Healthy Ageing in Asia

Asia is the world’s most populous region and has the highest per capita number of older people in the world. It is also home to the healthy ageing traditions of Ayurveda and Chinese Medicine and the rich regional traditions of Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, and South Asia.

This book addresses policies related to ageing, traditional Asian approaches to ageing, an integrated medical system approaches to ageing, ageing in place, and community empowerment.

Features

• Presents information on The 100-Year Life. As a counterpoint to focussing on the frail elderly, Japan is promoting the ‘100-Year Life Society’, a societal model in which all citizens are dynamically engaged and productive throughout the lifespan to reach a healthy 100 years of age.
• Discusses a framework for optimization of Ageing in Place or staying at home as this is a desired option for most older people.
• Presents evidence for exercise and movement in healthy aging with guidelines in different states of ageing.
• Features information on how to improve mental wellbeing in cognitive decline, isolation and loneliness, poor nutrition, and reduced mobility.
• Creates an understanding of loss and bereavement through processes and the impact of loss.
• Provides information on developments in health technology to optimize efficiency, accuracy, and effectiveness of providers.
• Details health insurance options including coverage for traditional as well as modern medical services, provides models for other countries in the region.
• Lists coping skills or abilities to help older people to be more independent and in control of their lives.
• Features information on Asian herbs, spices and foods in healthy ageing across the lifepsan and specifically in addressing age-related health issues.

"What is required is a new culture based on the science in which older people are expected to remain, or become increasingly active, physically, cognitively and emotionally maintaining or strengthening a strong sense of purpose. Europe is looking to Asia because this culture is more prevalent there than in Europe. The core theme is not one of ‘caring’ for a passive subset of the population but of promoting lifelong learning because knowledge is the elixir of life."
- Professor Sir Muir Gray, Founding Director, The Optimal Ageing Programme & Professor in the Nuffield Department of Surgery, University of Oxford

Dr. Goh Cheng Soon is currently the Director of the Traditional and Complementary Medicine (T&CM) Division in the Ministry of Health (MOH), Malaysia. After completing her MBBS from Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, she undertook the Master of Medical Law (LLM) and Doctor of Philosophy in Law (PhD) from England. She began her career at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, in 1993. After amassing 14 years of experience in allopathic clinical medicine, she embarked into the T&CM world after realizing the great potential of integrating healthcare in this borderless world having more than 10 years’ involvement in the field of T&CM.

She has received the Excellent Service Award for her work from MOH, Malaysia. She has been conferred a Public Health Specialist due to her dedicated participation and expert contribution to Malaysia’s public health. Holding the post of the Director of T&CM Division, she has represented MOH at international as well as national level. She is a consultant for the World Health Organization in T&CM policies and regulations of practice. Currently, being one of the Standing Committee in the Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre (Hospital Services), she participates in policy-making and administrative support to fight against COVID-19.

Professor Gerard Bodeker, an Australian, completed his doctoral studies at Harvard. He has held research and teaching appointments in the Division of Medical Sciences at the University of Oxford for two decades and is a member of Oxford’s Green Templeton College.

An Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at Columbia University, New York, and in integrative medicine at the University of Western Sydney, Prof. Bodeker has worked with several UN agencies, including the WHO, World Bank, UNDP. He served as Editor-in-Chief of the World Health Organization Global Atlas of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine. He has served as an advisor to National Geographic magazine and to CNN.

Prof. Bodeker co-produced with the Asian Development Bank a 2020 white paper on Wellness in Asia and a 2021 book on perspectives and policy frameworks for Wellness in Asia. He is a Fellow of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry and is the Chair of the Mental Wellness Initiative of the Global Wellness Institute.

Dr Kishan Kariippanon researches in healthy ageing combining public health, design and innovation to promote well-being. He was born in Malaysia, received his Doctorate in Medicine from Russia, and worked in Timor Leste as a doctor during the 2006 civil crises. He earned his Master’s in Public Health with a focus on global public health from Monash University, Australia in 2007 and worked in the Aboriginal lands of the Northern Territory. His doctoral studies at the University of Wollongong focused on an interdisciplinary study of remote Aboriginal youth and their use of technology to promote health and maintain wellbeing. He is a co-author in the Oxford Research Encyclopaedia for Global Public Health on Traditional Medicine: Indigenous health in Indigenous hands, and Wellbeing & Mental Wellness.

Kariippanon and colleagues from the University of Wollongong and TAFE New South Wales won the first prize in interior design and innovation with the Desert Rose Dementia-Friendly House at the Solar Decathlon Middle East 2018. His poster presentation on the use of collective reflexivity in working with people living with dementia, their carers and designers was awarded first prize in the International Conference on Healthy Ageing and Traditional and Complementary Medicine in 2019. He completed the MIT and Harvard Centre for Primary Care Health Technology Innovation Course in 2020.