According to a recent House of Commons health committee report, the average life expectancy of Canadians has increased by more than 30 years since the early 1900s – to 78 for men, and 83 for women in 2011. By 2031, 22.8 per cent of the population will be 65 and older
The majority of seniors have at least one chronic condition and as many as one in four has two or more. “The entire Western world is on its way to a demographic tsunami of seniors, and we have to figure out ways to keep these people out of the health system,” says Dr. Max Cynader, director of the Brain Research Centre and Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health at Vancouver Coastal Health and UBC.
The older the population, the higher the prevalence of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s, said Cynader. The single most important thing people can do to reduce the risk of age-related brain decline is exercise, he said.

National Post, Tue May 29 2012, By: Sharon Kirkey, Link to full text