieval Islamic civilization and written in Arabic, the lingua franca of the Islamic civilization. Despite these names, a significant number of scientists during this period were not Arab...

, Ibn Al-Jazzar
Ibn Al-Jazzar
Abu Ja'far Ahmad ibn Abi Khalid Ibn al-Jazzar Al-Qayrawani , was an influential 10th-century Arab Muslim physician who became famous for his writings on Islamic medicine. He was born in Qayrawan in modern-day Tunisia...

 Al-Qayrawani (Algizar, circa 898-980), also wrote a special book on the medicine and health of the elderly, entitled Kitab Tibb al-Machayikh or Teb al-Mashaikh wa hefz sehatahom. He also wrote a book on sleep disorder
Sleep disorder
A sleep disorder is a medical disorder of the sleep patterns of a person or animal. Some sleep disorders are serious enough to interfere with normal physical, mental and emotional functioning...

s and another one on forgetfulness
Forgetting
Forgetting refers to apparent loss of information already encoded and stored in an individual's long term memory. It is a spontaneous or gradual process in which old memories are unable to be recalled from memory storage. It is subject to delicately balanced optimization that ensures that...

 and how to strengthen memory
Memory
In psychology, memory is an organism's mental ability to store, retain, and recall information. Traditional studies of memory began in the fields of philosophy, including techniques of artificially enhancing the memory....

, entitled Kitab al-Nissian wa Toroq Taqwiati Adhakira, and a treatise on causes of mortality
Death
Death is the termination of the biological functions that define a living organism. It refers to both a particular event and to the condition that results thereby. The true nature of the latter has for millennia been a central concern of the world's religious traditions and of philosophical...

 entitled Rissala Fi Asbab al-Wafah. Another Arabic physician in the 9th century, Ishaq ibn Hunayn (died 910), the son of Hunayn Ibn Ishaq
Hunayn ibn Ishaq
Hunayn ibn Ishaq Hunayn ibn Ishaq Hunayn ibn Ishaq was a famous and influential Middle Eastern Christian scholar, physician, and scientist, known for his work in translating scientific and medical works in Greek into Arabic. Although Arabic historical...

, wrote a Treatise on Drugs for Forgetfulness (Risalah al-Shafiyah fi adwiyat al-nisyan).

In medieval Europe
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages of European history is a period of European history covering roughly a millennium in the 5th century through 16th centuries. More specific starting and ending points are sometimes adopted by scholars to suit their respective specializations or current focus...

 on the other hand, during its Dark Ages
Dark Ages
The Dark Ages is a term in historiography referring to a perceived period of cultural decline or societal collapse that took place in Western Europe between the fall of Rome and the eventual recovery of learning. Increased understanding of the accomplishments of the Middle Ages in the 19th century...

, negative opinions of the elderly prevailed; old women were often burned at the stake as witches. However, with the coming of the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe...

 old age returned to favor in Europe, as persons such as Michelangelo
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer...

 and Andrea Doria
Andrea Doria
Andrea Doria or D'Oria was an Italian condottiere and admiral from Genoa.-Early life:...

 exemplified the ideals of living long, active, productive lives.

While the number of aged humans, and the maximum ages lived to, tended to increase in every century since the 1300s, society tended to consider caring for an elderly relative as a family issue. It was not until the coming of the Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, and transport had a profound effect on the socioeconomic and cultural conditions in the United Kingdom. The changes subsequently spread throughout Europe, North...

 with its techniques of mass production
Mass production
Mass production is the production of large amounts of standardized products, including and especially on assembly lines...

 that ideas shifted in favor of a societal care-system. Care homes for the aged emerged in the 1800s. Note that some early pioneers, such as Michel Eugène Chevreul
Michel Eugène Chevreul
Michel Eugène Chevreul was a French chemist whose work with fatty acids led to early applications in the fields of art and science. He is credited with discovering margarine and designing an early form of soap made from animal fats and salt...

