Are We Really Living Longer?

There was an interesting comment in Weston A. Price's latest Wise Traditions Magazine: "Are We Really Living Longer?" "An astute member has sent us some interesting statistics about centenarians [people 100 years old & over]. From a video segment recent aired on Nova, we learn that one 1 in 10,000 Americans will live to age 100. US census data indicates that in 1990 there were an estimated 37,306 centenarians out of 248,709,870 or 1 in 6,721 people. According to numbers compiled at the University of Virginia, in 1830 there were 2,600 centenarians out of 12,866,020 people, or 1 in 4,956, more than twice as many as a percentage of population than there are today. So much for assurances that this generation will live longer than ever."

Don’t buy into the fallacy that we are living longer because of modern medicine. It just simply is not true. It makes us feel better to say it while making our poor diet and lifestyle choices. The better question to ask would be, “Is our quality of life any better?”