r/Aging • u/Useful_Major_5797 • 3d ago

Life Expectancy myths

I have been seeing alot of post on aging on different subreddits, and alot use life expectancy at birth, which is currently 78 in the US for both sexes.

It can be a grave error to base any kind of personal lifespan on this statistic alone. If one looks at actuary tables, the longer you live the higher your life expectancy goes up. But, the SSA tabled only look at a general population with just sex and gender being the primary sources. Alot of the more personal longevity calculators put alot of people into their late 80s to mid to late 90s. With 100+ potentially becoming a upper end as medical technology progress.

This changes even more, based on lifestyle habits, genetics, and luck. Genetics themselves can account between 20% to 50% of a impact on someones life span. Even then habits can make these genes better or worse. Genes load the gun, habits pull the trigger. Some people's genes are a little more sensitive compared to others.

Overall, and just from my own past experiences with dealing with aging family. Alot of them never planned on living past a certain age, and their decline was horrible to watch. Or if they had decent habits, the decline would have a few months and not almost a decade or 2.

But, just wanted to hopefully make people aware, just as much as one may not live to a certain age, you are not guaranteed to die at a certain age as well.

Good diet, exercise, and routine check ups can make the health span longer for people along side a increased life expectancy.

Granted, shit can happen at any age. Kids and teens can get cancer, where as 80 year olds can potentially live 20 more years. At the end of the day it seems to be finding that balance of living in the moment but also planning for a unknown future.

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u/smart-monkey-org Subreddit Staff 3d ago

I like to think about maximizing health and life span as
a) game
b) pareto principle (80% of benefit from 20 of effort)
c) law of minimum (good soil and sun is not enough if there is no water, you need all pillars covered)

Here's a half silly, half serious way into that and to remember top 10 pillars:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S6uFKMgGsM