Our aging (and increasingly risk averse) boomer population will not be able to invest, produce and spend at the rates needed to sustain 3%-plus growth.
We will be able to rejuvenate our organs in place by gradually replacing aging cells that contain genetic errors and short telomeres with cells containing our own DNA but without errors and with extended telomeres.
But a study out of Stanford University that looked at healthy aging runners found that running did not damage joints or leave runners less able to exercise.
Longevity genes appear to slow down the aging process by making cells and tissues more stress-resistant, better able to withstand the inevitable environmental insults that accumulate over a lifetime from bad diet, inflammation, radiation, genetic mutations and toxic chemical by-products called free radicals.
"In our time of ever-lengthening life, many people will be able to understand how the pope as well has to deal with the burdens of aging, " she told reporters in Berlin.
If you are not able to do this yourself, you can hire a geriatric care manager to check in personally with your aging parent on a regular basis between your visits.