BY HELEN ANTON, DIRECTOR A5M
To all our members and friends, we wish you a very Happy New Year, and to those who have taken the opportunity to have some well-deserved respite and family time to celebrate the summer and the holidays, welcome back. After the challenges of 2020, we are ready for new beginnings, moving forward, and facing all that 2021 has to offer.
The United Nations General Assembly announced in December 2020 that 2021 – 2030 is the Decade of Healthy Ageing, with initiatives to change the way we respond to age and ageing; and how we can continue to live, function, work and participate in our communities.
We are a rapidly ageing population and this in conjunction with the prevalence of chronic diseases, our lifestyles and environment, and now the emergence of COVID-19, we need to look at how to reduce the impending burden on our healthcare system, the prevalence of disease and live healthier and more functional lives. Health professionals today need to provide an integrated, personalised system of healthcare, a healthy ageing approach to provide better patient outcomes and personal wellbeing and move from a reactive to a proactive model of care.
During this year and moving forward, our focus will continue to:
- Provide practitioners the framework for a scientifically proven, multi-disciplinary and holistic approach to preventative healthcare, treatment, maintenance and restoration of wellness.
- Transform treatment and patient care from a re-active illness model to a pro-active wellness model.
- Incorporate multidiscipline strategies focusing on the key pillars of healthy ageing; exercise and lifestyle, diet and nutrition, supplementation, metabolic issues, genetics, inflammation, cognitive function and mood disorders.
Around the world, people are seeking medical guidance for ways to stay healthy, active and vital, well into their older years. As a result, the principles of healthy ageing lifestyle are gaining rapid and widespread acceptance as a framework for lifelong habits towards healthy living and the treatment of chronic diseases and disorders. The epidemic of metabolic disorders, such as diabetes and other chronic diseases is closely associated with the increase in obesity, urbanisation and other lifestyle risk factors; such as smoking, stress and alcohol consumption.
Healthy Ageing medicine is based on principles of sound and responsible medical care that are consistent with those applied in preventative and integrative specialties. Healthy Ageing medicine is clearly identified as the best framework for implementing recommended prevention and interventions, to create and maintain a healthy body and mind for your patients, allowing you the opportunity to provide better healthcare and better outcomes for your patients.
"The doctor of the future will give no medication but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, diet and in the cause and prevention of disease" - Thomas Edison
SAVE THE DATE
We will begin the year with a very topical and important workshop, Prioritising Metabolic Functions - A foundation for resilience in a COVID world, March 2021 as a virtual workshop over 3 weeks, beginning Wednesday 10th March.