I remember discussions a couple years ago here on Hacker News of the original 2012 article from the New England Journal of Medicine.[1] A lot of health discussi

I remember discussions a couple years ago here on Hacker News of the original 2012 article from the New England Journal of Medicine.[1] A lot of health discussions here on Hacker News badly need historical perspective like this, as prevalent causes of death in the United States (and other developed countries) have changed enormously during the lifetimes of my aunts and uncles (two of whom are still living in their own homes without expensive medical support in their nineties). Scientific American ran a good article, "How We All Will Live to Be 100,"[2] that same year on the huge gains in longevity that have been achieved by reductions in disease burden. Official health statistics show that life expectancy has been increasing at age 40, at age 60, at age 65, and even at age 80[3] quite steadily throughout my lifetime and throughout your lifetime. We may outlive a few of today's common causes of death if these trends keep up. [1] http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1113569 http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1113569 [2] http://www.nature.com/scientificamerican/journal/v307/n3/full/scientificamerican0912-54.html http://www.nature.com/scientificamerican/journal/v307/n3/ful... [3] http://www.nature.com/scientificamerican/journal/v307/n3/box/scientificamerican0912-54_BX1.html http://www.nature.com/scientificamerican/journal/v307/n3/box...