An interesting article http://earlywarn.blogspot.com/2011/07/us-survival-statistics.html#more discussed marginal returns from medical care. I'd describe the curves shown as "squaring the curve". It's what happens when survival rates for individual illnesses improve, but the underlying problem of the aging process isn't addressed.
Most major causes of death grow exponentially with age - roughly 7% per year. Demographers will tell you that reducing the death rate from any given illness by 50% will give a pretty marginal improvement in overall longevity because the death rate from other things will grow very quickly and replace most of the improvement. In fact, reducing the overall deathrate by 50% would only increase lifespan by about 10 years.
The answer: research aimed at aging itself. This would be much, much more cost effective than trying to hold back the tide of individual illnesses. Unfortunately, drug companies don't want to tackle that - they publicly say so.
Now, is aging curable? Of course. The human body is not supernatural - it's an engineering marvel that can be reverse engineered and understood.
Why do small mammals like mice live 4 years and very similar small mammals like bats live 40 years? Why do some birds live 6 years, and other 60 years? There are obviously very small genetic differences that can be understood and used to develop drugs or genetic treatments.
To believe otherwise is, IMHO, a religious statement.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment