Everyone wants to live longer. It is one of the most deeply rooted instincts of mankind. Everyone wants to live a life of usefulness and abundance, free of disease and unhappiness. As we grow older, we look forward even more anxiously to increasing our lifespan. We want time to enjoy our achievements, time still to make plans. By the time we reach 60 we realize with the great French painter Gauguin that “life is a split second.” We begin to think about all the things we still want to do before we reach our seventieth year. If we are fortunate enough to pass our seventieth birthday, we wonder whether we can’t live even longer—perhaps to be 80, 90, or even 100.

Well, why can’t we? We are living much longer than did our ancestors a century ago. We have added 20 years to the average life expectancy in America since 1900.

Advances in medical science have outlawed many dis-eases. These golden years are ours because of advances made by tireless research in medical science and people are living healthier lives. Thanks to the new knowledge provided by recent research, we no longer need fear the ravages of such diseases as diphtheria, scarlet and typhoid fever, syphilis and—to a great extent— tuberculosis. All these pestilences, however, were caused by those invisible but ever-present enemies of health—germs.

Today the picture has changed. We live a healthier and longer life, isn’t it great!

This entry was posted on Friday, November 17th, 2006 at 4:19 pm and is filed under Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.