Recent studies show that more people than ever before are reaching old age in better health and enjoying that health for a longer time. This Handbook outlines the latest discoveries in the study of aging from bio-medicine, psychology, and socio-demography. It treats the study of aging as a multidisciplinary scientific subject, since it requires the interplay of broad disciplines, while offering high motivation, positive attitudes, and behaviors for aging well, and lifestyle changes that will help people to stay healthier across life span and in old age. Written by leading scholars from various academic disciplines, the chapters delve into the most topical aspects of aging today - including biological mechanisms of aging, aging with health, active and productive aging, aging with satisfaction, aging with respect, and aging with dignity. Aimed at health professionals as well as general readers, this Cambridge Handbook offers a new, positive approach to later life.

Understanding the relationship between frailty and longevity becomes increasingly important as the world continues to age and life expectancy in most countries continues to increase. The articles contained in this book are the outcome of a colloquium sponsored by Fondation IPSEN in which interdisciplinary perspectives were brought to bear on conceptual, empirical and clinical aspects of this relationship.

Old-age survival has considerably improved in the second half of the twentieth century. The life expectancy in wealthy countries has increased, on average, from 65 years in 1950 to 76 years in 2005. The rise was more spectacular in some countries: the life expectancy for Japanese women rose from 62 years to 86 years during the same period. Driven by this longevity extension, the population aged 80 and over in those countries has grown fivefold from 8.5 millions in 1950 to 44.5 millions in 2005. Why has such a substantial extension of human lifespan occurred? How long can we live? In this book, these fundamental questions are explored by experts from such diverse fields as biology, medicine, epidemiology, demography, sociology, and mathematics: they report on recent cutting-edge studies about essential issues of human longevity such as evolution of lifespan of species, genetics of human longevity, reasons for the recent improvement in survival of the elderly, medical and behavioral causes of deaths among very old people, and social factors of long survival in old age.

People are living longer and most countries are experiencing unprecedented increases in the number and proportion of their elderly populations, resulting from declines in mortality, lower fertility, and the baby boom cohorts entering old age. A fundamental issue facing the global community is meeting the challenges of population aging and achieving healthy aging to maintain an active older population and reduce the number of disabled people. Healthy aging is obviously a major goal of all societies and is the central theme of this book.

The focus of this book is on theoretical issues and empirical findings related to trends and determinants of healthy aging, including factors related to "healthy longevity" of the oldest-old, aged 80 and over. The group is the most rapidly increasing elderly sub-population and is most likely to need assistance in daily living in all countries. Chapters include both longitudinal and cross-sectional data from North America, Europe, and Asia in country-specific studies and cross-national comparisons.

We organized the twenty chapters into four parts. Part I focuses on the definition, components, concepts, measurements, and determinants of healthy aging, and discusses the trends and patterns of disability and healthy life expectancy at the macro level. Part II addresses individual healthy aging, including its biological and socio-demographic aspects. Part III focuses on issues concerning the family and healthy aging, and Part IV explores formal and informal care for healthy aging through governmental policy interventions and community service programs.

Does human mortality after age 110 continue to rise, level off, or start to decline? This book describes a concerted, international research effort undertaken with the goal of establishing a database that allows the best possible description of the mortality trajectory beyond the age of 110. The International Database on Longevity (IDL) is the result of this ongoing effort. The IDL contains exhaustive information on validated cases of supercentenarians (people 110 years and older) and allows unbiased estimates of mortality after age 110. The main finding is remarkable: human mortality after age 110 is flat at a probability of death of 50% per year. The sixteen chapters of this book discuss age validation of exceptional longevity, data on supercentenarians in a series of countries, structure and contents of the IDL, and statistical analysis of human mortality after age 110. Several chapters include short accounts of specific supercentenarians that add life to demographic research. Content Level Research

Does human mortality after age 110 continue to rise, level off, or start to decline? This book describes a concerted, international research effort undertaken with the goal of establishing a database that allows the best possible description of the mortality trajectory beyond the age of 110. The International Database on Longevity (IDL) is the result of this ongoing effort. The IDL contains exhaustive information on validated cases of supercentenarians (people 110 years and older) and allows unbiased estimates of mortality after age 110. The main finding is remarkable: human mortality after age 110 is flat at a probability of death of 50% per year. The sixteen chapters of this book discuss age validation of exceptional longevity, data on supercentenarians in a series of countries, structure and contents of the IDL, and statistical analysis of human mortality after age 110. Several chapters include short accounts of specific supercentenarians that add life to demographic research.

An ever greater number of our contemporaries will reach a very much greater age than their ancestors. Longevity is one of the most fertile fields for paradoxes: it is clear that the same causes do not produce the same effects at the age of ten and at the age of one hundred! On the subject of longevity, the "recipe book" is far from having been written. Nevertheless, the Fondation IPSEN has chosen a few of these paradoxes to discuss and try and explain them.

In this third volume on longevity Fondation Ipsen has again collected the most recent results in research on genes and diet in the evolution of human longevity, educational level and longevity, cognitive impairment and survival at older age and other contributions. The preponderance of relatively short - compared to long-lived organisms suggests that morphogenesis is easier to accomplish than is maintenace of soma, whereas the broad range of longevities of organisms demonstrates that maintaining soma for extended periods of time is possible. The underlying assumption of "disposable soma" theory of aging is that the expense of maintaining somatic cells depends on their contribution to the welfare of the germ cells.

