Expected Years of Healthy Living Shrinking
We may spend more years sick than we did even a decade ago… For example, a 20-year-old man in 1998 could be expected to live an additional 45 years without at least one of these diseases: heart disease, cancer or diabetes. That number fell to 43.8 in 2006. For women, the expected years of life without a serious disease fell from 49.2 years to 48 years over the last decade.
Full article on the increase in the average age of morbidity.
It’s our unhealthy lifestyles.
This is the whole problem with immortality, or with major extension of lifespan. The danger is that we will end up spending most of our lives infirm — and maybe with dementia as well.
I think it’s all about obesity.
Americans have specialized in work that is increasingly sedentary. This provides for less opportunity for physicians activity. Individuals that do engage in manual labor often lead less healthy lifestyles due to educational deficits.
Our busy lifestyles make processed food and fast food appealing, which can lead to health problems later in life. Although it might appear like we are losing ground. In reality, this is a problem of affluence that most of the world would love to have.
I agree with Devon.
I got to sit in on a surgery last week. It’s amazing how much impact lifestyle factors have on health. Scared me into eating healthier. (Not scary enough to exercise. But scary enough to eat better.)