Possessing a greater purpose in life is associated with lower mortality rates among older adults according to a new study by researchers at Rush University Medical Center.

Patricia A. Boyle, PhD, and her colleagues from the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center, studied 1,238 community-dwelling elderly participants from two ongoing research studies, the Rush Memory and Aging Project and the Minority Aging Research Study. None had dementia. Data from baseline evaluations of purpose in life and up to five years of follow-up were used to test the hypothesis that greater purpose in life is associated with a reduced risk of mortality among community-dwelling older persons.

Purpose in life reflects the tendency to derive meaning from life’s experiences and be focused and intentional, according to Boyle.

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In the May-June 2009 issue of the prestigious Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, an international journal published by Elsevier, Prof. Dr. Imre Zs.-Nagy, of the University of Debrecen Medical and Health Science Center (Hungary), and founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/archger), presents numerous studies documenting a diverse array of anti-aging medical therapeutics that currently exist and are being applied in the clinical setting today, as well as interventions that are in the laboratory stage, to slow, prevent, and perhaps even reverse the degenerative diseases of aging and the degenerative biological processes which lead to premature disease, disability, dependence, and death.

Further, Dr. Zs.-Nagy expresses his opinions on the use of the hGH as an anti-aging medical intervention. The Editorial attempts to point out the main clinical results of hGH replacement therapy (hGHRT) in light of the “Membrane Hypothesis of Aging” (MHA), which Dr. Zs.-Nagy submits as offering a solid basis for the interpretation of the observed beneficial effects of hGH.

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