Hiroshi Komiyama, Pres­i­dent of the Uni­ver­sity of Tokyo and Chair­per­son of the Global Agenda Coun­cil on the Chal­lenges of Geron­tol­ogy I am a mem­ber of, just pro­vided coun­cil mem­bers with a brief update of his par­tic­i­pa­tion in the recent World Eco­nomic Forum.

Part of the pro­ceed­ings are pub­lic — you may enjoy read­ing this panel write-up of the ses­sion Health­care under Stress:

- “Japan has the world’s old­est pop­u­la­tion. Health and longevity cre­ate wealth and, thus, “health begets wealth”. It is doc­u­mented that nations that develop a five-year life expectancy advan­tage also cre­ate a larger GDP. A healthy child­hood and adult­hood con­tribute to a more pro­duc­tive old age. New mar­kets and indus­tries are aris­ing – “sil­ver indus­tries” such as finan­cial ser­vices, health, hous­ing and hos­pi­tal­ity geared to senior cit­i­zens. Longevity needs to be linked to health – includ­ing cog­ni­tive health – and lifestyle choices play a major role in health.”

- “The pub­lic health focus is shift­ing from infec­tions to car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­eases. Com­plex new mod­els are nec­es­sary to develop bet­ter responses and improved health – with the pri­mary empha­sis on “really good pri­mary health­care” and pre­ven­tion – to lower costs. Pre­ven­tion increases the healthy years of a person’s life. The chal­lenge is cre­at­ing the incen­tive for pre­ven­tion: how can peo­ple be encour­aged to make healthy choices? Mobi­lized pop­u­la­tions can drive the change. Fin­land has an 80% lower inci­dence of heart dis­ease than 30 years ago due to such incentives.”

Full write-up: Health­care under Stress

Related arti­cles:

- The Future of the Aging Soci­ety: Bur­den or Human Capital?

- Update: Global Con­sor­tium for Neu­rocog­ni­tive Fit­ness Innovation

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