I’m Wondering How Long Will I Live?

How long will I live?   I am constantly reading that life expectancy is increasing and that we will all live longer. Wikipedia shows the current average life expectancy at birth in the United States as being over just 78 years old. Previous generations of Americans would have had much lower life expectancy, with no realistic expectation of living into their late seventies and beyound. Perhaps because life expectancy seems to be such a hot news item I find myself pondering my longevity.

How long will I live is probably not a question that many people may ponder daily, but it is a vital issue none-the-less.  When planning for the future, especially for things like pensions, estimates may have to be made on this critical question.

I’ve decided How Long Will I Live

I have decided that I want to be on this earth as long as I can be healthy, and no longer.  This is not to say that I wouldn’t like to try to live forever, and see new changes taking place in the world, but I’d want to be fit enough to enjoy the extra years, not stuck in a hospital or care-home bed.

Can I control how long will I live?

Only a part of my life is actually in my control.  I do not generally test my longevity by standing in front of a speeding bus, to see what will happen. Therefore I control my life by protecting myself as much as fate will allow.  I also realize that life is not forever, and it should be appreciated, and respected as a privilege.  I control as much of my life as I can, and when I choose to do it in a healthy way, I may increase my longevity, barring other unforeseen incidents.

Genetic Factors in how long will I live

There are two big factors involved in determining the answer to How long will I live?  These major factors are genetic backgrounds, and my lifestyle. My genetics are predetermined, so I cannot alter them, for example the genetic predisposition for disease a specific disease might be in my genes.

Lifestyle factors in how long will I live

The lifestyle factors in how long will I live is all mine.  I can choose to live a healthy life and possibly live longer.  Alternatively I can forget about risks to my life, and live day to day.  It is impossible to predict what may happen to us, but I want to at least have a chance to live a long and healthy life.  There are five factors which influence longevity that I can control, and although I have not mastered them all, it is something that I think about each day, and try to improve upon.

Five factors which influence how long will I live

Blood Pressure

Blood pressure is a major factor, and involves three of these other five factors.  Smoking, exercise, and stress, can all affect blood pressure, so by controlling these other factors in a positive way, you will be making a huge difference in your blood pressure.  Genetic predisposition to heart disease does affect your blood pressure, but if it is monitored carefully, you have every chance of living a long life.

Controlling Stress

This is sometimes like taming a wild bull, but it is necessary, in order to maintain a somewhat normal blood pressure.  A positive outlook helps, surround yourself with friends and family, and be sure to give of yourself.  Giving in any form, even a smile, can help you to control your stress, and lower your blood pressure at the same time.  When your body feels gratification, you relax, and the blood flows freely.  If you only find fault, you will be tense, and have higher blood pressure, so do a nice deed today!

Smoking Cigarettes

Stop smoking and you can possibly add years to your life, and get rid of some wrinkles at the same time.  Smoking constricts the blood vessels, causing high blood pressure, and can also cause lung cancer, stroke, and heart disease.  It is not easy to quit, but it would definitely be worth your life in doing so.

Exercise

The most important thing about this category is to find some type of cardiovascular exercise that you can, and will do.  Finding something that is not a chore to do is the key.  If it doesn’t seem like exercising, you will not mind doing it, and it will definitely help your heart to tick longer.

Healthy Diet

As with exercising, make your diet one that you can enjoy.  If you eliminate everything that you like, you will crave it more, and forget your healthy diet all together.  If you try to eat a balanced meal every day, and smaller portions, there is no need to go overboard.  With your healthy diet and exercise combined, you may add years to your life, and both of these things will improve your blood pressure automatically.

What Is The Answer To How Long Will I Live?

The question “How long will I live?” can be influenced, but not totally controlled by my lifestyle choices.  Many of the factors above affect each other, and by controlling one, I make a positive adjustment to the others without even thinking.  Because our lives are never stable, and are ever changing, I forget about when I will probably die, because there is just too much living to do.  However, by paying attention to the factors I’ve outlined such as respecting my body, and giving as much as I can to others, I plan to live as long as I can.  If you do not think about and plan to have a long life, you probably will not care to pay too much attention to making preparations to ensure that you live a healthy as well as long life. But I would like to be at least, prepared for a long ride, and positively control what I am able to control, in this exciting life of surprise and wonder.

