this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2024

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238

Don’t expect human life expectancy to grow much more, researcher says (apnews.com)

submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

51 comments fedilink hide all child comments

"The U.S. is more problematic because it is harder hit by a range of issues that kill people even before they hit old age, including drug overdoses, shootings, obesity and inequities that make it hard for some people to get sufficient medical care."

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[–] [email protected] 70 points 3 days ago (4 children)

I had two grandmother's who made it to 95. One passed earlier this year. The other is still doing great, though starting to slow down.

The one who passed essentially spent the last several years wishing it was over. Mentally she was still there but her body was failing her. She could barely see or hear. She also had no balance. Essentially, she was a prisoner in her body. She repeatedly told people that she wished it was over.

My other grandmother is still doing as well as can be expected, both cognitively and physically. She is still active doing huge crafting projects and winning competitions. Even so, she has made it very clear that she is ready to go whenever it's her time. All of her friends are gone. She has outlived every family member her generation as well as one of her children. She spends most of her time at home doing the same things day after day. Friends and family visit sometimes but not often enough. She can't travel anymore so she has to wait for others to come to her.

Based on my two grandmothers' experiences, I honestly think old age should be considered to be a terminal disease where we offer "compassionate care" as a dignified option.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 days ago

My great grandma spent the last three years of her life almost immobile from several consecutive strokes, almost blind from several problems she developed over the years, couldn't smell or taste anything. She was basically dying in slo-mo. Everything failed on her.

The last months she essentially spent in a constant shit puddle, because here intestines somehow decided not to work properly anymore.

It's horrible and inhumane to let people suffer like that. Every diseased stray dog gets more mercy.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago

My grandma was the same as your grandmother, who passed away. She wished and waited for death ever since she turned 90; she was overall okay, but she was still in a lot of pain and was practically blind in one eye, and the other was going as well.

She at least died in a peaceful sleep, so she didn't have to live through anymore pain than she had to.

My condolences for your grandmas death, and more power to your other grandma!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Due to his dementia, my dad went from being a professor emeritus who was still writing books to someone in a nursing home, barely able to do 20-piece jigsaw puzzles within a very short time. And if he knew what was going to happen and could have been offered euthanasia, I would hope he would have taken it as an option. It was such an undignified way to die.

And the dementia care facility was a very long drive away (90 minutes for me, an hour for my mom), so we weren't even with him when he died.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago

About a year ago I asked the grandmother who recently passed away whether she would want euthanasia. Despite being a devout Christian who firmly believed that suicide is a sin, she said "Yes, absolutely". She said that she didn't consider it to be suicide at that point. She felt that she had lived her full life, given what she could to the world, and was now only detracting from the world by burdening others.

Personally, I don't belive that she was detracting from the world, even in her state, but she was obviously miserable. Also, maybe her adult children who were taking care of her would have seen it differently since caring for her really put restrictions on their lives.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Do you want to be fully conscious when you die, or not really aware it's happening?

It's a complicated question.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago

It's definitely complicated. And I also think it would depend on the context of my death. If I were in a lot of pain or discomfort, I don't think it would matter to me whether or not I was fully conscious.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

The last 4 years were like that for my father. Couldn't see, couldn't hear, couldn't walk, ate only for survival not enjoyment. It was a miserable existence, he said himself the last time I saw him. His brain was still totally functional. My mother kept him alive by being a 24/7 in home nurse. He almost died right before the pandemic but she saved his ass.

[–] DudeImMacGyver 61 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, I fully expect it to go down the way things are going.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 3 days ago (2 children)

It's cause of the vaccines!

some ignorant dipshit lowering the average lifespan by dying to a preventable disease

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago

"Damn you, entirely preventable smallpox!"

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

And of course:

This will teach those karens to stop being bitches, and to go back to the kitchen and make 6-7 kids, as they should!

~ some weirdo incel

[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 days ago

I expect it to continue dropping.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

and inequities that make it hard for some people to get sufficient medical care.

Thanks, republicans! Your constant efforts to deny people the dignity of a life well lived is really something!

[–] [email protected] 32 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Seeing as our bodies start falling apart well before we die in many cases, I wouldn’t want it to keep extending.

[–] booly 8 points 3 days ago

I think a big part of the problem is that quality of life is correlated with longevity. Some people start having health issues in their 40s and die in their 60s. Others start having health issues in their 70s and die in their 80s.

And so the question becomes whether maximizing high quality years adds to the low quality years, or not. And so the question might not be about extending life itself, but about extending healthy years.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago

Yeah, i expect I'll want off this ride by 70-75 (assuming I make it that far)

[–] [email protected] 32 points 3 days ago (2 children)

That's alright, so long as quality of life in later years improves.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

As the population in Western countries age without younger people to replace it, and take care of the elderly, I'm going to guess the opposite will happen.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (8 children)

They'll just import people in from around the world to replace lagging birthrate.

