Envejecimiento saludable en la Región de las Américas

Tan solo en los últimos 50 años, la esperanza de vida ha aumentado en más de 20 años. Este aumento significativo de la longevidad se debe en parte a los avances de la medicina, las intervenciones de salud pública, la biotecnología y el desarrollo social y económico, que han permitido a las personas vivir más que en cualquier otro momento de la historia. En América Latina y el Caribe, la proporción de personas de 60 o más años de edad aumentará incluso en 18% durante el próximo decenio y para el 2050 se ubicará entre 25% y 30% de la población. Esta transición ocurrirá en 35 años, que es tan solo la mitad del tiempo que requirió en Estados Unidos y Canadá.

Healthy Aging in the Americas

[EXTRACT]. In just the past 50 years, life expectancy has increased by more than 20 years. This significant increase in longevity is due in part to advances in medicine, public health interventions, biotechnology, and social and economic development that have made it possible for people to live longer than at any other time in history.

Diel and seasonal variations in the thermal biology of San Cristobal Lava Lizards (Microlophus bivittatus).

Thermal biology, and therefore energy acquisition and survival, of ectotherms can be affected by diel and seasonal patterns of environmental temperatures. Galápagos Lava Lizards live in seasonal environments that are characterized by a warm and wet period when reproductive activity is maximal, and cooler and drier period. With the use of radiotelemetric techniques to record lizard surface temperatures (Ts), we studied the thermal ecology of the San Cristóbal Lava Lizard (Microlophus bivittatus) during both the warm and cool seasons over two years. During the diel activity period and when operative temperatures exceeded Tset-min, at least on rock faces without canopy, 52% or less of the Ts observations fell within the laboratory-determined Tset range (36-40 °C). Therefore, lizards may have avoided very warm midday temperatures in shaded microhabitats and the lag times in changes in Ts values occurred as operative temperatures rose rapidly during late morning warming phase. Lizards effectively thermoregulated during a year with moderate warm season temperatures and during a cool season that was unseasonably warm. In contrast, lizards less effectively thermoregulated during the warmest and coolest years of the study. We did not detect intersexual differences in thermoregulation although males may thermoregulate less effectively than do females during the cool season although we were unable to detect significant differences using our nonparametric statistical techniques.