 

 

 

A friend of mine has just split up with her boyfriend because he wanted complete freedom as well as the relationship. He sounded like a toxic bachelor to me, but I was surprised to hear my friend had never heard the term.

It’s been in use for a few years to mean a man who thinks he’s living the good life but will end up in an early grave and I thought it might be time to recap.

According to an article in The Sunday Times, lots of men don’t become mature adults because they don’t have to. They earn good money, live alone or with friends, own the latest gadgets and take exotic holidays out of season. Although they are 58% more likely to die before they reach 50 than men who settle down with a partner, many continue to enjoy their lifestyle until middle age without seeing the drawbacks.

It catches up with them though. Numerous studies show that single men suffer more heart disease, Alzheimer’s, cancer and even flu. They spend more time in hospital and take longer to recover than married men and have shorter life expectancies.

Women on the other hand, seem to do better and live longer on their own!

In ‘Calculating Your Life Expectancy’ I said my mom thinks she’s living on borrowed time. I couldn’t get her to understand that life expectancy increases as we get older and that her life expectancy is 91.5 years.

She may even be in the 50% of her age group who live longer than that, especially as she gave birth at 39 and a significant number of women who live to be 100 gave birth when they were around 40.

The newspapers she reads say life expectancy is 80 or 81 and I couldn’t convince her that the published figure is life expectancy at birth. By the time you’re old enough to read the newspaper your life expectancy has already increased, so although it’s the simplest statistic for journalists to quote, it isn’t the most meaningful for their readers.

Now I’m delighted to report that my mom has changed her attitude. After years of telling people she doesn’t need anything for her birthday, this year she wrote a list.

Since her 80th birthday she stopped wanting anything new because she was sure the things she already had would last long enough. She hadn’t got to the point of not buying green bananas, but she didn’t think she had a future.

This year she asked for new dresses, a frying pan and new lights. She’s even talking about getting a new kitchen. After 6 years of making do with what she’s got her things are wearing out. So she’s decided I might be right about life expectancy and it’s time to start living as though she could reach 90 or beyond.

It’s a much more positive outlook. She’s thinking about living rather than dying and embracing new experiences. We went to the beach for her birthday and she seemed to enjoy herself more than she has in years.

Don’t Get Caught Out – The Cost of Living Changes as You Get Older.

While we are young and healthy it’s easy to calculate how much money we need for necessities such as food, warmth and shelter. As we get older the situation changes. You may think you’ll need less and you’ll be able to live on your pension, but age related health issues are expensive to address and you may have to pay. In retirement the amount of money we spend on health increases, and this money often has to be found from savings or a pension.

Even in countries that provide free health care, people in the last 7 years of their lives tend to spend their own money on pills and products to improve mobility, reduce pain or relieve symptoms. Sadly some people who can’t afford to pay for treatment die waiting for operations or for Government approval to fund expensive drugs.

The state can’t pay for complete and perfect health care for everyone and as people live longer the systems we rely on are being put under even more pressure. Expensive drugs are available which extend life expectancy and improve the quality of life for people with certain diseases such as breast cancer and Alzheimer’s. Yet people die while experts decide whether to fund treatment or not.

Drug companies can charge a high premium for pills which reduce suffering, restore health or extend life. They know that if we have the money we will pay even if our governments or insurance policies won’t.

It’s very difficult to know how much money to provide for our old age. New treatments will be available by the time we need them, but will we be able to afford them?

Mapping the human genome by the year 2000 would have been impossible if knowledge had accumulated at a steady pace. Instead it relied on breakthroughs, often in unrelated subjects, which continuously accelerated the rate of progress.

No one could predict exactly what those breakthroughs would be, but scientists knew they would occur because overall knowledge doubles every three years.

