The big killers aren't killing us as young, but our lifestyles are wearing out our parts faster.
Can you explain? Sedentary lifestyles? Do you mean *disuse* or atrophy are wearing out our parts?
Aside from cancer, which is primarily a disease of the aged.
Disuse, use, diet, smoking, alcohol, other drugs, chronic inflammation, etc, etc.
I remember having an "aha" moment with my sports medicine doctor when a CT scan of my injured shoulder revealed degeneration in my upper spine, I was 33.
I asked "should I be concerned?"
And he said "not really, that's normal for your age and how much you exercise"
I said "are you saying that my moderate level of exercise is damaging my spine?"
Him "yep, it's normal wear and tear, especially when there's weight lifting involved"
Me "just to be clear, this would be better if I didn't lift weights?"
Him "absolutely?"
Me "So should I stop lifting weights?"
Him "Oh definitely not, your spine will wear out a lot faster in a different way if you don't do weight bearing exercise"
Me "So it's a matter of choosing the lifestyle that wears out my spine the slowest?"
Him "Pretty much"
Life wears out all of your parts, your bones, yours joints, your circulatory system, and your organs.
Also, I would say that your assessment that cancer is primarily a disease of the aged is not quite accurate. Many many many of my younger patients have had cancer. I got cancer at 28, DH at 41.
Sure, more people get cancer older, but that's just because everyone will get cancer if they live long enough. I always say, the number one cause of cancer is failing to die of anything else first. People develop a lot more cancer cells than they realize, but the immune system deals with them first. It's just a matter of time before one of those gets past the goalie though, especially since T cell function worsens over time as well.
Yep! The immune system itself wears out.
Hearts get enlarged, blood vessels get stiffer, pancreases can stop working properly, gallbladders can get sludgy or get stones, as can kidneys, uteruses fall right out of vaginas, cartilage degrades, bones turn to Swiss cheese, nerves get inflamed, brains get all sorts of problems, vision degrades, skin thins and dries out, etc, etc
I did the first two years of med school and one by one, we went over each component of the body and how it breaks down over time. Basically, you hit 25 and then it's just a race against time trying to slow the breakdown of every single part of you.
Getting old isn't something that happens to old people, it starts in their 20s and is heavily modulated by lifestyle in middle age. With our population having an epidemic of midlife habits that promote chronic inflammation, it's not really looking good on the wear and tear front.
I see very very few optimally healthy middle age patients. I even get a little excited when I see a good blood pressure reading. I'm regularly seeing elevated blood pressures in late 20s patients.