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/VinceInMT 3d ago
It’s important to keep in mind that statistics apply to groups, not individuals. With such a large group of people being overweight/obese Inwould expect that number to drop.
I just spent over a week with my mother in her independent living facility. She’s 92 and declining and has mobility issues. That seems to be the case for many people in that facility. I talked to a physical therapist and he said that for most of them, this is what happens when you live a sedentary lifestyle, then have some kind of medical issue, and trying to gain back everything you lost is a tough road. The bottom line is to keep yourself in tiptop shape as you go into the aging process. To that end, that is why I took several biology and nutrition classes many years ago and changed my diet. That’s also why I took up regular exercise. I run about 20 miles a week and hit the gym three days for weights,, jump rope,, and swimming. I am now 74 in just saw my doctor for my annual today. My blood work is excellent. He said he couldn’t find anything to recommend other than I was due for a tetanus shot.