Now the race is on to slow down aging. We’re currently adding up to two and a half years life expectancy every decade, that’s up to 6 hours every day. The quest is to add a year every year so that those who are able to benefit can live indefinitely. Ray Kurzweil believes that by 2045 technology will have reached the point where that can become a reality, and Aubrey de Grey is confident that some people alive today can live to 1000 or beyond.

If they’re right, can we as individuals keep up with the pace of change that happens around us? Imagine being born 1000 years ago and adjusting to all the shifts taking place in religion, politics, technology or even just food and fashion. Today’s 80 year olds often struggle with the challenges of modern life, how will we cope when change is occurring even faster and we’re over 500? We’re going to need to be very adaptable.

I don’t think any of us are psychologically prepared for the changes that will happen this century. We need to stay fit and healthy to still be here in 2045, but we also need to do something about our mental limitations, otherwise a longer life might not be a blessing, but a curse.

This month I’ve discovered my life expectancy is 10 years higher than the figure quoted in newspapers. Before I even started improving my health I already have a 50% chance of living past my 91st birthday. What’s more, life expectancy is increasing by a year or two every decade.

It’s a positive start to the year and I’ve been changing my attitude to aging. How we behave is not just affected by how old we are, it’s also affected by how many years we expect to live.

A report by Science for Global Insight says, “Older people in the future will not behave like today’s older people. In many ways they will behave as though they were much younger.”

We’re going to stay much more mobile. Technology is going to allow us to be more active as we get older. Rather than resorting to a wheelchair, we’ll strap robotics to our legs.

Immortal Jellyfish?

A tiny jellyfish, shorter than its name, Turritopsis Nutricula, has managed to reverse the aging process.

Most jellyfish die after reproducing, but this “immortal jellyfish” reverts to its younger self and scientists believe it can repeat the cycle indefinitely.

Originally found in the Caribbean, immortal jellyfish are multiplying rapidly and swarming around the world. It’s great news for geneticists studying aging, but not so good from an ecological point of view.

This turritopsis nutricula immortal species of jellyfish is thought to be the only animal in the world that really can live for ever.

The immortal jellyfish is able to change from its mature adult stage to an immature polyp stage, its first stage of life, and back again. If as it seems, the immortal jellyfish can change from adult to newborn and back again it could in fact live forever. There does not appear to be any biological limit to its life span. The immortal jellyfish is the only known animal that appears to be able to live forever.

What is Immortal Jellyfish Secret?

The key to its immortality lies in a process called transdifferentiation, where one type of cell is transformed into another type of cell. Some animals, such as salamanders can regrow their limbs. The immortal jellyfish seems to be able to take this a step further and can repeatedly regenerate its whole body.

The implications of studying this jellyfish and being able to discover how it is actually able to reverse the natural aging process are enormous. As a result of this research could we too live forever?

If a jellyfish can live forever, why shouldn’t we? In the meantime perhaps we need a little helpstaying and  looking younger!

Regards,
Catherine

30 Year Challenge

“People who think that evolution is just one gene changing at a time, have missed much of biology,” says Craig Venter, who was involved in sequencing the human genome. “We find all kinds of species that have taken up a second chromosome or a third one from somewhere, adding thousands of new traits in a second to that species.”

This makes more sense than what I was taught at school. Darwin thought finches in the Galapagos took many generations to evolve different types of beak. But, his theory didn’t really explain how they survived the interim period, before they developed the right beak to reach the food.

Shifting our thinking, away from the linear, step-by-step approach, towards the concept of acceleration, isn’t just happening in biology:

World population is increasing exponentially
The power of computers is doubling every year or so, and
Scientists took 15 years to understand the genetic code of HIV, yet they were able to sequence the SARS virus in 31 days.

That’s why Aubrey de Grey (see blog, 3 January) is confident that, “The first 1000-year-old, is probably only about 10 years younger than the first 150-year-old.”

The race is on for people who are alive today to benefit from technology that ironically, slows down aging.

According to Thomas Perls, a researcher at Boston University, women outlive men in all developed countries and have been doing since at least the 16th century (despite deaths from childbirth). But the gap between men and women is closing.

Biological differences play a role, but there is growing evidence that lifestyle has a major effect on life-expectancy.

