How To Buy Time
Welcome
Is human life expectancy increasing? Are new medical advancements the cause? Does money buy medicine? Can someone buy time?
This interactive website is a platform for my theory and a guide for buying time.
Is Human Life Expectancy Increasing?
According to the World Health Organization and the Population Reference Bureau, life expectancy is increasing.
"Globally, life expectancy has increased by more than 6 years between 2000 and 2019 – from 66.8 years in 2000 to 73.4 years in 2019". Using this rate of a 6.6 year increase every 9 years, Human life expectancy should be nearly 100 years in the year 2055.
The Population Reference Bureau suggests a different rate of increase. "Humans are living longer than ever before. In fact, newborn children in high-income countries can expect to live to more than 100 years... and life expectancy is increasing by an average of six hours a day.
Despite a disagreement in rate of increase, these two leading sources, along with many others, suggest the same thing:
Human life expectancy is increasing.
Take a Look at this Video
Population Reference Bureau President, Bill Butz talks with Dr. James Vaupel
Yes, Human life expectancy is increasing
But, why?
Medical Advancements
According to multiple sources, medical advancements are the leading cause for increased human life expectancy. The Health Care Institute of New Jersey says that, "Collectively, new therapies have been among the greatest contributors to increased life expectancy over the past century." The Helenic Journal of Cardiology, remarks in their peer reviewed article that, "Because of progress in medicine, life expectancy has increased..."
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U.S. life expectancy at birth has risen from 47 years at the turn of the 20th century to 78 years today.
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Between 1980 and 2017, medical technology advancements helped add five years to life expectancy in the U.S.
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New therapies accounted for 73 percent of the increased life expectancy in 30 developing and high-income countries between 2000-09.
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U.S. cancer survivorship alone has more than tripled since 1970, with nearly 16.9 million cancer survivors alive in the country as of January 1, 2019. This number is expected to increase to 22.2 million by 2030.
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As of 2018, the cancer death rate for men and women combined had fallen 31 percent from its peak in 1991. This decline translates to 3.2 million deaths avoided.
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Biopharmaceutical innovation, through improvements in treatment, has contributed to 76 percent of the improvements in mortality rates for HIV/AIDS patients and 60 percent of improvements in life expectancy for breast cancer patients. Heart disease mortality has been improved by 52 percent due to advancements in medicines.
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Because of progress in medicine, life expectancy has increased from approximately 45 years in 1850 to almost 80 years today and will continue to do so.
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Life expectancy has constantly increased by 2.5 years per decade from 1840 to 2002 (Figure 4).4, 20
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Some investigators suggest that humans will almost never get older than 115 years, it should be mentioned that all projections related to life expectancy in the past have been proven wrong.20, 21
Figure 4. Life expectancy from 1840 to 2002. Life expectancy over the last 16 decades has increased by 40 years. This linear relationship is remarkable with an r2 value of 0.992 and a slope of 0.243
Future Medical Advancements
The medical advancements of the last century are, of course, just those of the last century. As technology continues to develop so to do medical advancements. These future medical advancements hold the possibility of not only increasing life expectancy, but doing so at an unprecedented rate. Perhaps the most cutting edge medical advancement, going on right now, is gene editing. If adopted, gene editing will certainly increase life expectancy and perhaps do so at an unprecedented rate.
I spoke with Dr. Jonathan Gorog, a resident radiologist at Brook Army Medical Center, to learn more about gene editing and the technology called CRISPR.
CRISPR
Will everyone have access to CRISPR?
Does everyone have access to medicine?
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Access to medicine depends largely on income and wealth. Variance of these factors also varies medical access
Money & Medicine
Money and medicine are inextricably related. Health care is a monetary industry that operates not only to save lives, but also to make money. The JAMA Network, writes "Many see the pairing of money and medicine as a nonissue, and instead view it as capitalism at its best, with medicine being just another market in which competition reigns supreme." Because health care is a monetary industry, only those with adequate financial resources have access to medicine and likewise, those without adequate financial resources have limited or no access to medicine.
Beyond profit motivations, there is a pragmatic purpose for limited access, which is limited resources. There is a finite number of hospitals, doctors, nurses, MRI machines, antibiotics, vaccines, etc... It would be impossible, based solely on the problem of limited resources, for everyone in need of medical intervention to access it.
The relationship between money & medicine, and the disparity of access to medicine based on wealth and income is neither new nor unfounded.
The Urban Institute writes, "The greater one's income, the lower one's likelihood of disease and premature death. Studies show that Americans at all income levels are less healthy than those with incomes higher than their own. Not only is income (the earnings and other money acquired each year) associated with better health, but wealth (net worth and assets) affects health as well." Urban goes on to say that other disparities are minuscule in comparison to wealth and income. "although blacks and Hispanics have higher rates of disease than non-hispanic whites, these differences are 'dwarfed by the disparities identified between high- and low-income populations within each racial/ ethnic group.'"
This disparity, although evident in America, is much worse from a global perspective. America is a rich and first world country with government subsidized health insurance and hippocratic oaths. However, other nations, for instance third world countries, have far less access to medical care. The World Health Organization reports that,"At least half of the world’s population cannot obtain essential health services...Currently, 800 million people spend at least 10 percent of their household budgets on health expenses for themselves, a sick child or other family member. For almost 100 million people these expenses are high enough to push them into extreme poverty, forcing them to survive on just $1.90 or less a day."
Medical Economics, in their article Wealth Should Not Make Health. Period. sums up the consequences of disparity of access to medicine based on wealth and income in this harsh but honest way, "Chances are, if you’re poor or a member of certain racial, ethnic or socioeconomic groups, you’re much more likely to die younger. You’re also more likely to experience worse health outcomes and suffer more from heart disease, cancer, diabetes and a host of other serious conditions. Poverty and low income are also associated with higher rates of infant mortality and higher death rates for all 14 leading causes of death."
How to Buy Time
The answer to this question may now be clear
The JAMA Network writes, "The association between income and life expectancy, already well established, was detailed in a landmark 2016 JAMA study by Raj Chetty, PhD, of Stanford University, and colleagues. This study found a gap in life expectancy of about 15 years for men and 10 years for women when comparing the most affluent 1% of individuals with the poorest 1%. To put this into perspective, the 10-year life expectancy difference for women is equal to the decrement in longevity from a lifetime of smoking."
So, how does one buy time?
With a lot of money
I'm sure that you have been listening and reading carefully. If you have, then you would have noticed the conclusion foreshadowed several times. The Population Reference Bureau, wrote that "newborn children in high-income countries can expect to live to more than 100 years." In the video, 100 years and beyond... Dr. Vaupel says that life expectancy is longest in high-income nations. The Health Care Institute of New Jersey wrote that "New therapies accounted for 73 percent of the increased life expectancy in 30 developing and high-income countries." These 3 quotes, found throughout my website, foreshadow the conclusion.
Now take this short quiz to estimate your own life expectancy and I ask you, once again, to read it carefully. Pay close attention to what questions are asked.