Not Enough BOOM in the Baby
Boomer Generation
By Shannon Proudfoot, Canwest News Service
Contrary to their healthy living image, baby boomers are "drifting" into old age with poor
eating habits, too little exercise and decimated savings, said Robert Butler, CEO of the
International Longevity Center.
"We do not have a healthy population moving into old age," he said recently when
opening a weeklong workshop on aging issues run by the ILC, a non-profit think-tank.
"It's a huge social change. I don't think we can do in time the things that will most
benefit them."
However, Butler said he hopes boomers will still be "energetic" about bringing on
changes that will benefit the generations to follow them.
By 2015 there will be more people in Canada over 65 than under 15, according to
Statistics Canada's most recent population projections. And the number of seniors is
expected to double during the next 25 years.
In a report issued by the ILC, "The Future of Living: Independently," boomers -- the
generation born between the end of the Second World War and the early sixties -- are
urged to plan ahead for old age and create "a meaningful social dialogue on aging."
Boomers are encouraged to establish support systems "by keeping engaged, active and
socially connected through pleasurable and meaningful activities like volunteering," and
try to live in communities that make this possible.
Boomers are also asked to "think strategically about access to health care" and use new
technologies to prevent isolation and enhance safety.
In another session, S. Jay Olshansky, a professor of public health at the University of
Illinois, Chicago, said obesity in general is on the verge of causing an unprecedented
decline in life expectancy in developed countries.
Entire generations who became overweight in childhood will come of age with a set of
health risks never before seen, he says, and he predicts that within 10 to 15 years, that
will reduce average life expectancy, following a century of rapid improvement.
Current life expectancy in Canada is 82.5 years for women and 77.7 for men, according
to Statistics Canada.
Only in the most recent chapter of human history have people even lived long enough to
grapple with old age, Olshansky says, thanks to advances in medicine and public health

that drastically reduced death rates from causes like infectious diseases and childbirth
early in life.
"Aging as we know it today is a new phenomenon, really a 20th-century phenomenon,"
he said.
We've effectively "redistributed death from the young to the old," Olshansky said, but
this extension in life expectancy combined with falling fertility rates means a massive
shift in the global age structure on the immediate horizon.
Societies usually have lots of young members and few old members, he says, but by
2011, that's poised to flip in the massive populations of developing countries like China
and India, as well as in North America.
"Humanity will experience a permanent shift in our age structure," Olshansky said.
Opal Rowe is the founder of Nowhere Like Home, which is one of the
fastest-growing service providers for Senior Care Services. Some of the
as-needed services include:
* Assistance with Bathing and Personal Grooming * Grocery Shopping
* Accompanying to the Doctor * Reminders to Take Medication
* Phone Calls See How They are Doing * Shop for Groceries or Other Personal Items
www.NowhereLikeHome.ca · ORowe@NowhereLikeHome.ca · 416.628.5072
3300 Bloor Street West, Suite 3140, Toronto, ON M8X 5C4