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The United States
is a very young country. It is less than 300 years old. In that time,
life spans have increased dramatically. When this country became a
country, people in their 30s were becoming grandparents. People in
their 40s were dying of old age. Today, many couples do not start to
have children
until they are in their 30s and middle age has moved from 30 to 50. Instead
of death coming at 60 we are still working until 65, 70 or 75.
At the other end of
the age spectrum is infancy. One of the reasons people had many
children, as recently as 100 yours ago, was that most children did not
survive until they became adults. In those days, children died of
diseases we have since eliminated or now consider minor.
Allergies were not understood. The nut allergies of today caused death only a hundred years ago.
Along with the
increased life expectancy, has come a higher occurrence of many
diseases. Many of these are diseases that were considered old age
diseases. Others were grouped under the title of “death by
natural causes.” A third group are illnesses that are a delayed
reaction to diseases that people died of but are now surviving. Most of
us are either survivors or are related to survivors of such diseases.
Many of us do not even know that we were spared from diseases like
polio, the flu or allergies.
On top of all of
these diseases, the house, travel and the workplace have become safer.
Instead of blazing fires or potbelly stoves, we have safe stoves and
ovens. People with missing limbs or blinded by explosions are now rare.
According to the CDC infant mortality has dropped from 58.1% to 7% just
since 1933.
When we were
children, people over 60 were few. The average age was in the twenties.
Today, both life expectancy and the average age are increasing. A
person over 50 was usually infirmed and with dentures. Today, they are
in the athletic clubs and starting new businesses.
Medications and
other treatments that had a cumulative or delayed side effect, in many
cases, were never seen, even 50 years ago. Today, we see these side
effects just because people are living longer. Add to this that, since
we see them more often, we have learned to diagnose conditions that
were rare because people just did not live as long.
As the average age
increases, so does the expectation that we should have a higher quality
of life. After Dave’s fiftieth birthday we kayaked on a wild
river in Alaska, crossed above a rain forest on a cable, swam in a cave
with lights on our heads, climbed and slid down waterfalls, all in the
ten years between then and now.
After a recent hike
that ended in a long climb, with a relative who is more then ten years
younger, Dave turned to the relative and said “well I can tell I
am not forty five any more.” The response was “you did as
well as I did.” Dave answered that at forty five he was so out of
shape that he would have been out of breath and near fainting.
The longer you live
the more experiences you have. The more experiences you have, the
greater the chance that one of them will go awry. On the other hand, if
you minimize experiences, are you really living? If a person
experiences nothing, we say they are in a coma.
The paradox is
simple; we are healthier so we live longer. We live longer so more of
us experience and survive accidents and illnesses. Of course, the
number of people who have had more than one occurrence of cancer is
growing; fifty years ago cancer was almost always a sentence of
death. There are survivors of many illnesses and diseases.
The same is true of
accidents. When the automobile was young, a crash at thirty miles per
hour almost always ended in someone dieing. Today, there are fewer
accidents and, with better construction and airbags, deaths rarer. That
does not mean that they have gone away, but that there are a greater
percent of people who have been in an auto accident and have survived.
There is a second
paradox, because more people are living longer the cumulative effects
of medications, chemical additives and even fertilizers are being seen.
People are turning back to the old, natural treatments. Organic and
natural foods are no longer the exclusive realm of health food stores.
They have become mainstream. Enjoy the paradox.
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