shouldn’t we have extended the life expectancy to at least 90-100 years with all the advancements we have in medicine now?
In: Biology
Hasn’t the [US lifespan](https://edition.cnn.com/2022/08/31/health/life-expectancy-declines-2021/index.html) been dropping while other countries’ (eg [Ireland](https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/IRL/ireland/life-expectancy)) goes up?
Terrible work-life balance, export of [manufacturing](https://www.ft.com/content/66165693-ddf8-3988-b7e2-5ea887303c3e) jobs by billionaire bros, [increasing inequality](https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/01/09/trends-in-income-and-wealth-inequality/), expensive car addiction, obesity, lack of public transport, pollution…
Private health insurance is the reason. It provides No Healthcare and is a scam that bribed its way into American lives through corrupt politicians. People can’t even afford basic human rights like Healthcare because the parasite class needs a few more profit dollars.
There are lots of people who don’t live in the 1st world. More than do actually – that tends to drag averages down compared to what countries you are assuming have a long life expectancy.
Simple math
This is a very big question and encompasses a LOT of different variables. For all of our advancements, we still don’t have a cure for cancer. Each year, over 600,000 people die from cancer. You’d be hard pressed to find someone who hasn’t had a friend or loved one affected by this awful disease. My wife died of cancer two years ago, and my father died of cancer 8 years ago–those are the two who are closest to me, but certainly not the only ones. Cancer is currently the second highest cause of death in the United States.
Obesity has increased in this country to epidemic levels. Heart disease often results from obesity and is the number one cause of death in the United States at almost 700,000 people per year.
Another factor is immigration. The United States has lower lifespans than some other countries, and we also have a surprisingly high infant mortality rate for such as advanced western nation. Well, a big part of the reason for that is immigration. Most immigrants come from very poor, third-world countries, and assimilating them into our society means that we have to accept the hit to our health statistics. The other countries that we often get compared to don’t have anywhere near our levels of immigration.
These are just three factors which significantly impact our lifespan, but they are not the only factors–there are many, many more. But I think it gives a hint as to why our lifespan seems to be frozen at around 70%.
The human body is quite resilient and have a capacity to become quite old, even without modern medicine. But! It has some weaknesses.
One weakness is being born. Being born and being a newborn is very dangerous. In the olden days, people didn’t know how to treat and handle many things that happened to infants, and many infants died. Many motherd died too, because pregnancy and especially giving birth is dangerous.
Another weakness is infections. Humans have an amazing immune system, but the “enemy” (the infections) is also amazing. So many people die to infections.
MOST of the extension in average lifespan comes down to modern medicine being better att treating and supporting infants, and having antibiotics and vaccines. ALL the other stuff medicine does is doing surprisingly little for overall life expectancy.
Antibiotics came in the 1920s. Unless there is a medical breakthrough of similar magnitude, such as a universal cure for cancer (as was thought possible in the 1990s), life expectancy will probably stay around here for the time being.
And this is of course enormously complicated, but this is ELI5.
I guess you expected us all to live well over 100 years? 🙂 I think something else to consider is that despite all the improvements in medicine, nutrition etc a lot of people either lack access to that or the information. Also a lot of people just dont want to bother to live better and healthier because it actually takes some effort, restraint and money ofc. Especially in developed countries the life span is being held lower than it can because of rapidly increasing rates of obesity and all the diseases associated with overall bad nutrition – over processed foods, added sugars etc etc. A lot of us just dont have the longest lifespan as a goal in our lives and just start learning more about them as we start developing some health problems. And some continue to ignore all kinds of health concerns even if its killing them slowly.
Look at Life expectancy of people born now who will benefit from all that. A lot of older people that also go into the average already suffered from a lot of the problems.
This always brings out the haters, but it’s true.
Advances in medical science have been amazing in the past 50 years, but in that same time our diet has gone to shit.
Meanwhile, people who eat a mostly vegan, whole-food diet are *regularly living into their nineties and beyond*.
Quit eating ultra-processed food (anything in a bag or box or can), especially if it has ingredients you can’t find in a normal household kitchen. Also cut back on meat to the way most people ate before WW2 — meat was typically a seasoning or a garnish, not a main course. That was Sunday dinner. Other than that, meat consumption was sparse.
Look-up the *Blue Zones* (Book by Dan Buettner, also a documentary movie)
Read *How Not To Die*, by Michael Greger
Watch the documentary movie *The Game Changers*. [https://gamechangersmovie.com/the-film/where-to-watch/](https://gamechangersmovie.com/the-film/where-to-watch/) (scroll down for links to major streaming services)
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People actually have been living to 70+ since time immemorial.
We didn’t age faster, it’s just that other causes used to get to us before age a lot more frequently in the past. Such as:
– early childhood disease
– war
– food/water/WiFi/other resource insecurity
– childbirth
– epidemics
Yes, these still happen, but they happen way less than they used to. So more people (read: over 90%) are reaching those older ages.
Making your 70s, 80s, and 90s as survivable as your 20s … that’ll be a whole different beast altogether. Some very smart people are working on it, but it’s a tougher nut to crack.
The human body seems to have a hard cap at the moment of around 90-100 years. Life expectancy is an average. People lived into their 70s and 80s in the 1700s however there were much fewer than do now due to lacking medical resources. Life expectancy is a better gage of the healthcare systems ability to cover the most people. That’s why the U.S. life expectancy pales in comparison to peer nations. The health care system is rationed on the ability to pay as opposed to actually needing healthcare
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