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Longevity: living longer than the average life expectancy. Shortsighted: lacking foresight, not thinking through the long-term consequences.
A little background before I make my point about the headline. In the days of the Roman Empire more than 2,000 years ago, the average life expectancy was 39. In the USA in 1900, the average life expectancy was 47. Yes, that’s not a typo. In 18 centuries we had only added eight years to the average human life. Then, in just one more century, life spans increased by 30 years to 77. Amazing, but true.
In 1900, 20 percent of all children died before the age of one. Almost 50 percent of all children died before the age of five. So high infant mortality significantly reduced the average life span. Think about having children today and how different it is compared with knowing your newborn has only a 50 percent chance to live until age five.
What changed? Improved sanitation and medical advancements in the early days of the century addressed the spread of infectious diseases. From 1914 forward, our medical research proved effective against cholera, smallpox, yellow fever, Hepatitis B and A, rotavirus, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, mumps, measles, rubella, chickenpox and others through widespread use of vaccinations. Our children stopped dying before they had a chance to live a full life. Life spans increased dramatically.
The headline refers to something that is THE hot topic in our health and fitness industry’s literature and research but I’m not sure it’s as well covered in mainstream reports. So I’m sharing with you. Living Healthy vs. Living Longer. Of the 183 nations in the World Health Organization, the gap between living healthy and life span places us last at no. 183. In our country, we live an average of 12 years either sick or disabled or in pain and discomfort, which makes the whole concept of increasing longevity questionable. While our health care system keeps us alive, we’re not doing all we could to be living healthy. This is frustrating to me and others who try to encourage healthier choices.
Some deterioration of our hearing, eyesight, teeth and gums, both physical and mental reaction time and more are realities, are minimally connected to lifestyle choices and are consistently being improved by our health care professions. A cold, hard fact is that we can either accept those conditions of living longer than average or, well, die.
There is stuff that’s more serious though. Conditions like heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, arthritis, and high blood cholesterol cause us to become disabled, cripple us with pain and make our last years of life miserable. And these conditions are all affected in a major way by lifestyle choices throughout our life spans. For example, type 2 diabetes used to be called adult-onset diabetes until our children’s lifestyles involved far less physical activity along with access to highly processed foods and sugary drinks. In our later years, so much we identify as due to aging is actually due to reduced activity which is obviously a choice. Keeping our muscular system developed throughout life supports our skeletal system and allows our posture to remain upright.
The National Council on Aging recommends increased exercise and improved dietary habits at any age to slow or prevent ALL of the conditions in the above paragraph. I can hear the groans. Another exercise and dietary improvement guilt trip. Nope. No guilt trip here because others aren’t affected This is about accepting responsibility for how our choices affect us individually. People who take charge of their remaining years will benefit. That’s just the truth. You can do it and I sincerely hope some of you will. Simply, focus more on living healthy, not on just living longer.