[extropy-chat] life expectancy

[Mike Lorrey]

--- BillK <bill at wkidston.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
> On Sun Nov 30, 2003 03:38 pm Damien Broderick queried:
> >
> > Bill, I'm still trying to make sense of this. After you exclude the
> > wild and dangerous life style of Canadian women, their life 
> > expectancy *drops* from 81.4 years to 73.5? I guess that the latter
> > figure is for the entire living female population, or more exactly
> > that the former figure is for girl babies born between 1997 and
> 1999, does 
> > that sound right?
> >
> 
> Yeh, confusing isn't it? :)
> Even when you read it in the full report it still seems likely to
> confuse.

Depends. For example, while pregnancy is itself a mortality risk
factor, NOT having a child prior to age 25 raises a womans risk of
breast and cirvical cancer considerably. While not having kids might be
considered "reducing risk", in the end you are increasing your risk.
It's one of those counter-intuitive things that goes against
conventional wisdom, like moderate drinking is life extending and being
slightly overweight is better than being obese OR underweight for life expectancy.

=====
Mike Lorrey
"Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils."
                                       - Gen. John Stark
"Fascists are objectively pro-pacifist..."
                                       - Mike Lorrey
Do not label me, I am an ism of one...
Sado-Mikeyism: http://mikeysoft.zblogger.com

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