, who himself lived to be 102 in the 1880s, believed that aging itself should be a science to be studied. The word itself was coined circa 1903.

It was not until the 1940s, however, that pioneers like James Birren
James Birren
Dr. James E. Birren, Ph.D. is one of the founders of the field of gerontology since the 1940s. He is a past president of The Gerontological Society of America, and author of over 250 publications.-Theories:...

 began organizing 'gerontology' into its own field. Recognizing that there were experts in many fields all dealing with the elderly, it became apparent that a group like the Gerontological Society of America was needed (founded in 1945). Two decades later, James Birren
James Birren
Dr. James E. Birren, Ph.D. is one of the founders of the field of gerontology since the 1940s. He is a past president of The Gerontological Society of America, and author of over 250 publications.-Theories:...

 was appointed as the founding director of the first academic research center devoted exclusively to the study of aging, the Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center
Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center
The Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center, one of the first centers for gerontology research in the U.S., was founded at the University of Southern California in 1964. The center was expanded in 1975 with the inception of the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, the first school of gerontology in...

 at the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, nonsectarian, research university located in the University Park neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, USA...

. In 1975, the USC
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, nonsectarian, research university located in the University Park neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, USA...

 Leonard Davis School of Gerontology
Leonard Davis School of Gerontology
The Leonard Davis School of Gerontology] at the University of Southern California, a leader in the field of gerontology, has pioneered educational programs including the world's first Ph.D...

 became the first academic gerontology department, with Birren
James Birren
Dr. James E. Birren, Ph.D. is one of the founders of the field of gerontology since the 1940s. He is a past president of The Gerontological Society of America, and author of over 250 publications.-Theories:...

 as its founding dean.

In the 1950s to the 1970s, the field was mainly social and concerned with issues such as nursing homes and health care. However, research by Leonard Hayflick
Leonard Hayflick
Leonard Hayflick , Ph.D., is Professor of Anatomy at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, and was Professor of Medical Microbiology at Stanford University School of Medicine. He is a past president of the Gerontological Society of America and was a founding member of the...

 in the 1960s (showing that a cell line culture will only divide about 50 times) helped lead to a separate branch, biogerontology. It became apparent that simply 'treating' aging wasn't enough. Finding out about the aging process, and what could be done about it, became an issue.

The biogerontological field was also bolstered when research by Cynthia Kenyon
Cynthia Kenyon
Cynthia Jane Kenyon is an American molecular biologist known for her genetic dissection of aging in a tiny worm, Caenorhabditis elegans.-Career:...

 and others demonstrated that life extension was possible in lower life forms such as fruit flies, worm
Worm
The term worm is used to describe many different distantly-related animals which have a long cylindrical body and no legs.Most animals called "worms" are invertebrates, but the term is also used for the amphibian caecilians and the slow worm Anguis, a legless burrowing lizard...

s, and yeast
Yeast
Yeasts are eukaryotic micro-organisms classified in the kingdom Fungi, with about 1,500 species currently described; they dominate fungal diversity in the oceans. Most reproduce asexually by budding, although a few do so by binary fission...

. So far, however, nothing more than incremental (marginal) increases in life span have been seen in any mammalian species.

Today, social gerontology remains the largest sector of the field, but the biogerontological side is seen as being the 'hot' side.

Academic resources

  • Journal of Applied Gerontology, ISSN: 1552-4523 (electronic) ISSN: 0733-4648 (paper), SAGE Publications
  • Age and Aging, an international journal publishing refereed original articles on geriatric medicine and gerontology. Oxford University Press. 6 issues / 12 months. ASIN: B00006LAGZ ISSN:
  • Kimble, Melvin A, ed.(2007). Viktor Frankl's Contribution to Spirituality and Aging. Binghamton, N.Y.: Haworth Press.

See also



  • Aging and memory
  • Aging Research Centre
    Aging Research Centre
    The Aging Research Centre is an independent non-profit educational research centre with facilities in Berkeley, California and in Waterloo, Ontario...

