Life expectancy in Canada in the year 1900 was 51. Nowadays? We’re now sitting at just under 80 for men, 84 for women. The extension of life is one of the great medical and social miracles of the last century — but it's not uniform living.
It’s largely a benefit of the rich and the middle class, said bioethicist Arthur Caplan. “In some countries, if you make it to 50 you’re lucky.” The poor do not live longer, said Caplan, head of medical ethics at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Almost eight million adults in Canada are obese. Moderate obesity takes, on average,Women generally outlive men. Those kinds of demographics get lost in the “80 is the new 60” buzz, Caplan said.
Much of the anti-aging focus isn’t about radical life extension or ageless bodies envisioned by immortalists, but rather about “compressing morbidity,” dodging the bad stuff until the final years of life and slowing the onset of age-related dysfunction, so that people live well, and then die suddenly. You’re here, and then you’re not.
Why do we even age? Sinclair uses an analogy about a nicked compact disc to explain what he calls his information theory of aging. “We’re not so much losing the digital music in the cell, the genes,” he said, but the epigenetic information, the systems in the body that read the DNA, and tell genes whether to switch on or off. “A skin cell doesn’t want to turn on the same genes as a brain cell. That would be a problem.” Genes that aren’t needed are bundled up.
Without some form of physiological or genetic engineering, Caplan pegs the upper limit at about 110 to 115 years max. Butset the fundamental or absolute limit of the human lifespan at 120 to 150 years, at which point the body simply runs out of resilience. For now, how to live longer and healthier comes down to the basics.
Why isn’t entirely clear, but it seems resistance training is more mentally taxing. It includes a cognitive component, said Lindsay Nagamatsu an assistant professor at Western University. Learning to use new machines and the proper form, keeping track of weight loads and reps. “It’s more of a mentally stimulating activity compared to aerobic training.”What else is good for the brain? A Mediterranean style diet, Nagamatsu said, “so a lot of fish and nuts.” Alcohol in moderation.
There are some grumblings about inter-generational tensions, that younger people will be denied jobs or advancements if they have to wait for older people to get out of the way. But countries with aging populations like Canada have low unemployment rates relative to younger populations, Raina said, “because older people create wealth.”
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