It's not the medical care, but early nutrition that gives us longer, healthier lives concludes the Assistant Village Idiot.
He reviews Robert Fogel's The Escape from Hunger and Premature Death 1700-2100.
All of this is not very new information, though it has yet to penetrate the popular imagination as much as it should. Fogel's contribution to all this is to insist that it is the consistent nutrition, not improved medical care, that has extended life expectancy. Early or even prenatal "nutritional trauma" is strongly implicated in late-life medical difficulties. Diabetes, respiratory illness, cardiac conditions, genitourinary conditions - all these are cause more by early malnutrition than medical care throughout life.
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Among the more dramatic statistics: Males after age 50 today have on average slightly more than one serious medical condition, such as hypertension, COPD, diabetes. In 1910, males after age 50 had six of these, on average. Those who reached 50 could often expect to reach 63-66, but they were uncomfortable, painful, inactive years.
I'd have to say I mostly agree. Of course we do have antibiotics and childhood vaccines now that save many lives that would have been lost in earlier times. But on the whole, I think better, more available food has done more to improve health and give a better quality of life, than just about anything else.
Posted by: Teresa at January 9, 2007 11:17 PM