about the author
Mark S. Lachs, MD, MPH
Author of What Your Doctor Won't Tell You About Getting Older
Dr. Mark Lachs is Director of Geriatrics for the New York Presbyterian Health System, Co-Chief of the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University, and a tenured Professor of Medicine at the College. He is also the Irene F. and I. Roy Psaty Distinguished Clinical Professor of Medicine.
A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the New York University School of Medicine, he completed a residency in Internal Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and is board certified in Internal Medicine. In 1988, he became a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at Yale, where he also earned an MPH degree in Chronic Disease Epidemiology and added qualification in Geriatric Medicine from the American Board of Internal Medicine. He spent four years on the Yale faculty before going to Cornell to lead the Geriatrics program.
Dr. Lachs’s major area of interest is the disenfranchised elderly, and he has published widely in the areas of elder abuse and neglect, adult protective services, the measurement of functional status, ethics, and the financing of health care. He has lectured internationally on these topics. His many honors and awards include an American College of Physicians Teaching and Research Scholarship, a National Institute on Aging Academic Leadership Award, and a Paul Beeson Physician Faculty Scholarship (the country’s preeminent career development award in aging). He is also the principal investigator of the largest longitudinal study of elder abuse and of an NIA-funded RO1 to study interpersonal aggression in nursing home residents. In January of 2000, Dr. Lachs became the first director of the Cornell Center for Aging Research and Clinical Care (CARCC), a multidisciplinary group of scientists, clinicians, and educators who seek to speed scientific advances from bench to bedside, teach geriatric medicine to physicians-in-training at all levels, and create a trans-institutional community of gerontologists at Cornell.
His service to community and country includes membership on an Institute of Medicine committee to address the training needs of health professionals in family violence and participation in the AMA/ABA joint conference on family violence. He also sits on the Board of the American Federation for Aging Research and has served as an advisor for the World Health Organization on elder abuse.
Dr. Lachs’s greatest passion is practicing and teaching geriatric medicine in the outpatient, hospital, long-term care, and house call setting. He maintains a practice at the Irving Sherwood Wright Center on Aging, a community-based ambulatory care practice for older adults, which he founded with Dr. Ronald Adelman in 1998. A unique social experiment intended to provide seamless medical and supportive services for older people, the physical space at 1484 First Avenue also is home to the Burden Center for the Aging (a community service organization) and the Hebrew Home for the Aged’s ElderServe Program (a home care agency).
Learn more about this speakerPress Links
"In Old Age, Illness And Dying Can Be Postponed"
NPR's Morning Edition
"What Jack LaLanne Taught Us about Aging"
CNN
Treat Me, Not My Age Named One of the Best Health Books of the Year
The Wall Street Journal
"How to Battle Medical Ageism and Get Quality Health Care at Any Age"
Southern California Public Radio's AirTalk
"Desire in the Twilight of Life"
The Wall Street Journal
"What to Do Now to Feel Better at 100"
The New York Times
"The Caregiver’s Bookshelf: A Friend Indeed"
The New York Times' The New Old Age
Dr. Mark Lachs Interview
AARP Prime Time Radio
"We’ll Keep a Light on for Ya"
Parent Giving
"4 Ways to Prepare for a Doctor’s Appointment "
Woman's Day
Dr. Mark Lachs' Article Archive
The Huffington Post
"Treat Me, Not My Age with Dr. Mark Lachs"
ABC's Good Morning America
Featured Book
What Your Doctor Won't Tell You About Getting Older
"To go along with his insider’s knowledge of geriatric medicine, Lachs has a stand-up comedian’s sense of rhetorical delivery, and he keeps readers amused with patient-related anecdotes while keeping them informed. An indispensable health-care handbook for both seniors and their loved ones."
—Booklist
Speaking Topics
- What Your Doctor Won't Tell You About Getting Older
- Sex and Aging
- Anti-Aging Supplements, Vitamins, and Alternative Therapies: What’s the Holy Grail?
- In Pursuit of Longevity: Toward a Different Kind of Nest Egg
- Money and Aging
- The Medicine in Seinfeld
View Topic Descriptions »
Speaking Topics — Mark S. Lachs, MD, MPH
Treat Me, Not My Age: A Doctor’s Guide to Getting the Best Care as You or a Loved One Gets Older
In this engaging talk, Dr. Mark Lachs looks at some of the major influences on how well people age. As life expectancy rises and more people live to celebrate their 100th birthday, postponing the time when physical independence can no longer be maintained is a goal worth striving for.
Lifestyle choices made in midlife can have a major impact on your functional ability late in life. Dr. Lachs explains the significance of physiologic reserve and how a secret of successful aging is to slow down the loss of this excess capacity we are all born with. He also addresses the issue of ageism in society and what we can all do to change the way people think and feel about aging.
Sex and Aging
The two greatest anxieties of our time melded together make for a great Woody Allen movie, or a major neurosis! As we grow older, we want (and need) to maintain our closeness and connection to others. While the aging process may cause some changes, most older adults are more sexually active than people realize. Despite what you read, erectile dysfunction is not the epidemic one imagines, and many prescriptions have a placebo effect. Even at an advanced age, we remain sexual beings in need of sexual expression. This talk looks at what the latest research tells us and considers why we’re so uptight about this.
Anti-Aging Supplements, Vitamins, and Alternative Therapies: What’s the Holy Grail?
From antioxidants to acupuncture, vitamin A to caloric restriction—navigating the field of the nontraditional offerings on the market is a huge challenge. Some things work, some don’t. In this talk, Dr. Lachs looks at how to decide what to spend your hard-earned money on, and what to walk away from. He also examines how scientists and laypeople should evaluate the claims and decide what’s beneficial to each individual.
In Pursuit of Longevity: Toward a Different Kind of Nest Egg
You need money for retirement, but you need other resources too. One of the most critical (and often neglected, particularly for men) is the idea of social capital. Emotional connections have an enormous impact on longevity, and even recovery from illness or surgery. Our resilience and ability to appreciate the life in our years, not just the years of our lives, is a key factor to a long and healthy life.
Money and Aging
As we get older, money and health become inextricably intertwined. In this talk, Dr. Lachs explains why that’s so, and what you can do about it, including advice on how to develop a personal business plan for aging. Dr. Lachs also looks at how to talk to aging parents about money (not in times of crisis!). Understanding what resources are available and knowing where the documentation resides are oft-neglected basic steps to take. From dealing with adult children, to making the most of one’s legacy, to understanding the emotional and often hidden sentiments around money, Dr. Lachs has seen it all and offers a professional and personal perspective on the subject that so many fear to broach.
The Medicine in Seinfeld
What popular culture can teach doctors and patients about themselves and one another. In this entertaining and engaging presentation, Dr. Lachs intermingles examples from the cultural phenomenon Seinfeld (hailed by TV Guide as “the greatest television program of all time”) into a fascinating talk that touches on some of the more thorny issues relating to life, aging, and the human condition.
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