  • Alliance for Aging Research
    Alliance for Aging Research
    The Alliance for Aging Research is a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C. that was founded to promote medical research to improve the human experience of aging. The Alliance also advocates and implements health education for consumers and health professionals.The Alliance is governed...

  • American Aging Association
    American Aging Association
    The American Aging Association is a non-profit, tax-exempt biogerontology organization of scientists and laypeople dedicated to biomedical aging studies intended to slow the aging process...

  • Buck Institute for Age Research
    Buck Institute for Age Research
    The Buck Institute for Age Research is the United States' first independent biomedical research institute devoted solely to research on aging and age-related disease. The mission of the Buck Institute is to extend the healthspan, the healthy years of life....

  • Geriatrics
    Geriatrics
    Geriatrics is the branch of medicine that focuses on health care of the elderly. It aims to promote health and to prevent and treat diseases and disabilities in older adults....

  • Gerontology Research Group
    Gerontology Research Group
    The Gerontology Research Group was started in either 1990 or 1992, and is a global egroup of researchers in gerontology, some of whom also meet monthly at UCLA in Los Angeles, California. As the name suggests, the primary function of the group is to further gerontology research, with the objective...

  • Journals of Gerontology
    Journals of Gerontology
    The Journals of Gerontology were the first scientific journals on aging published in the United States. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences and the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences are separate peer-reviewed scientific journals, each with its own editor, published by The...

  • Leonard Davis School of Gerontology
    Leonard Davis School of Gerontology
    The Leonard Davis School of Gerontology] at the University of Southern California, a leader in the field of gerontology, has pioneered educational programs including the world's first Ph.D...

  • List of basic life extension topics
  • Medical Mobile
    Medical Mobile
    Medical Mobile is an operator of mobile telesecurity. This new industry integrates information and telecommunication technologies. It combines hands-free portable telephone, global positioning system and intelligent alert system for the benefit of the healthcare sector.Medical Mobile has...

     and Columba
    Columba
    Saint Columba , also known as Colum Cille was an outstanding figure among the Gaelic Irish missionary monks who, some of his advocates claim, introduced Christianity to the Picts during the Early Medieval Period...

  • Methuselah Mouse Prize

  • National Institute on Aging
    National Institute on Aging
    The National Institute on Aging ' is a division of the U.S. National Institutes of Health , located in Bethesda, Maryland.The NIA leads a broad scientific effort to understand the nature of aging and to extend the healthy, active years of life...

  • Nurses' Health Study
    Nurses' Health Study
    The Nurses' Health Study, established in 1976 by Dr. Frank Speizer, and the Nurses' Health Study II, established in 1989 by Dr. Walter Willett, are the most definitive long-term epidemiological studies conducted to date on older women's health. The study has followed 121,700 female registered...

  • Oldest people
    Oldest people
    The following tables list only the verified oldest people in world in ordinal rank, such as oldest person or oldest man. A supercentenarian is considered verified if their claim has been accepted by an international body that specifically deals in longevity research, such as the Gerontology...

  • Reliability theory of aging and longevity
    Reliability theory of aging and longevity
    Reliability theory of aging and longevity is a scientific approach aimed to gain theoretical insights into mechanisms of biological aging and species survival patterns by applying a general theory of systems failure, known as reliability theory.-Overview:...

  • Retirement
    Retirement
    Retirement is the point where a person stops employment completely . A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours...

  • Senescence
    Senescence
    Senescence refers to the biological changes which take place in organisms as they age. It encompasses all of the biological processes of a living organism's approaching an advanced age...

  • Telemedicine
    Telemedicine
    .Telemedicine is a rapidly developing application of clinical medicine where medical information is transferred through the phone or the Internet and sometimes other networks for the purpose of consulting, and sometimes remote medical procedures or examinations.Telemedicine may be as simple as two...

  • The Gerontological Society of America
    The Gerontological Society of America
    The Gerontological Society of America is a multidisciplinary organization devoted to research and education in all aspects of gerontology: medical, biological, psychological and social...


External links