Living Longer, Aging Earlier

Most advance industrial populations are living longer, but aging earlier than their predecessors.

I believe there is sufficient empirical evidence to support the hypothesis that modern men and women are aging faster than ever before, and I will be gathering it here.

I define "aging" in physiological terms: loss of muscle mass, reduced bone density, musculo-skeletal degeneration, reduced aerobic capacity, increased and sustained levels of obesity and general reduction in locomotor capacity and joint range of motion. With these physiological changes comes emotional and psychological issues that mimic elderly behaviors. 

As a society, we are unprepared for the economic cost and predictable social demands these conditions will provoke. Massive retraining of the elderly to survive and thrive in the last three decades of life have are no longer a luxury. They have become absolutely essential. 

If this is a valid observation, it obviously has huge consequences to societies that ignore it. We age longer on average because of infectious disease control and public health interventions like safe water and foods. But we're maxed out now because we are not aging well.

Until society understands and respect the important of hypokenitic disorders, we will spend more money with increasingly smaller return on our investment of both dollars and time.

These conditions have development over the past century and particularly in the past five decades. Because they are so common, they appear to be normal or average. Millions of years of evolution tell us that they are not.

© Health Designs International, 2017