[ExI] [GRG] Olshansky vs. Vaupel Debate

[BillK]

On Wed, Sep 25, 2013 at 5:30 AM, L. Stephen Coles, M.D., Ph.D. wrote:
<snip>
>     Olshansky says the only way to make major improvements in life
> expectancy is to find new ways to prevent and treat the diseases of aging.
> And the most efficient way to do that is to delay the process of aging
> itself. That's something that some people already do - somehow. Olshansky
> says, "The study of the genetics of long-lived people, I think, is going to
> be the breakthrough technology." Scientists can now easily extend lifespan
> in flies, worms, and mice, and there's a lot of exciting research on genetic
> pathways in humans that might slow down the aging process and presumably
> protect us from the age-related diseases that kill most people today. "The
> secret to longer lives is contained in our own genomes," Olshansky says.
>
>

If you make the huge medical advance of curing cancer completely, you
only add about 2.5 years to the population average life expectancy.
This is because cancer is mostly a disease of old age, and old people
are going to die of something else within a few years anyway. To
extend life expectancy significantly you have to cure EVERY disease.
Especially those that affect all age groups. Now that is a really big
step.


BillK