Comprehending the processes related to human aging is an extremely difficult task. However, while also challenging, it is possible to contribute to many of the aspects related to such processes and to our understanding of them. We are experiencing difficult times in Brazil at the moment, not only due to the political climate, but also and especially for ethical reasons. We have forgotten or become blind to our highest purpose in life, the common good.
Despite the times in which we are living, we do not choose defeatism or acceptance, but instead to reinvent ourselves. Changes have been made, one of which is that the Revista Brasileira de Geriatria e Gerontologia ("the Brazilian Journal of Geriatrics and Gerontology") has become an online-only publication. Amid the clamor that surrounds us, the turbulence and the uncertainties, we defend greater knowledge and more qualified information, not opinions expressed in liquid (or gaseous) form, the accuracy of which cannot be confirmed. As part of this mission, the journal will now appear bimonthly, publishing qualified texts on various aspects of the lives of older people. And our reinventions will continue. Each issue brings a new challenge.
The challenge of bimonthly publication requires a superhuman effort for a journal linked to a Brazilian public university and which values the quality that it brings to its many readers. Reducing our publishing time whilst continually increasing quality throughout the editorial process, as well as making the journal available to an international readership, means daily reinventions, maintaining all the while our core goal of a commitment to science and its basic principles.
Thus, this new edition covers further subjective questions related to aging, addressing the meanings of old age and the well-being of the elderly, as well as the significance of being a grandparent. In a similar vein, it considers the issues surrounding loneliness, a common experience among the elderly. We once again tackle the concept of the elderly individual as a protagonist, publishing articles relating to the self-assessment of health status, believing that this is a reflexive measure of the entire health condition to be assessed by medical professionals.
The new edition also considers objective issues that form part of the current debate surrounding the elderly in Brazil and around the world. Among these, we highlight a number of health problems and their treatments. In terms of health problems, sarcopenia, epilepsy and the transition of frailty are some of the points raised. The relationship between muscle mass and strength is questioned and discussed. Therapeutically, the use of medications and other "medicalizing" interventions, including physical training and home exercise therapy against Parkinson's Disease, are covered in this edition. Permeating such interventions is one of the most-discussed therapeutic strategies at the moment: self-care.
Having overcome these challenges, we are already thinking about the next and the newest demands of (re)invention, with a daily commitment to deliver knowledge and quality information, rather than opinion, backed by our history and our role as an important publication in the area of Geriatrics and Gerontology in Brazil and, increasingly, internationally.
Kenio Costa Lima
Publication Dates
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Publication in this collection
Mar-Apr 2016
