When will you die?
Understanding what influences our life expectancy.
Each of us as humans has wondered at one point or another how long am I going to live?
While I don’t have a definite answer neither for you nor for myself, I can try to make you more educated about what determines our life expectancy.
A humble REQUEST — Even if you don’t read the full article please read the last few lines.
Life Expectancy : Changing trends
If you would have asked me in the 19th and early 20th century about what determines how long you are going to live, my answer would be whether or not you contact any infectious diseases like tuberculosis, whooping cough, dysentery, cholera and a hundred others in the list.
But this trend started to change in the 1930s. Western world, i.e., the US and Europe, saw an accelerated development in the healthcare with mortality due to these infectious diseases coming down rapidly. The Western world started to see a rise in the development of chronic diseases like cancer, hypertension, and diabetes further leading to complications like heart attack and stroke.
On the other hand, underdeveloped as well as developing countries including India along with other southeast asian countries as well as Africa still have a lot of mortality burden due to these infectious diseases though we are trying to eradicate them and have achieved tremendous success from where we started.
Role of inheritance
Before we conducted some groundbreaking research, a lot of weightage was given to the role of genetics in deciding how long our hearts are going to beat. But it came out from various studies whose results were published in the 1950s that our genes only have around 10–12% contribution in deciding our life expectancy, which was way less than what we expected.
Other factors associated with your birth, including which place you are born and how wealthy your parents are, decide your access to good healthcare, which is pivotal in modern society in determining your life longevity.
Your control over your life years
As we have already established that the role of genetics in deciding your life expectancy is very limited. And if you have good access to healthcare, you are probably not going to die due to any communicable disease like people used to 100 years ago.
So, we have a lot more control over how long we are going to live than we think.
Here are some of the examples among many that you can decide to choose on a daily basis to make sure you live a long life.
- Eating healthy — Obviously, it is the most important choice we make on a daily basis at least three times a day. There is no harm in eating what your heart is craving now and then, but make sure that you only consume healthy natural products most of the time over years.
- Exercising — No one is asking you to get that abs or run 10 miles a day, but there should always be some time allocated for exercise whichever way you like it within your week if not daily. The impact that it creates over the years is just too much.
- Limiting alcohol — Try to limit your intake. I am not saying don’t. It your choice, but always be mindful of how much and how often.
- Quit smoking — You should definitely slowly and gradually try to quit smoking. Take your time, but do it. PLEASE. I can’t say it enough. When you ask hundreds of cardiologists, the one thing they would never do in life after seeing all the patients they all answer smoking. I hope this drives the message home. And obviously, if you have never smoked, never start.
- Go to the doctor — I know you feel like I’m trying to promote my and my kins business, but I’m not. Don’t only visit a doctor when you fall ill and you can’t get up from the bed. Obviously, then you will have to. But also do regular health checkups irrespective of how old you are. Because with the advancement in medicine we would usually have some solution for the most of you. It’s just that you come when the damage has already been done.
I would just like to conclude by saying that you try your best to make sure you live a long life. But try better to make sure you live a good life.
A life in which you fall in love, where you are loved, and you love others even more , a life that makes lives of others better. Because in bollywood, we say “Zindagi badi honi chaiye, lambi nahi” translating to “Your life should be a great one, not a long one”.
Stay happy.
Stay healthy.