Overall birthrate is expected to peak around 2080 so there's still plenty of time to shuffle people around!

In Canada we used to have a serious immigration policy that was part of the Canadian identity, and now we're literally flooding the country with people almost exclusively from 1-2 countries with no qualifications required.

The workforce collectively lost significant bargaining leverage as millions of desperate people continue to saturate job markets and suppress wages.

Plenty of jobsites have no oversight regarding certification, so even educated people lose out because it's cheaper to train a desperate person on the job and pay them next to nothing/under the table instead of hiring an educated workforce with labor rights and who expect a wage that reflects their abilities.

For what it's worth, I know plenty of educated people who are awful at their jobs too. This isn't anti-immigration, it's acknowledgement that immigration is being used to suppress everyone's wages to the exclusive benefit of employers.

So even if all the Western countries get border walls with 100% coverage and catch rates, western governments everywhere will happily throw open the gates for cheap labour regardless of public opinion

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

This doesn't sound real to me.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

They'll just import people in from around the world to replace lagging birthrate.

I didn't realize I was going back in time. What year is it? I'd like to make a few investments.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

Anti-immigration is always protectionism, and hinges on the fact that people tend to like people they know more than people they don’t.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

I think as long as we continue to develop newer and better medicinal techniques, we'll reach the point where we can keep our bodies together long enough to enjoy old age as much as we do middle age.

I see a lot of really cool medical advancements on the horizon from regrowing natural teeth all the way to literal "reverse aging" of brain cells, none of which are going to grant us immortality or multi-century lifespans, but will probably make it so that we can go into the twilight years with less pain and more cognitive function than our ancestors who had to endure the agony without being able to die in dignity.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

There was a Heinlein book where, to fight overpopulation on earth, they declared people over 65 legally dead and hence the worst you could be charged with for killing one was littering. I think about that a lot.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 days ago (4 children)

Poor Ray Kurzweil. He'll be so disappointed at the moment before his death.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I wish I had never read his stupid book that gave me stupid false hope for the stupid future.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I don't know which stupid book, because he's written multiple stupid books, but I love the fact that 20 years ago, he wrote a book called "The Singularity is Near" and this year, he put out a book called, "The Singularity Is Nearer: When We Merge with AI."

I assume if he does happen to live another 20 years, "The Singular Is Nearerer" will come out.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

Yeah I was talking about “the Singularity is Near”

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Im not familiar with him, but looking him up Im guessing youre mentioning him for promoting life extension research? Honestly Im not sure if what this article is talking about is even that relevant to that idea. Obviously you cant extend life indefinitely by merely trying to cure each type of common age related illness as it comes up, eventually the body is just too weak and easy to damage to keep it running. To actually extend life far beyond the current maximum you'd need to find a means to reverse the root cause of aging itself rather than just trying to patch the symptoms indefinitely

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

Kurzweil has been predicting human immortality via one type of technology or other for decades now. When one doesn't pan out, he switches to another. As long as his "I'm going to be immortal" prediction is part of it.

He's also made a lot of money selling "longevity" supplements. I'm not going to name the company to help him out. It's easily found.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It's ok he eats 1000 vitamins a day that has to count for something

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago

Expensive pee is something I guess. most vitamins your body pees away any excess. The exctptions you need to be careful to not overdose on.

[–] explodicle 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

He'd agree that humanity is hitting a limit.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I'm talking about his whole thing about wanting to live forever.

[–] explodicle 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yeah but he doesn't want to live forever as a human. He wants to get mind uploaded and become a post-human.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

That's his newest idea, yes. Although that doesn't stop him from hawking supplement pills that he claims will make you live longer.

[–] explodicle 2 points 3 days ago

He was pitching that idea at least in the early 2000s.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago

Thank god...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I'm sure the wealthy will find a few more years to squeeze out somewhere.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Turns out the richest people in the US has the same life expectancy as the poorest people in the UK.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I'm pretty sure it's about the really rich, not just the top 10%.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

Yeah, Dick Cheney has been on borrowed time since during his VP when he spent a while without a pulse and using a mechanical pump after his OG heart died.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Are they saying the US is not going to significantly lower the rate of overdoses, shootings, obesity, and inequity in the foreseeable future? 15% of Hong Kongers reach 100 years old, the rest of the world could definitely catch up to that.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 days ago

15% of Hong Kongers reach 100 years old

Nah: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3281420/why-it-might-be-time-scientists-focus-keeping-people-healthy-longer?utm_source=perplexity

Between 4% and 12%, depends if you're male or female.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 days ago

Please move it to here.

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