Longevity

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Menstuff® has compiled the following information on Longevity.

Live forever.

Life Expectancy Hits New High - 2005 Data
Condensed from the Government Report by the National Institute on Aging
The Global Disparities in Male Longevity
Staying Young and Living Long
Newsbytes

• The Longevity Game

Condensed from the Government Report by the National Institute on Aging

Long lives always make us wonder: What is the secret? Does it lie in the genes? Is it where people live or the way the live - - something they do or do not do? Eat or do not eat? Most of the scientists who study aging, gerontologists, say the secret probably lies in all of the above - - heredity, environment, and lifestyle.

But gerontologists also ask other and more difficult questions. For example, if the 120 year old had not finally succumbed to illness, could he have lived on and on? Or was he approaching some built-in biological limit? Is there a maximum human life span beyond which we cannot live no matter how optimal our environment or favorable our genes?

Whether or not there is such a limit, what happens as we age? What are the dynamics of this process and how do they make life spans short, average, or long? Once we understand these dynamics, could they be used to extend everyone's life span to 120 or even, as some scientists speculate, to much greater ages?

And finally for all of us, the most important question: How can insights into longevity be used to fight the diseases and disabilities associated with old age to make sure thie period of life is healthy, active, and independent?

Average life span and live expectancy in the United States have grown dramatically in this century, from about 47 years in 1900 to about 75 years in 1990. This advance is mostly due to improvements in sanitation, the discovery of antibiotics, and medical care. Now, as scientists make headway against chronic diseases like cancer and heart disease, some think it can be extended even further.

U.S. Life Expectancy
Year	Male	Female	Difference
1900	48.2	51.1	2.9
1940	60.8	65.2	4.4
1950	65.6	71.1	5.5
1960	66.6	73.3	6.7
1970	67.1	74.7	7.6
1980	70.0	77.4	7.4
1990	71.8	78.8	7.0
1994	72.4	79.0	6.6
2004	75.7*	80.8*	5.1

Source: Dept of Health and Human Services
* White males/females click here for this report

Maximum human life span seems to be another matter. There is no evidence that it has changed for thousands of years despite fabled fountains of youth and biblical tales of long-lived patriarchs. However, very recently, the dream of extending life span has shifted from legend to laboratory. As gerontologists explore the genes, cells, and organs involved in aging, they are uncovering more and more of the secrets of longevity. As a result, life extension may now be more than the stuff of myth and the retardation of disease and disability, realistic goals.

Hormones

In 1989, at Veterans Administration hospitals in Milwaukee and Chicago, a small group of men aged 60 and over began receiving injections three times a week that dramatically reversed some signs of aging. The injections increased their lean body (and presumably muscle) mass, reduced excess fat and thickened skin. When the injections stopped, the men's new strength ebbed and signs of aging returned.

What the men were taking was recombinant human growth hormone (GH), a synthetic version of the hormone that is produced in the pituitary gland and plays a critical part in normal childhood growth and development. Now the researchers are learning that GH, or the declind of GH, seems also to play a role in the aging process in at least some individuals.

The idea that hormones are linked to aging is not new. We have long known that some hormones decline with age. Human growth hormone levels decrease in about half of all adults with the passage of time. Production of the sex hormones estrogen and testosterone tends to fall off. Hormones with less familiar names, like melatonin and thymosin, are also not as abundant in older as in younger adults.

Frontiers

New territory, unexplored or only sketchily mapped, lies ahead. As gerontologists isolate and characterize more and more longevity - and aging-related genes in laboratory animals, insights into genes and gene products important in human aging will emerge. Comparable human genes will be identified and mapped to chromosomes.

This information will be useful in designing both genetic and non-genetic interventions to slow or even reverse some aging-related changes. Already, for example, a study by Helen Blau of Stanford University has shown that muscle cells can be geretically modified and injected into muscle where they will produce and secrete human growth hormone. Non-genetic strategies will include the development of interventions to reduce damage to cellular components, such as proteins, nucleic acids, and lipids.

Normal aging will be more closely defined. For instance, at NIA's Gerontology Research Center, the behavior of the cells that line blood vessels during aging is now providing clues to the stiffening of blood vessels that occurs with age as well as insights into vascular disease. As key biomarkers of aging are identified, researchers will be able to use them to test interventions to slow aging. Studies will begin to delve more deeply into differences in aging between the sexes and among ethnic groups.

