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CR Society Statement on Older Adults

 

The CR Society, International is dedicated to supporting the practice of calorie restriction for human life extension. While our main objectives include increasing lifespan and maintaining health into old age, the Society also is committed to maintaining life satisfaction with aging. Important factors determining life satisfaction are social gratification and the role of the individual in society; factors that confer purpose and meaning and make life worth living.

 

In many Western societies, mobility has contributed to the fractionation of families with older adults living apart from their children and grandchildren, often feeling alone and unwanted whether living independently in the community or in the context of a residential care facility. This separation from family often is an aspect of more generalized disconnection from society such that older adults become marginalized and have minimal interactions with younger individuals. They do not have a role or essential function in the family or in society. On the other hand, in many societies renowned for longevity and extended health span such as Okinawa, Kitava, and Sardinia, older adults are revered in the culture at large and, especially, within their families. These cultures tend to exist in smaller, geographically isolated regions apart from larger Western societies so that extended families tend to remain intact. These cultural features contribute to the social role and reverence accorded to long-lived elders. Older adults tend to live within the family and fulfill important roles such as care giving and advising younger family members. Likewise, the fact that elders are needed to provide essential family functions is thought to be an important factor contributing to longevity.

 

The CR Society supports maintaining integration of elders with their families and in the culture whenever possible.

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