ANGARA BATS FOR AN AGING CENTER

Sen. Edgardo J.Angara proposed today the establishment of an aging center to promote the wellness of the approximately six million senior citizens of the country.

The aging center would be an institution that could help open the window for revolutionary cure of diseases associated with aging, and stop the widening struggle against ordinary diseases, he told resident doctors, professors, nurses and hospital employees at the 7TH Centennial Oration of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) recently.

Angara, the longest-serving senator in the country today, pointed out that although the Philippine population is still relatively young, policy makers and health workers must now anticipate the problems associated with agingthe study of the brains or memory, osteoporosis and other related areas.

He said that the aging center would complement his Senior Citizens Law, which provides benefits to the elderly.

We cannot just stay put and try to have long lives. Like in other countries, we must be keen to lead scientific areas of mental and wellness, not only among the youth and the strong, but also to the old and the aged, he stressed.

Angara noted that Canada hosted the International Conference on Health Aging and Longevity last October.

That conference brought together interdisciplinary collaboration among the worlds leading experts on health and ageing. And it disseminated evidence-based knowledge throughout the nations of the developed and developing countries, Angara said.