In short, gerontologists will be charting the paths ans intersections of genetic, biochemical, and physiologic aging. What they find will reveal some of the secrets of aging. It may lead to extended life spans. It will very certainly contribute to better health, less disability, and more independence in the second fifty years of life.
Source: http://www.healthlinkusa.com/xgetpage.asp?http://www.epilot.com/clickCache_New.asp?keyword=life+expectancy&sub=healthlink&pub=elb&rid=0&sid=700&ttype=24&kid=2EF607A8-B827-4994-8CC5-E7F86B785427&epilotpos=1&searchid=C66C7EE7-3088-48DE-B989-587C461D74D6&b=336&c=700&pubusecache=1&pos=1&link=http:%2F%2Fwww.originalghr15.com%2Fsecrets.html

The Global Disparities in Male Longevity

The World Health Report, published every year by the World Health Organization (WHO), is the most authoritative source of information on life expectancy and mortality patterns in every country around the world. The most recent World Health Report summarizes the number of male and female deaths (reference 1):

This table shows that for all three major categories of death, males are at greater risk of death.

Suicide, a subcategory of injuries, also contributes to the mortality imbalance. A recent WHO publication reports that globally, the suicide rate for males is 24.0/100,000, compared to 3.5/100,000 for females. The report concludes, "The rate of suicide is almost universally higher among men compared to women by an aggregate ratio of 3.5 to 1" (reference 2).

The lifespan gender gap exists in almost every country in the world. The disparity ranges from 3.8 years in Israel to a disturbing 15.4 years in the Russian Federation (see table)

And this disparity is expected to worsen. According to the WHO Global Burden of Disease study, women's life expectancy is expected to increase to about 90 years by 2020 in industrialized countries. As for men, "far smaller gains in male life expectancy were projected than in females" (reference 3).

The greatest disparities are found in the 15-60 year age group, the years when people are most productive to society. According to the Global Burden of Disease Study, male mortality in this critical age group surpassed female deaths by substantial margins in all eight regions of the world (reference 4).

In the industrialized countries of North America and Europe, there are twice as many male deaths as female deaths among persons 15-60 years old. In the former Soviet countries of eastern Europe, the gender disparity in this age group is greater than 2:1.

The greatest sex-specific disparities in lifespan are to be found in the countries of the former Soviet Union. When the Soviet Union broke apart in 1991, the resulting economic instability had an adverse effect on longevity. Male life expectancy plummeted from about 63.5 years in 1990 to 58 years in 1995. In contrast, female life expectancy dropped by only 2 years during the same period---from about 73.5 to 71.5 years. The drop in male life expectancy was so precipitous that the North American Treaty Organization (NATO) convened a special conference to investigate the causes (reference 5).

It is true that women are more likely to suffer from certain conditions than men, such as osteoporosis and immune disorders. But the loss of life, for which men are at greater risk, must be considered the greatest loss of all. As Mary Robinson, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, recently put it, the right to life is "the most precious of rights."

Men's Health Consistently Lags

All around the world, the lifespan of men lags behind that of women. This generalization applies to the three major categories of death, in virtually every country, and in all age groups.

The disparities of men's health are especially acute for males in the 15-60 year age group, and in the countries of the former Soviet Union.

The condition of men's health is in dire straits.

Source: Department of Health and Human Services: Health, United States, 1998, Table 28.

Contact: Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director-General, World Health Organization Avenue Appia 20, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland. Cost for airmail postage: 80 cents

References:

1. World Health Organization: World Health Report 2001, Annex Table 2, Geneva, Switzerland: WHO, 2001. www.who.int/whr/2001/main/en/annex/ index.htm
2. WHO: The World Health Report 2001: Mental Health: New Understanding, New Hope, chapter 2. www.who.int.whr/2001/main/en/chapter2/002g.htm.
3. Murray CFL, Lopez AD. Alternative projections of mortality and disability by cause 1990-2020: Global Burden of Disease Study, Lancet 1997; Vol. 349, pp. 1498-1504.
4. Murray CFL, Lopez AD. Mortality by cause for eight regions of the world: Global Burden of Disease Study, Lancet 1997; Vol. 349, pp. 1269-1276.
5. Stone R: Stress: The invisible hand in Eastern Europe's death rates. Science 2000; Vol. 288, pp. 1732-1733.

Source: groups.yahoo.com/group/menshealth/message/548

Newsbytes

The Longevity Game

Longevity, n. uncommon extension of the fear of death. - Ambrose Bierce

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