This article was last updated on April 16, 2022
Canada: 
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According to a recent survey, Canadians are living longer lives as compared to any other time in the country’s history. Aging boomers can live up to 65. However, the drift in which Canadians are eating more junk food and reducing daily physical activities, the chances are high that they would suffer through more diseases in the coming decades.
Dr. Parminder Raina says everyone above 65 does not have the same requirements and deficiencies. Raina is the lead principal investigator for the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging, a major national study that is examining why a number of people stay healthy in old age and others don’t.
“But we hear about the obesity epidemic, the poorer nutrition. Perhaps not in the short term, but in the long run — especially for the baby boom population — that’s going to be an issue in relation to chronic diseases that are going to happen and that are going to be detected early,” says Raina, a professor at McMaster University in Hamilton.
In Canada, diseases like diabetes, chronic pain, bone-related diseases and some cancers are highly spreading. At present, half a million seniors suffer from dementia.
“The entire Western world is on its way to a demographic tsunami of seniors, and we have to figure out ways to keep these people out of the health system,” says Dr. Max Cynader, director of the Brain Research Centre and Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health at Vancouver Coastal Health and the University of B.C. We should be trying to maximize the human capital that we’ve got — because a lot of these people have a lot to offer still.”
I think one of the biggest factors affecting quality of life in later years has to do with how well we are able to hang onto cognitive function. There is nothing sadder than dementia taking away someone’s ability to live fully and I am excited about the options available to keep our brains functioning longer.