I'm a psychiatrist, with both a large private practice treating all ages, and a part time inpatient practice "treating" elderly patients with dementia (mostly patients with behavioral problems that have not been adequately controllable in nursing homes).
I think that denial is just a tremendous problem. When we are young, we simply cannot believe we will get old. When we are middle aged, we're just too busy with careers and children to get involved. When we are old, we just give up. I think we need to begin to attack the ideas and misconceptions about aging early on in our students' educations.
I teach medical students, and as a physician I am interested in disease processes and treatment, of course. The students I teach are, almost without exception, extremely bright. However, when I challenge these very bright students to discuss the causes of aging, most are stumped. WHen I begin to discuss the possibility of age extension, most look at me like I'm a lunatic, and some are even overtly hostile ("why would anyone want to live like an old person for an extra hundred years" or "we'll overpopulate the world"). Never has a student been aware of the possibility of repair of age related deterioration. None have been exposed to the ideas I read about in these pages. None have ever considered "aging" as simply another disease that can (and will) be treatable.
I think it may well be time to begin (at the very least) exposing medical and graduate students to the ideas and research already underway. I do this in my own small way, and students do show interest, especially when they are confronted on a daily basis with their own future. I think we need to plant the seed early- what imact we could have on these students if we taught a single course about current and near future treatments for the medical disease known as aging. (!)

[Posted by: Michael Anthony at May 13, 2007 6:17 PM]