The Cognitive Longevity Gap: The Unfinished Business of the Longevity Revolution Grad school offered quite a challenge for me. I had just pushed over the 50-year-old mark, and I had jumped in with both feet to learn about all the issues of aging in our later years. My gerontological studies program opened my eyes about the state of aging in the United States. The caveat here was I was still younger and looked at all these aging issues as us versus them. But now I am part

Over the past century, we have added nearly thirty years to human life expectancy. Advance in cardiovascular care, cancer treatment, infectious disease control, and metabolic medicine have dramatically reduced early mortality. But these medical victories have revealed a new challenge. Many people are living longer while experiencing prolonged periods of cognitive decline, emotional instability, sleep disruption, and loss of independence. Longevity has increased, yet the cap