Are we the last generation to lilely as not liveout our natural span?

An article today in the paper here in Sydney on this subject.

The writer is spending a disproportionate time attending funerals where parents bury their children. The parents are in their 70 and 80 and kids in late 20 to early 50s and have succumbed to Cancers.

Conclusion is that oldest generation is my parents ie those in 80 and 90.

My and next generation seem to be cut short in our primes by cancers.

I always believed that the natural human life span was 45 years.

Clean food and water society and medicine have enabled us to cheat nature.

Also the war and post war privations have helped my parents generation to live long and well.

Looking at paople toiday they are all FAT BASTARDS and will drop in their 40s due to Diabetes and obesity related illneses.

Had a 13 year old 90kg kid at work this week, so he is 8kg bigger than me!!!!!!

So i rekon teens will be lucky to make 40 and if they do they will be obese diabetic blind renal failure etc etc oh i forgot cardiac too.

A client of mine recently celebrated her 92 birthday by skydiving from 14 thousand feet. RESPECT.

regards David
51 years young

We are seeing a growing divergence in life expectancy.

Sub-saharan African countries have life expectancy in the low 40's (and are still falling). Developed nations such as Japan are now in the mid 80's.

I cannot see many reasons to expect that inequality to alter much.

Personally I doubt that average life expectancy in developed nations will rise a great deal further but I'd be surprised if it fell. Whilst we may be seeing rises in obesity we are reaping the rewards of access to good housing, clean water and reliable nutrition. Health care has contributed slightly-but mostly through public health measures such as better ante-natal and neonatal care, vaccination and management of common infectious disease.

The 'ideal' natural span is a matter of debate of course. Add life to years not always years to life I'd say.

Bruce

Globally I think the effects of climate change and especially SLRise will have a massive effect on life expectancy.

George

I'm not entirely sure why you feel this may be the case.

In the developed world, it is certainly fair to say there are a lot of 21st century vices which will lead to a premature death for many. Drinking, smoking and eating a diet of saturated fats etc, coupled with a lifestyle involving little or no regular excercise. There are also other issues like drug abuse and road traffic accidents etc, but at least we no longer have people dying in huge numbers from a life down the pits or other industrial processes.

On the other hand, advances in medical technology are improving some peoples life expectancy all the time.

Many deaths are caused by completely random events (RTAs, cancer & desease etc), but those aside life expectancy is generally down to personal choice. Live healthily and avoid undue risk and you improve your chances of a long and heathy lifespan. The biggest problem is teaching this to future generations. In our household, we live an very health lifestyle and this has been passed onto our kids who all understand the importance of good diet and excercise, but contrast this with my sister and brother in law, who are both overweight and very unhealthy as a result of living on a high fat diet and taking no excercise. Their choice, but the frustrating thing is that they have brought their kids up with the same bad habits. Very sad.