Longer lifespans: A coming crisis or reason to celebrate?

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  • A huge segment of America's population — the Baby Boom generation — is aging and will live longer than any American generation in history.
  • The story we read about in the news? Their drain on social services like Social Security and Medicare.
  • But increased longevity is a cause for celebration, says Ashton Applewhite, not doom and gloom.


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Videos

Dietary supplements don't reduce mortality rates, Tufts researchers say

Vitamins do work — when eaten in whole foods, not pills.

Vitamins supplements on display in a drugstore or pharmacy. Reduced price makes them even more attractive. (Photo by Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket via Getty Images)
  • A new study at Tufts University discovered that a variety of supplements do not extend life and can even be dangerous.
  • High doses of vitamin D and calcium were linked to higher rates of cancer and all-cause mortality.
  • Benefits of the vitamins and nutrients were discovered in eating whole foods, not taken in pill or powder form.
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Surprising Science

Where you live in America determines when you’ll die

Two maps show two very different takes on the huge discrepancies in U.S. life expectancy

Image: Titlemax
  • These maps show strong links between location and life expectancy.
  • Hawaiians live longest, Mississippians die earliest.
  • County-level ranking shows short-life hotspots in Kentucky, long-life ones in Colorado.
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Strange Maps

Is this why time speeds up as we age?

We take fewer mental pictures per second.

Photo by Djim Loic on Unsplash
  • Recent memories run in our brains like sped-up old movies.
  • In childhood, we capture images in our memory much more quickly.
  • The complexities of grownup neural pathways are no match for the direct routes of young brains.
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Mind & Brain

The unexpected cost of living for a very long time

100 years ago, you could expect to live to 54. Our luxurious, 80-year-long lives come at a cost.

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  • Medical advances have increased our longevity by decades, says Michael Dowling, president and CEO of Northwell Health. That benefit comes with an unintended disadvantage – high costs.
  • Bringing the overall cost of health care down is near impossible, as an increased life expectancy brings new diseases and procedures with it.
  • Reducing the out-of-pocket cost is a separate issue, however. It is possible and necessary to lower costs so they don't become a barrier to people seeking care.
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