‘APAC Healthy Ageing Summit’ day 1: health is the new wealth

June 26, 2018
/ Cognition, Diabetes, Food Science, Research

This month saw the launch of the Healthy Ageing APAC Summit in Singapore on 12-13 June, covering a smorgasbord of topics related to nutrition and healthy ageing throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

Currently more than half of the world’s over-60s live in the Asia-Pacific. And the region’s number of older adults is expected to double from 547 million in 2016 to nearly 1.3 billion by 2050.

The summit was launched to explore how the nutrition and food industry “can meet the needs of the rapidly ageing populations of today, and more crucially, tomorrow.”

Nikki attended the summit. “There was just so much information and networking, it really was a fabulous couple of days! I’m very lucky to have been able to attend and learn a lot.” Here are some highlights.

Healthy living trend

Presenter Chin Juen Seow from Euromonitor pointed out that healthy living has become a major trend – and not just in ageing.

He suggests this is driven by an array of social and cultural influences spanning economics, population change, technological advancement, concerns about the environment and sustainability, and changing values: “Health is the new wealth.”

As a result, 37 percent of packaged food sales in Asia are presented with a health focus, and this is predicted to increase.

Latest research

Dr Lesley Braun from Blackmores presented new research suggesting that omega-3s may benefit sarcopenia. Bolstered by animal studies that show increased stimulation of muscle protein synthesis, human trials provide some evidence of improved muscle-related biomarkers in older adults after taking omega-3 supplements.

Dementia is now the second highest cause of Australian deaths. It is risky and expensive for pharmaceutical companies to develop drugs for Alzheimer’s disease – the most common form of dementia – according to Dr Shawn Watson from Senescence Life Science, with a 99.6% failure rate of clinical trials. Their focus on amyloids could be the limiting factor.

Increasing research shows that nutrition and sleep can support healthy brain function with ageing, preventing risk of Alzheimer’s via several biological mechanisms including reduced inflammation and oxidative stress. Watson reported positive results from supplementation with turmeric and ginseng.

Alzheimer’s disease has also been nicknamed “diabetes type 3.” When people eat too much sugar, cells are bombarded with insulin, which tells them to take in the glucose for energy. Over time the cells become insulin resistant, leading to diabetes and a host of related health problems. Research has linked a lack of insulin to the formation of plaques associated with Alzheimer’s – one more reason to avoid excess sugar and refined carbohydrates.

Accordingly, the glycemic index (GI) was developed to rank foods by how quickly sugar is released into the blood stream. Kathy Usic from the Glycaemic Index Foundation told the audience about an impending global roll-out of the Low GI Symbol on food packaging to help address the soaring epidemic of chronic disease.

Amidst a wave of related research on low carbohydrate/high protein diets, a study is currently underway to investigate the effects of a low-GI high-protein diet on pre-diabetes/type 2 diabetes prevention. Watch this space!