What’s the Big Idea: Rethinking Aging

Rethinking Aging: Growing Old and Living Well in an Overtreated Society

THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 7-8:30 PM

This is not your father’s retirement and certainly not your grandfather’s. We are all advantaged by birth cohorts who are already enjoying life as octogenarians. There is no precedent in human history. The degree to which modern medicine has contributed to this happy state of affairs is neither trivial nor substantial. The degree to which medicalization and overtreatment can impair longevity and compromise well-being is also not trivial and can be substantial. Counter-intuitive? Cognitive dissonance? We will discuss amongst ourselves.

Nortin M. Hadler, MD, MACP, MACR, FACOEM, is Emeritus Professor of Medicine and Microbiology/Immunology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He served as attending rheumatologist at UNC Hospitals until 2015. A graduate of Yale College and The Harvard Medical School, he trained at the Massachusetts General Hospital, the National Institutes of Health, and the Clinical Research Centre in London. He was certified a Diplomate of the American Boards of Internal Medicine, Rheumatology, Allergy & Immunology, and Geriatrics. His most recent books are Worried Sick: A Prescription for Health in an Overtreated America and Stabbed in the Back: Confronting Back Pain in an Overtreated Society.

This event is the second in a three-part series of hosted by the UNC Friday Center titled What’s the Big Idea. This year’s theme is “Our Maturing Society.”

Click here to learn more about the “Our Maturing Society” series, and register to attend.