Chapter 11

Explain why increasing healthspan will best be achieved by targeting mechanisms of aging rather than curing disease.

Identify two barriers preventing many individuals from participating in exercise and diet modification.

Discuss why governments and insurance companies are more likely to pay for costs associated with exercise protocols and diet modification if an individual is implementing a physician's prescription.

Consider the following statement: "Postponing the effects in the proximal mechanisms of aging will require that the intervention be highly individualized and capable of affecting multiple mechanisms of aging simultaneously." Discuss the scientific bases for this statement.

How will a long life affect our concepts of personal achievement and a progressive society?

Discuss how the transition from an agrarian society to an industrial society resulted in declining birth rates. Include in your answer how concepts from population biology help to explain declining birth rates.

How might the addition of great-grandparents to the family generational structure alter a person's identity within the family?

Based on current information on what our society may look like in the future, do you wish to have a significantly longer healthspan and life span? Why or why not?