Studies show that on average, women have a higher chance of living longer than men. Orthopedic sport surgeon Dr. Vonda Wright wants to ensure that when women enter old age it is an enjoyable experience, not one full of pain.
“I am acutely aware that even though we’re living longer, we’re suffering longer, and that most of the conversation around longevity in this country so far has been directed at men, or using the science of men,” says Wright.
For 20 years, Wright was an academic surgeon at the University of Pittsburgh researching musculoskeletal aging and longevity with the goal of “dispelling the common notion that aging was an inevitable decline.” With her fellow researchers, she studied active members of aging populations, including seniors who competed in the National Senior Games, a biannual event for athletes over the age of 50.
“The mantra that I laid down in the early 2000s when I [wondered], ‘What is going to be the guiding light of my career?’ is ‘I’m going to change the way we age in this country,’” Wright says.
Today, she is a practicing clinician and founder of Precision Longevity. She shares tips with her patients for a longer and healthier life in hopes of “building communities of people who believe that they can have the agency to change their future.” She recently published a book titled, “Unbreakable,” which is a guide to healthy aging for women.
