Is Aging Inevitable?
<i>&quot;Over several decades, Vaupel has been the optimist of demography, telling us that somewhere in the world, human lifespan is always continuing to increase, as
it has done since 1840, at the rate of about 1 year of new lifespan for every 4 years that passes. For the first 130 years of this advance, the improvement in lifespan was
predominantly about preventing infant mortality and combatting infectious disease. But since about 1970, lifespan improvements have continued to benefit the elderly.&quot;</i><p>But what kind of life is it?<p>Many elderly have lived miserable, hopeless lives, and when they age not only do they suffer bodily infirmities, but they&#x27;re desperately lonely as for many of them all of their friends and family have died, or they&#x27;ve been abandoned by their families, they have no one to support them, and suffer from mental issues like dementia and depression on top of that.<p>Little wonder that so many of the elderly commit suicide.<p>Not to discourage anti-aging research, but if I had to prioritize I&#x27;d choose focusing on eliminating poverty, improving social safety nets, and building stronger communities.<p>Improving mental health and helping people to live healthier lives while they&#x27;re young so their bodies aren&#x27;t in horrible shape by the time they&#x27;re old would also make for good priorities.