New research from Concordia examines how we can age well while living healthier, longer
For Habib Benali, interim scientific director of the PERFORM Centre at Concordia University, the study of wellness is more than just medicine — it demands an interdisciplinary approach.
“We are moving towards studying health rather than studying merely medicine,” he said. “We are focusing on ways to treat disease and extend life, prevent health issues from developing, and improve quality of life as we age.”
Benali oversees 53 researchers at the PERFORM Centre, working in diverse fields from dietary science to physiology, psychology, neuroscience, art therapy, and even math.
For his part, Benali is working on a theory of wellbeing that could be used to predict a person’s health trajectory. Medicine traditionally focuses on treating illness, but Benali’s research centres on healthy people, investigating the lifestyle choices they make to stay well.
Using nuclear imaging from Concordia’s PET and SPECT CT scanners, as well as other technology, Benali is studying the effects of exercise on the brain over time. One day he hopes to be able to trace a path back through his data to identify early indicators of illness in subjects who develop degenerative disease.
Benali’s research could open new possibilities in disease prevention by detecting the risks for conditions such as Alzheimer’s, cancer or Parkinson’s, and prescribing diet, exercise, lifestyle or pharmaceutical interventions to nip problems in the bud. Research on the effectiveness of these various interventions is also ongoing at the PERFORM Centre, which is equipped with a gym, a teaching kitchen, and hightech health diagnostic tools.
To help create that bridge, Concordia invites anyone from the community to walk in and sign up for a membership at the PERFORM Centre’s modern gym, to take advantage of affordable consultations from studentresearchers or participate in workshops on nutrition, fitness and wellness, which are often related to ongoing studies by PERFORM researchers.
For Shannon Hebblethwaite, professor of applied human sciences and director of Concordia’s engAGE centre for research on aging, which just opened this summer, aging shouldn’t be viewed as a gradual and inevitable decline, but rather an arc of changes through a person’s lifespan.
“Aging starts from the day we’re born,” she said. “The question is: How can we help people to have a more meaningful and satisfying older age?”
To answer this, Hebblethwaite is examining whether intergenerational relationships have a positive impact on individuals — both old and young.
“I’m looking at health and well-being from a really broad perspective, where we understand aging not just in terms of physical health, but taking into account people’s social, emotional, cognitive, political and spiritual engagement, which together determine a person’s level of well-being,” she said.
One of Hebblethwaite’s recent research projects investigates how leisure activities affect the health and relationships of older adults, particularly with their adult grandchildren. As grandparents live longer, many are now able to remain involved in the lives of their grown grandchildren. The question has been poorly studied until now, as in previous generations most grandparents did not live long enough to maintain meaningful relationships with grandchildren into adulthood. Most existing research on grandparenting focuses on relationships with young children.
As grandchildren come of age, many of those with living grandparents enter into a kind of reciprocal and supportive relationship. Grandparents offer mentorship and support on career, life and relationships, while grandkids help them to stay engaged in current events and learn the ins and outs of new technology.
“Older people are purposeful in their choices around technology,” Hebblethwaite said. “They’re often characterized as resistant to change, but it’s not that at all. They are careful about what they choose to engage in and where they invest their resources, with good reason.”
Hebblethwaite said keeping in touch with grandchildren and other loved ones who live far away is often what motivates grandparents to learn how to send text messages, use FaceTime, or operate Skype.
“These platforms are helping to facilitate those close emotional family bonds they may not have had otherwise,” she said.
For both Benali and Hebblethwaite, health research is about more than just medicine. By examining what lifestyle factors contribute to wellness throughout a person’s lifespan, they hope to contribute to a new understanding of health that will help the seniors of tomorrow to live long, and well. For more information, visit
concordia.ca/engage or concordia.ca/perform