Why are people living longer?

+49 votes
asked Oct 15, 2018 in Science by ClaudeMcCull (270 points)
edited Apr 14, 2019
Wasn’t just a few decades ago, the life expectancy was merely around the age of 30 or so? What caused that advancement? Why are people living longer than ever before? Is it because the major improvement in our healthcare and the better understanding of medication? We are living relatively healthier than ever before? Anyway, why are people living longer nowadays? And is it possible that someday people can have a life span of 200 years?

4 Answers

+17 votes
answered Jan 3, 2019 by TomT54914229 (570 points)
edited May 11, 2019
Average life expectancy has been on the rise yearly, from around the 40’s back in the 1900s, to almost 80 this year. So what brings this longevity? Effectively, we are only in poor health much later in our life. Access to health services, health literacy and a decrease in smoking nationwide, all plays a part in making our life so much longer. Nowadays, causes of death are less likely caused by parasitic and infectious diseases (the black plague for example) due to a much better sanitary practice and the existence of toilets.  Death is likely to be caused by chronic conditions and non-communicable diseases (cancer, diabetes etc.). Then there is also the movement for immunization, millions are immunized against harmful strains, the likes of polio and the main childhood killer, measles.
+9 votes
answered May 31, 2019 by KatherinaLar (350 points)
edited Aug 7, 2019
I do know people are living longer and longer these days, but 200 years?? Although nothing is impossible, but you really wanna live that long. I would be bored to death to live on earth for that long, and I can’t imagine how I’m gonna look like when I’m 200, too old to dare look into a mirror I guess.
+7 votes
answered Jan 2, 2019 by Niamh (1,150 points)
edited Mar 9, 2019
The twentieth century brought a wave in a rise of life expectancy, mainly in the world’s wealthier population from 50 to 75 years. This is attributed to the public health, medicine and nutrition. Then there is vaccinations and antibiotics that reduces so much of the death in childhood. Workplaces are safer with safety manual being majorly improving and the understanding that smoking will kill you faster. The three biggest reasons is for the prolonged lifestyle is because of better hygiene, health and food. This is the main improvements we had in standards from back in the nineteenths. The knowledge to ensure a healthier lifestyle has been improved dramatically as well (it can be argued that since people live longer, they can further expand their mastery of the science  for much longer and wider so they more likely to discover new ways advance our health).
+4 votes
answered Mar 18, 2019 by FideliaMoniz (240 points)
edited Jul 9, 2019
Why are people living longer? We are making the effort to live longer personally ourselves. We keep watch of the food we eat, make time to exercise and make sure our hygiene is on high standards. There is a theory that the food we eat is being made to suit our daily nutrition needs. The FDA monitor everything we feed on, making sure that every prepackaged meal have critical components like vitamin A, iron and iodine. The vast majority of us have no idea how to balance our meal properly, so if left to us alone, we are more likely than not to have malnutrition. The body requires protein, fats, carbohydrates and minerals, all of which we can now easily pick up off the shelves of our local grocery stores.
Welcome to Instant Answer, where you can ask questions and receive answers from other members of the community.
...