New Film The Healthspan Imperative Draws Awareness to the Issue of the Aging of the American Population

WASHINGTON, Aug. 7, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Alliance for Aging Research and the Healthspan Campaign announce the release of The Healthspan Imperative, a landmark new short film. Narrated by television show host and best-selling author Martha Stewart, it looks at the challenges of the aging American population and the scientific quest to increase our healthspan, the length of time we spend free of the costly and harmful conditions of old age.

The U.S. population is getting older—and living longer. This is expected to produce a "Silver Tsunami" of costly chronic diseases and disabilities of aging. Finding a way to avert this impending disaster will be this country's next great priority.

This film shares how experts are working toward discoveries that could alter the aging process and postpone or even prevent chronic diseases.

"The Healthspan Imperative explores one of our country's biggest challenges," says Sue Peschin, MHS, Alliance president and CEO. "Chronic diseases of aging are a tremendous threat to not only our health care system, but to the well-being of older adults and their family caregivers. As this film shows, research into the underlying biological process of aging has the potential to extend healthy years of life, but only if we increase our federal investment. The most effective strategy in 'bending the cost curve' in health care will be preventing age-related chronic diseases in the first place."

The Healthspan Imperative features interviews with:

• Nir Barzilai, M.D., Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University
• Marie A. Bernard, M.D., National Institute on Aging
• Laura Carstensen, Ph.D., Stanford Center on Longevity
• Dana Goldman, Ph.D., University of Southern California
• Brian Kennedy, Ph.D., Buck Institute for Research on Aging
• James Kirkland, M.D., Ph.D., Mayo Clinic
• Rick I. Morimoto, Ph.D., Northwestern University
• S. Jay Olshansky, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Chicago
• Dan Perry, Alliance for Aging Research
• Felipe Sierra, Ph.D., National Institute on Aging

Funding was provided by Allianz, Battelle, The Retirement Research Foundation, the Buck Institute for Research on Aging and the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research.

A media kit is available here. A social media campaign using #healthspan has also been launched. For more about the film, please contact Noel Lloyd at [email protected] or 202.370.7825.

About the Alliance for Aging Research
The Alliance for Aging Research is the leading nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the pace of scientific discoveries and their application in order to vastly improve the universal human experience of aging and health. Its Healthspan Campaign is a coalition of organizations with a mission to help advocate for research into the basic biology of aging through consensus building, communications outreach and political strategy. For more information, visit here.

Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rGpJDyiUXs

SOURCE Alliance for Aging Research