Dr. Jeffrey Bland turned 80 and argues that "elderly" means decline while "elder" means respected and active. He says the difference comes down to lifestyle choices that control inflammation and keep your body functioning. His team at Big Bold Health studies which signals in your body determine whether you age well or just age.
Well, welcome, Dr. Jeff Bland, to talk a little bit about a topic that probably is on my mind now, just having had my 80th birthday, and its whole nature of longevity and aging. I was asked recently at a meeting that I was engaged in at Harvard University at the business school as to whether the concern was being elderly or being an elder. Now, think of the difference in connotation between those 2 words. Elderly, probably for most people, is kind of like, oh, I don't know, that's got a symbolism associated with it I'm not so sure about. Broken down, lack of mobility, maybe cognitive dysfunction. I'm not sure how you would characterize the stereotype of elderly, but it's not all that positive. But an elder, no, that's a senior member of your society. That's a senior member of your family. That's an instructor to the grandchildren. That's someone of a trusted opinion. Now, how do you become an elder and not elderly? That's through the process of navigating your life to have healthy outcomes. That is what we really talk about when we're talking about longevity. It's not just the number of birthdays you've had, it's actually the functional capability that you bring into those. And that is modifiable based upon the signals that your lifestyle is providing to you. The difference between elderly and elder is on your navigating your trajectory of life, to give back to your body the ability to rejuvenate itself, to reform tissues that are injured, to be in defensive mode, to not be overreacting to stimuli so that you're in an inflammatory alarm mode. All of those things are modifiable. And that's what we are so excited about. That's occupying the majority of my time with my team at Big Bold Health, is to really try to understand what are the signals that are modifiable that lead not just to longevity, years of living, but to make you able to be truly an elder as you grow older.
