
 |
|
May 22, 2013
John Thorne:
They launched the 'Arab Spring' but now yearn for the good old days of a strongman
May 20, 2013
Richard A. Serrano: Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man?
Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star
The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting
May 13, 2013
Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation
David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church
May 10, 2013
Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be
May 8, 2013
Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas
Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate
Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility
May 6, 2013
May 3, 2013
Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine
April 29, 2013
Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust
Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?
Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA
April 26, 2013
Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty
April 24, 2013
|
| |
Jewish World Review
March 1, 2013/ 19 Adar, 5773
72 as the new 30
By
Betsy Hart
| 
|
|
|
| |
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Well, just in time.
I'm learning that "72 is the new 30," according to research published by German scientists in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S.
I say "just in time" because I'm facing a big birthday in April myself.
The researchers found that human longevity since the beginning of the 20th century has skyrocketed at a pace that far exceeds anything seen in the previous millennia.
According to researchers for the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, for some 8,000 generations human-life expectancy stayed roughly the same, about 30 years. Only in the last four generations has it really begun to take off. Now it's as high as 72.
Though we've long known that life spans have increased over the last century, it's not been so clearly quantified before. "The reduction in human mortality over the past century really is biologically unique. No other species has experienced anything like it," said Oskar Burger, a lead researcher on the study.
As Dr. Burger explained it to me, as far back as 1840 the life expectancy of a newborn in the West was rising at about three months per year. But, of course, in 1840 life expectancies were so low to begin with that the difference wasn't obvious until the turn of the century. As he told me, "around 1900 something really different started happening."
By the way, that trend of three months of life expectancy being added each year continues, and, according to Burger and his colleagues, there is no strong evidence that this increase in life expectancy has reached any upper limit.
Burger points out that this has little to do with genetics, but with advances in medication, nutrition and so on. One real-life example of this is that current populations of hunter-gatherers, tribes living without the benefits of those in industrialized nations, have not experienced these increases in longevity like the Japanese and the Swedes have, the first-world nations that researchers focused on in the study.
Here's what I love about all this: Extended life spans, and the greater health we experience for longer in our life spans, haven't just happened in spite of industrialization and Western ways of living; for the most part, it's happened because of them.
The very things that so many of my liberal friends denigrate are the very things that make life so livable for those of us fortunate enough to be aging in the first world. Pesticides, processed foods and industrialized farming make nutritious food affordable and available. Wealth created by free markets -- which, yes, results in big houses, big cars and sometimes vast differences in living standards -- also provides the means to clean up pollution. It's no accident that in so many first-world countries, air and water are cleaner now than they were decades ago. Clean water alone is credited with some of the longevity increase. For example, diarrhea is a nuisance in the West, but, often caused by parasites in dirty water, is a leading killer of children elsewhere.
Drug companies' profits on effective pharmaceuticals provide a financial cushion to offset losses on drugs they worked on that don't turn out so well. The fossil-fuel industry provides cheap, available fuel for ... well, so much that makes our lives better and easier and healthier than was the case a century ago. For that matter, an advanced, service-based economy means that people aren't doing as much difficult manual labor as they once had to do just to put food on the table.
No wonder we are living longer.
Meanwhile, for me, it's marvelous timing to find out about this research. I'm happy for the gains in longevity. I'm thrilled that if 72 is the new 30, this means that sometime in April I'll be turning about 20.
if (strpos(, "printer_friendly") === 0)
{}
else {
=<<Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
| BUY THE E-BOOK FOR $0.99 |
|
Click HERE to purchase it. (Sales help fund JWR.). |
|
JWR contributor Betsy Hart, a frequent commentator on CNN and the Fox News Channel, can be reached by clicking here.
Betsy Hart Archives
© 2012, Scripps Howard News Servic
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Christine Flowers
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
A. Barton Hinkle
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ch. Krauthammer
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Greg Schwem
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Lenore Skenazy
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Ben Stein
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
ZeitGeist
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Lisa Benson
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
John Branch
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
Matt Davies
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Walt Handelsman
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
David Horsey
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Jimmy Margulies
Jack Ohman
Michael Ramirez
Rob Rogers
Drew Sheneman
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Scott Stantis
Danna Summers
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters
Dan Wasserman

Tech Q&A
Mr. Know-It-All
Ask Doctor K
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
|