Everyone wants to thrive during old age. What will it take to to increase the number of years of healthy, active life that we all have the opportunity to experience? Stanford University created a center to do just that.
The official mission…
…of the Stanford Center on Longevity is: “accelerate and implement scientific discoveries, technological advances, behavioral practices, and social norms so that century long lives are healthy and rewarding.” The center has three divisions: Mind, Mobility, and Financial Security.
From the mission above, let’s look at what, specifically, Stanford is doing to help us achieve healthy, rewarding, Century-Long Lives.
In an internet-connected world…
…more and more devices are starting to track human data. In addition to devices such as fitbit heart rate and step trackers, our iPhones also have the capability of collecting and recording large amounts of data from our everyday lives. Aggregating this data and analyzing it using Artificial Intelligence algorithms could provide insight into a person’s current state of health, which may allow for earlier prediction of disease, to recognize it in its early stages. For example, according to the New York Times, speech recognition software has been used by Arizona State University to analyze linguistic data of NFL players at press conferences over a multiple year period to determine changes in vocabulary and sentence structure, which provided insight into the onset of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). What if a similar speech analysis technology could be applied during phone calls of individuals with Parkinson’s disease so that their doctor can adjust the medication, as this article from Slate mentions? What if one could apply the same for Alzheimer’s? Complex algorithms would have to be written, but when considering the scope of technological capacity that we have today, this is certainly possible.
Financial Stability
The center is helping people with achieve and maintain financial stability. Some great first steps to becoming more financially stable include getting out of high-interest debt (such as credit card debt), paying off student loans/mortgage each month, living below your means by creating a budget, saving a regular percentage of your income, maintaining 6-12 months of living expenses in cash, and finally, investing. From a financial standpoint, center focuses on financial capability, new career lifecycles, and common financial pitfalls (such as fraud). In order to maintain your finances as you get older and well into your retirement, the center covers some best practices and other wisdom related to helping manage retirement income, and even ways to supplement that income. If we’re going to be healthier and energetic for longer, humans will have the opportunity to start a side gig, take up a craft, and maybe even build their own business.
Fellowship
Surrounding yourself with a supportive community is supremely important as well. William Chopik mentions that, whether it be friends or family, “having people you can rely on, for the good times as well as the bad” may be so crucial to keeping stress levels low and maintaining positivity, and overall happiness.
It’s great to see universities like Stanford leading our civilization on teaching and spreading the word about how we can implement some of the latest breakthroughs in longevity research. The center’s website will serve as a great resource to help people take small actions to maintain health.
From the Stanford Center on Longevity’s website, it was founded in 2007 by Thomas Rando MD, PhD, and Laura Carstensen PhD.
Espresso Insight 