In the last 20 years, women have been taking on traditional male occupations and behavior patterns, such as, drinking and smoking. Over the same period, female deaths from lung cancer have risen sharply. Figures from Atlanta suggest middle aged smokers of  both sexes now have similar life expectancies.

Smoking may be “the great equalizer.”

Monastic life, on the other hand, can extend life expectancy and even-out the differential between men and women. Marc Luy, from the University of Rostock, Germany, found that monks and nuns with similar routines and low stress levels also have similar life expectancies.

So, with a regular routine, reduced stress and a positive outlook on life, men may catch up with us. It could happen!

The Cambridge researcher, Aubrey de Grey, says that extending healthy living by 30 years is a moderate aim. It is only the beginning of what we can achieve.

Life expectancy is already improving at the rate of one or two years every decade and new therapies are expected to continue these advances. But in the future, technologies we don’t yet have, will be used a s a springboard to bring on the next level. Then we won’t just see small incremental steps. The rate of improvement will accelerate and we might even be able to increase life expectancy by one year every year.

When these breakthroughs gather pace, those of us who initially extend our lives by 30 years may be able to stay ahead of the game. Aubrey de Grey predicts, “The people who are young enough to benefit from these first therapies, that give this moderate amount of life extension … will mostly survive long enough to receive improved treatments that will give them a further 30 or maybe 50 years.”

He thinks most of us currently accept the inevitability of aging. But when we realize we can live much longer without becoming frail or suffering from age related diseases, we are going to want to do something about it.

Recommended Book:

Aubrey de Grey and Michael Rae
Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime

It’s New Year’s Day and like millions of other people, I’ve got the impulse to look ahead and make plans. I’ve given myself a year to extend my life expectancy by 30 years and improve my chances of staying healthy in old age.

To be able to do that I need to work out what my life expectancy is at the moment. There are plenty of online calculators, but they come up with different results:

So, one day a week I’m going to focus on finding the most reliable way to establish my current life expectancy and then, how to increase it. I’ll have a thorough check-up and send my DNA to a lab to be analysed.

The rest of the week I’ll look at diet, lifestyle, body awareness and relationships. I’ll also report on what the experts are saying and highlight any relevant breakthroughs in science, medicine and technology.

Sunday is the quietest day of the week for me, so that’ll be the day to reflect on how things are going, the purpose of it all and what I can do so that others will have the same chance of life.

I have no idea how this will turn out, or how to measure my success without waiting until the end of my life to see if it worked. The only thing I’m sure of right now is that by this time next year I’ll know myself a whole lot better.

According to biochemist Gregory Petsko, “The average lifetime has more than doubled since 1840 and it’s increasing currently at the rate of about 5 hours every day.” His three minute talk shows why that isn’t such a good thing, as well as offering hope that we might be on the verge of a medical breakthrough.

You can listen to Petsko’s three minute talk here:
[media:http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/gregory_petsko_on_the_coming_neurological_epidemic]

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Each Christmas my mum thinks it’s going to be her last. She believes she’s living on borrowed time because she doesn’t understand what life expectancy means. It’s only an estimate which predicts that half the women, born in the same year as her, would die by the time they were 81.

Life expectancy is a statistical average, and 50% is the average. My mum is in the half that live longer and because she’s in that half she can expect to live a lot longer yet. At 85 her official life expectancy is 91.5 and she still has a 50/50 chance of living longer than that. Even 100 year olds are expected to live approximately another 2 years.

Governments publish tables to show what your life expectancy is at any age.

American Life Expectancy

United Kingdom Life Expectancy

Or search Google for the name of your country and Life Expectancy Table.

Some countries may present the information differently, but they usually include a column of ages from 1 to 100 and a column of remaining life expectancy. The number of remaining years shown alongside your age, plus your age, equals your life expectancy.

National averages are a valid starting point, but if it was that simple, I wouldn’t be writing this blog. Other factors such as diet and lifestyle have an effect, but right now, I don’t know which diet is best or how my current lifestyle influences my life expectancy. That’s part of the challenge.