Why longevity? For a number of years, the Fondation IPSEN has been devoting considerable effort to the various aspects of ageing, not only to age-related diseases such as Alzheimer's, but also to the Centenarians, the paragon of positive ageing. The logical continuation of this approach is to address the question of longevity in global terms. Behind the extreme values, what span is accessible to all of us and likely to directly concern most of our contemporaries? The individual and col lective increase in the duration of life is one of the most striking phenomena of our time. It could be one of the most significant events in the "bio-social" history of humanity. The increase in life expectancy at old age, which started a few de cades ago only, is going on. The most well-advised observer had not foreseen or even dared hope for this increase which will drastically affect our everyday life, our habits and our behavior. In the fragment of human history we are living in, it is our responsibility to deal with this major transformation for the species. Such a transformation needs an effort from all to adapt to the new conditions. This transformation has to be managed rather than simply experienced, anticip ated rather than followed, in order to avoid any attempt to pervert this major step forward. All that was present during the first symposium of the new series on longevity of the Colloques Medecine et Recherche convened by the Fondation IPSEN."

Understanding the relationship between frailty and longevity becomes increasingly important as the world continues to age and life expectancy in most countries continues to increase. The articles contained in this book are the outcome of a colloquium sponsored by Fondation IPSEN in which interdisciplinary perspectives were brought to bear on conceptual, empirical and clinical aspects of this relationship.

Old-age survival has considerably improved in the second half of the twentieth century. Life expectancy in wealthy countries has increased, on average, from 65 years in 1950 to 76 years in 2005. The rise was more spectacular in some countries: the life expectancy for Japanese women rose from 62 years to 86 years during the same period. Driven by this longevity extension, the population aged 80 and over in those countries has grown fivefold from 8.5 million in 1950 to 44.5 million in 2005. Why has such a substantial extension of human lifespan occurred? How long can we live? In this book, these fundamental questions are explored by experts from such diverse fields as biology, medicine, epidemiology, demography, sociology, and mathematics: they report on recent cutting-edge studies about essential issues of human longevity such as evolution of lifespan of species, genetics of human longevity, reasons for the recent improvement in survival of the elderly, medical and behavioral causes of deaths among very old people, and social factors of long survival in old age.

People are living longer and most countries are experiencing unprecedented increases in the number and proportion of their elderly populations, resulting from declines in mortality, lower fertility, and the baby boom cohorts entering old age. A fundamental issue facing the global community is meeting the challenges of population aging and achieving healthy aging to maintain an active older population and reduce the number of disabled people. Healthy aging is obviously a major goal of all societies and is the central theme of this book.

The focus of this book is on theoretical issues and empirical findings related to trends and determinants of healthy aging, including factors related to "healthy longevity" of the oldest-old, aged 80 and over. The group is the most rapidly increasing elderly sub-population and is most likely to need assistance in daily living in all countries. Chapters include both longitudinal and cross-sectional data from North America, Europe, and Asia in country-specific studies and cross-national comparisons.

We organized the twenty chapters into four parts. Part I focuses on the definition, components, concepts, measurements, and determinants of healthy aging, and discusses the trends and patterns of disability and healthy life expectancy at the macro level. Part II addresses individual healthy aging, including its biological and socio-demographic aspects. Part III focuses on issues concerning the family and healthy aging, and Part IV explores formal and informal care for healthy aging through governmental policy interventions and community service programs.

Stemming from research of international experts in demography, epidemiology, gerontology, psychiatry, this book presents: a study of necessary conditions to compare several life expectancy computations in health, because current computation methods are different from one country to another; discussions of methods of interpretation of chronological life expectancy series; a survey of potential uses of life expectancy in health in order to allow sociosanitary planning; how to harmonise information collection and life computations.

Only a few teachers, thinkers, and writers among Gestalt therapists have succeeded in extending its beautiful groundbreaking theory and practice which originally appeared in Perls, Hefferline & Goodman's Gestalt Therapy which published in 1951. Among this small group Jean-Marie Robine, who lives in Bordeaux, France, stands out as one of the most inventive and important figures on the current scene. Robine's special gift as a theorist is a sensibility that moves with ease from the philosopher's absorption in the task of fine-tuning concepts to the clinician's fascination with the nuances of feeling and behavior. The essays in this book illuminate one facet of Gestalt therapy after another from fresh points of view. Despite Robine's taste for the philosophical, there are passages of personal reflection alongside samples drawn from individual and group sessions, so that one comes away from the book with a sense of intimate connection between his development as a theorist and his experience as a therapist. On the Occasion of an Other is a work of value for not only the Gestalt therapists, but also for all psychotherapists who use an existential-humanistic approach in their clinical practice.

Recent studies show that more people than ever before are reaching old age in better health and enjoying that health for a longer time. This Handbook outlines the latest discoveries in the study of aging from bio-medicine, psychology, and socio-demography. It treats the study of aging as a multidisciplinary scientific subject, since it requires the interplay of broad disciplines, while offering high motivation, positive attitudes, and behaviors for aging well, and lifestyle changes that will help people to stay healthier across life span and in old age. Written by leading scholars from various academic disciplines, the chapters delve into the most topical aspects of aging today - including biological mechanisms of aging, aging with health, active and productive aging, aging with satisfaction, aging with respect, and aging with dignity. Aimed at health professionals as well as general readers, this Cambridge Handbook offers a new, positive approach to later life.