By Barrett SMITH

The MonteCedro Retirement Community in Pasadena will welcome guest speaker Dr. Roger Landry who will be delivering a presentation entitled, “The 10 Steps to Successful Aging.” Dr. Landry served as a flight surgeon in the U.S. Air Force for over 22 years across five continents before retiring as a highly decorated full colonel. However, what is perhaps most fascinating about Dr. Landry is not the work he did before retirement, but what he has done since.

As part of a team, Dr. Landry has dedicated years to studying the subject of aging and what might account for a more successful aging experience, and in his new book, “Live Long, Die Short,” Dr. Landry is presenting the means by which an individual may evaluate his or her lifestyle, discover what risks he or she may be facing, and learn how to lower those risks to achieve a more authentic health.

“Authentic health,” a term that represents the goal of Dr. Landry and his teammates, is described as the “state of genuine vitality consistent with our human origins and individual nature.” In simpler terms, authentic health is what happens when humans return to the behavior found in earlier civilizations. Research has found that areas around the world wherein people tend to age better, named “blue zones,” are often more similar to the societies maintained by our ancestors.

“If you look at history, we survived because of certain characteristics that are now written into our DNA to cause physiological health,” Dr. Landry explained. “Humans used to move constantly, now we have moving walkways. We used to eat fruits, nuts, small amounts of meat throughout the day; now we demand three meals a day at certain times. More importantly, we used to have social compacts, where everyone worked for the higher goal of the community. We stayed socially connected [and] everyone had a role.”

Dr. Landry believes that current society marginalizes older adults, and dealing with a changing world often causes them stress that negatively affects health. As an attempt to fix this problem, Dr. Landry works with “Masterpiece Living,” a group of specialists in aging that helps communities develop environments that foster continual growth and connection for older adults. ML aims to create a change in the way society treats both the aged and the topic of aging altogether.

“This is a movement,” said Dr. Landry. “We want to present a compelling argument about why certain policies should be changed.”

Dr. Landry will be discussing his research, as well as his team’s vision for community growth, at MonteCedro Retirement on Jan. 28 at 2:30 p.m. and on Jan. 29 at 10:30 a.m. MonteCedro is located at 153 E. Holly St. in Pasadena.

  Barrett SMITH