Sitting in on Yale’s Claude D. Pepper Center Symposium on aging

Every year the Yale School of Medicine hosts the Claude D. Pepper Center Symposium which features outstanding speakers who present on a variety of topics related to the latest research on aging.


It is indeed fitting that it is named after Claude Pepper, the former fiery, unabashed liberal senator from Florida who in a 60-year political career was an outspoken champion for the elderly. After a warm welcome from Dr. Thomas Gill, the director of the Pepper Center, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, who can match Pepper in her fiery defense of issues affecting seniors, addressed the need for funds to continue the important research in issues affecting the elderly since indeed, it affects the social and economic well being of all of us.


Rosa, recently honored as an inductee into the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame, is herself a survivor of ovarian cancer, and she gave credit to the continuing research efforts in the cancer field.


All of the five experts who spoke on various subjects were extremely interesting presenters, but I found two of the topics particularly fascinating: “Why Humans Have Friends,” a look at the evolution of lifelong social interactions discussed with a delightful wit by Dr. Nicholas Christakis.


The extensive research on this subject, which included an isolated tribe which has remained unaffected by modern civilization, found that the patterns of forming friendships and the influence those friends exert on us, is the same in every group they studied. Even among animals, the need for social interaction is very strong. We are beginning to fully realize that the way our housing and transportation has developed (away from town centers and natural meeting places) is not at all ideal for an aging population.


Christakis compared our social circles to those of ant colonies and remarked that there is an emotional contagion that definitely occurs; that the, “when a kindness is done for you, pay it forward” theory, really does work. Our friends act as social magnifiers, and we humans need and form, long-term, nonreproductive alliances.


The other topic I found of special interest was Dr. Mary Tinetti’s “Multiple Chronic Conditions in Older Adults” and the need to be sure that the medicines prescribed under those complex circumstances are not causing harm, but are treating what matters most.


Now that we are living longer, more of us will develop multiple conditions, and we need to have a thorough discussion with our primary care physician who is aware of all our medications as to what the best combination of medicines is. Is, for example, our blood pressure medicine increasing the risk of our falling?


Sometimes, it is a trade-off between helping one condition and hurting another. The three important areas of interest to most of the elderly are:


n Remaining as functional as possible


n Being free of symptoms and pain


n Living as long as possible (survival)


Studies found that 42 percent of the participants choose maintaining function as the most important with 32 percent choosing relief from pain and 27 percent, surviving longer. However, since these choices can change with time, it is necessary for doctors and patients to continually talk about these choices.


As an example, I am hoping to find a solution to the hip and ankle pain I am experiencing, but I am not at present, willing to take any medication that might also affect my memory or energy level. All of this relates to an earlier column based on “e-Patient Dave,” who advised us to be fully engaged in our own health care; being a “e patient” meant being empowered, engaged and enabled.


Since the annual cost of Alzheimer’s disease to our country is now almost $215 billion, the next great project for America will be learning the language of the brain. We all need to speak out for additional funding for the National Institute on Aging to be able to continue its invaluable work for all of us.


Contact Jean Cherni, certified senior adviser for Senior Living Solutions and Pearce Plus, a helpful, full-service program for seniors contemplating a move, at jeancherni@sbcglobal.net or 49 Rose St., Apt. 510, Branford, 06405.

I'm reading: Sitting in on Yale’s Claude D. Pepper Center Symposium on aging