Proposed Concordia " wellness Center"

On Tuesday evening I attended a meeting of RENN (River East Neighborhood Network ) where a representative from the Board of Directors of the the Concordia Foundation gave a summary presentation for a proposed wellness center.

After the presentation I briefly outlined my association with Concordia. I was the first head of the Dept of Family Prtactice when the hospitsl moved to its new quarters on Molson. I also was on the board of directors for many years when the late Dr. Bryson Murray was the chairman.. I also was one of the early donors to the hospital. I mentioned thst beside being active in Medical practice I also estsblished a private foundation to study the the biology of aging called the Kildonan Institute of Gerontology

I then commented on their 4 page proposal, on the bottom of page 1 they outlined the "4 optional areas of focus", stressing that research into the causes of aging was not one of them. I followed this by reading a paragraph from Roy Walford's text " Maximum Life Span " where he outlined the strategy taken to conquer polio- by not perfecting better iron lungs for polio victims but rather investing heavily in basic research.. The sentence Roy Walford made following this remark was for me most compelling. I then continued the quote by Roy Walford

" My point is that old age homes and the vast social support structures continuously accumulating to care for the helpless aged are the iron lungs of gerontology. Improvements in the social, economic, and medical support system for the elderly will merely provide symptomatic relief for an expanding problem. Extending maximum life span will diminish the size of the problem " (Walford MAXIMUM LIFE SPAN , ` 17-18.

I find the phrase "Iron Lungs of Gerontology " most moving. Indeed with our failure to conquer the major diseases that kill us, namely heart disease and cancer, it would seem appropriate to speak of the "iron lungs of Cardiology " and the "iron lungs of Cancer "