Essay 3: life expectancy
Life expectancy for a healthy 70 year old today is about 15 years, but it goes up every year, so 90 is my conservative estimate for most people. I claim that no one knows how long boomers and younger people will live. Daily values for vitamins were understood and added to food after WWII, so people my age, 74, are the first ones raised with proper nutrition. Animals given good nutrition from birth live much longer than those lacking nutrients when young. So no one realizes what a jump in life span may happen soon.
Although right now, 2023, the trend in life expectancy is awful. We have dropped from near the top 5 years ago to #53 among developed nations today.
Science 333:549, 29 July 2011: A Pitched Pattle Over Life Span. Vaupel states that life expectancies at birth will continue to rise at three months a year where residents live the longest, but Olshansky counters that widespread obesity will cut lifespans short. 2005-2010 life expectancy in Europe was 75.4, North America 78.2, Japanese female 86! Update for 2023: The current life expectancy for North America in 2023 is 79.50 years, a 0.44% increase from 2022. For a 70 year old, that is 15 more yrs.
Fortunes are being spent to determine how to maximize healthspan. My recommendations for what supplements to take are based on discoveries in recent years to extend healthspan, reducing the risk for dementia, osteoporosis, macular degeneration, sarcopenia, cancer, heart disease, loss of energy, etc.
Lifespan is how many years we experience between birth and death. The average lifespan of people, life expectancy, rose dramatically during the 20th century.
RECENT HISTORY OF THE INCREASE IN LIFE EXPECTANCY AT BIRTH (source)
| Year | Life Expectancy |
| 1900 | 47 |
| 1950 | 68 |
| 1990 | 75 |
| 2000 | 77 |
| 2004 | 78 |
INCREASE AT AGE 65
| Year | Life Expectancy |
| 1950 | 14 |
| 1990 | 17 |
| 2000 | 18 |
| 2004 | 19 |
“However, the physiologic functions and health status of persons who are 50 to 60 years old are very different from those of persons who are 80 to 90. Although much more research still needs to be done, estimating RDAs for older adults by extrapolating from data collected in younger people is no longer appropriate. A growing body of scientific literature and human studies with elderly subjects provides ample evidence today for altered nutrient requirements with aging.” Nutrition Today, Sept-Oct, 1992 by Jeffrey B. Blumberg
Healthspan is a different measure – how long we are healthy enough to really enjoy being alive. For healthspan, our nutritional concerns must address both short term deficiencies like scurvy and long term chronic damage like macular degeneration. Most people do not enjoy the prospect of being bedridden and blind for many years when they reach old age. Nutrition began primarily to extend the healthspan of soldiers, which led to the RDAs. Now called Daily Values, these levels of nutrients will prevent short term nutritional deficiency diseases like rickets and scurvy. With the new millennium, the Food and Nutrition Board began setting an Upper Limit (UL) on nutrients. These are levels that may be hazardous when taken regularly. The nutrition level needed to get the maximum healthspan is somewhere between the Daily Value and the Upper Limit.
The goal of Nutrition Investigator is to help people achieve the maximum healthspan based on current nutrition research.
