THE MALAYSIAN HEALTHY AGEING SOCIETY

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Many comments has been made about how contemporary life has become more difficult with all the great turmoil and conflicts around the world. In truth, we are blessed to be living in this moment in time and in a country which is rich in both natural and human resources. Many of us can remember a time when our parents or even those in our generation experienced the sorrow of infant deaths, loss of young lives through diseases now routinely treated such as malaria, cholera and typhoid. The pleasant  past we fondly reminisce also bore a reality of medical ignorance and helplessness in dealing with many ailments that ended a  precious life too soon.

Healthy living and advances in medical care have helped people especially in developed and developing countries live longer lives. Yet, longer lives do not automatically translate to better quality of life for many people. Together with the improvement in diet and personal wealth, diseases associated with sedentary living and dietary indiscretion such as heart attacks and strokes have slowly crept into the lives of many of our fellow citizens just as they continue to in the lives of those living in developed countries. Diabetes and childhood obesity have become increasingly more prevalent in our society. The successes we have gained in overcoming nutritional deficiencies and infectious diseases, we have not seen as much when dealing with heart disease and strokes in our communities.

Are the benefits of the explosion of medical knowledge going to revolutionize our lives and keep us healthy and perhaps being able to run marathons late into our eighties? Or will we be trapped in a demented medical nightmare of wires and tubes, keeping us barely alive in a vegetative state? Is there a way to live healthily to a ripe old age? Because we know of people who live well into their 80's and 90's in good health compared to others decades younger than them, we know living healthy ageing is not merely looking at the degree of chronological ageing.

Science, especially gerontology (the study of ageing) has shed much light on how physiological changes occur as people age. It has shattered many preconceived notions about what is normal during ageing and what is a consequence of lifestyle choices that we make. New approaches to treatment such as caloric restriction, treating metabolic syndrome and aggressive treatment of disorders such as heart attacks and strokes to limit or reduce permanent damage to vital organs are constantly challenging health care givers to not just limit or slow the onslaught of diseases associated with aging but to reverse some of the damage done.

The Malaysian Healthy Ageing Society is a not-for-profit medical society comprised of both medical and non-medical members. We are dedicated to the advancement of knowledge in detecting, preventing and treating ageing related illness. We encourage all our fellow Malaysians to get to know us and our mission.