Clinical Geriatrics

The month of May has been officially designated as “Older Americans Month.” In 1963, President John F. Kennedy met with the National Council of Senior Citizens and agreed that it would be beneficial to designate a month to acknowledge the contributions of past and current older persons, in particular those who defended our country. At that time, there were 17 million persons in the United States age 65 and older, with one-third of them living at or below the poverty level. Medicare was not yet a reality. It originally was called “Senior Citizens Month,” but in 1980 Jimmy Carter changed the name to its current designation, and every president since John F. Kennedy has issued a proclamation urging the nation to pay tribute to older persons in their community. It continues to be celebrated across the nation with health fairs, ceremonies, and other community events.

The Administration on Aging designates a specific theme each year that it would like the month’s events to focus on. This year the theme is “Living Today for a Better Tomorrow”; the focus is to bring attention to issues that can be addressed today that will help older adults lead healthier and more productive lives in the future.

Forty percent of deaths in America are due to lifelong poor health habits such as lack of physical activity, smoking, and poor nutrition. Indeed, it is time for people of all ages to embrace the spirit of this theme and to work to improve the health status and quality of life for generations of older people to come. The youth of today will be the older generation of tomorrow. While it is never too late to start thinking of one’s own aging process and paying greater attention to proper lifestyle and practicing preventive care, the earlier in life these measures are started, the better people are able to prevent the unnecessary acceleration of their normal aging process and diseases that otherwise may never develop.

Let this May, and every day, be a time for us all to come together, regardless of our age, and embrace this year’s theme for Older Americans Month, and live today for a better tomorrow!

Dr. Gambert is Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD.