The story started in 1977 when Lawrence Golding, a professor of kinesiology at the University of Nevada (now an active 80 year old), started a boot camp style exercise program just for men, held at lunchtime every weekday in one of the campus buildings.

The classes ran for 45 minutes from September through May, There was no music, no equipment, nothing fancy, just Golding calling out instructions at the front of the room. A typical session would include three sets of 50 sit-ups and three sets of 20 push-ups.

The men in the class, all sedentary and white, with most heavier than they should have been, were quick to show improvement. They lost weight and what’s even more impressive is that within the first two to three years, those who were regular attendees did better on tests of flexibility, strength and aerobics than incoming freshman.

Amazingly some of the men, who were between 30 and 51 years old when the class started, stuck with the program for over 20 years. Friendships sprang up and the men encouraged each other… kept each other going.

Today many of these exercisers are grandfathers, but they have cholesterol (more of the good kind, less of the bad) and triglyceride levels that a young person would envy. What’s more, these seniors have aerobic capacity, flexibility and strength enough that their body has yet to show the age related declines you’d expect with advancing years.

According to Golding, those who exercise regularly continue to do the things they could when they were in their 20s.

Many experts agree that exercise is one of the best ways (besides eating right and staying mentally active/socially engaged) to stay healthy and avoid chronic diseases as you get older.

Next to a man keeping his weight at a healthy number, exercise was found to be the most important factor in preventing heart failure according to research published in July 2009 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Among the male study participants who worked out five times (or more) each week, 11% developed heart failure, compared to 14% of those who didn’t exercise.

Staying active isn’t just good for men, women benefit too.

A study appearing in a November 2007 issue of the journal Circulation that involved 27,000 women (average age 55) found that those who exercised were 40% less likely to have a heart attack than those who didn’t.

Here’s the thing, according to Dr. Walter Bortz, a Stanford University School of Medicine professor, the most important organ for an older person is their legs.

With good legs, you’re not as likely to fall and break a hip, your heart stays healthier because you’re up and about, you don’t get frail and your brain stays sharp too. In the end, you end up healthier, spending less on medical bills and prescriptions.

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The Anti-Aging Benefits Of Long Term Exercise… Continued…

In case you’re curious, Bortz is a spry 80-year-old who has written more than one book on aging and exercise, and finished the Boston Marathon this past April in about 7 hours 30 minutes. It was his 40th in as many years.

The best news is that it’s never too late to get started exercising, even if you haven’t been all that active. Age doesn’t matter – even in your late 60s or early 70s you can improve your strength, flexibility and aerobic capacity.

You want to try for at least three half hour workouts a week, though more is always better – but check with you doctor first to be sure exercise is safe for you. The Centers for disease control and Prevention recommend five workouts a week to gain the most benefits from exercise, and this is a goal you might want to work toward.

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There’s even greater variability in the effect of these factors on life expectancy across the U.S. based on where you live, how much money you make or what race you belong to.

Interestingly, these four risk factors are ultimately under our control. While your genetics and age are things you can’t do anything about, whether you smoke and how you manage your weight are under your direct control. What’s more, blood pressure and blood sugar can be controlled by lifestyle choices you make, only if they’re at abnormally high levels is medication needed.

According to the research, these risk factors account for a large part of the difference in life expectancy. One example, Southern rural blacks saw life expectancy fall by 6.7 years among men and 5.7 years among women. Asians saw the smallest reduction in life expectancy, only 4.1 years for men; 3.6 years for women. Asian Americans also had the lowest body mass index, the lowest blood sugar levels and were least likely to be smokers.

The highest blood pressure was in blacks, the lowest in whites. When it came to the highest BMI, this dubious distinction was awarded to two groups, white Western Native American men and Southern low-income rural black women. Those who smoked heaviest were Western Native Americans and low income whites who lived in the Appalachia and Mississippi Valley.

Smoking, high blood pressure, high blood sugar and being overweight or obese make for almost 20% of differences in life expectancy across America according to lead researcher Majid Ezzati. The four risk factors account for a 75% in differences in cardiovascular deaths, up to a 50% in differences in cancer deaths.

Researchers believe that we need to target public health efforts toward the groups who are most at risk.

“These risk factors are cutting life expectancy for any average American,” points out Ezzati, an associate professor of international health at the Harvard School of Public Health. “That number is actually quite larger in some groups than others. It is getting to six or seven years for some of the disadvantaged groups.”

Based on this data examined, the researchers could estimate the number of deaths that might have been prevented if the risk factors were at an optimal number. They looked also at how these optimal levels would improve life expectancy. The report appears in the March 2010 edition of the online journal PLoS Medicine.

In addition, the team then estimated these factors for subgroups in the United States known as the “Eight Americas.” If this is the first you’re hearing these groups, they were defined earlier by the authors as…

1. Asians

2. Northland low-income rural whites

3. Middle America

4. Low-income whites in Appalachia and Mississippi Valley

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How to Add Years To Your Life… Continued…

5. Western Native Americans

6. Black middle America

7. High-risk urban blacks

8. Southern low-income rural blacks

According to the report, if the four risk factors were kept at optimal levels, the increased life expectancy would be:

- Not smoking: 2.5 years for men, 1.8 years for women

- Blood pressure: 1.5 years for men, 1.6 years for women

- Blood sugar: 0.5 years for men, 0.3 years for women

- Obesity: 1.3 years for men, 1.3 years for women

The message is clear about what you need to do to live longer. Stop smoking. Keep your body weight healthy, your blood pressure down and blood sugar levels low. In short living a healthy life adds years. Now it’s up to you.

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Facial expressions are known to be a way to judge emotions… to make a guess at who’s happier and has a more stable personality which is why the researchers examined the photos of 230 Major League Baseball players who started their careers before 1950. Other information that is known to affect longevity had been tracked as part of a longstanding database on the players, things like if they’d gone to college, if they were married, the year of their birth and their body mass index.

Reviewers, who didn’t know the purpose of the study, were asked to rate the player’s smiles on a scale of 1 to 3. One was no smile at all, two was a partial smile, and three was the broad, full smile, the type that crinkles the eyes and makes the face come alive. Those with the most visible smiles had what is known as a Duchenne smile, named for the French neurologist who discovered it. The cheeks and corners of the mouth are up, and some crows-feet wrinkles show up around the eyes.

As of June 1, 2009 all but 46 of the photographed players had died, so the researchers at Wayne looked back to see if smile intensity in pictures was linked to longer life. And it was.

Even after the researchers controlled for variables like marital status, the year of birth and body mass index, the smile-longevity link still held true. The players with the biggest smiles were half as likely to die in a year than those who did not smile.

But, what if you just hate taking pictures? Experts believe this wouldn’t affect the results since there are camera-haters in both happy and unhappy people.

On average, the nonsmilers lived 72.9 years. The partial smilers made it to their 75th birthday. The big smiles brought more years, 79.9 was the life expectancy here.

“People who had the most intense smiles lived the longest, compared to the other two,” explains Ernest L. Abel, a professor at Wayne State. A few examples… Bill Kennedy, a nonsmiler who played for Cincinnati (and other teams) died at 62; Ted Williams who played for Boston was a big smiler, and died at 83.

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Bigger Smiles Mean Longer Lives… Continued…

Stop and think about this.

It is really hard to fake an intense smile, which is the nugget of truth that underlies the thinking of the researchers conducting this study. A more intense smile is a simple demonstration of profound happiness… a more positive mind-set.

Earlier work has linked smile intensity in childhood and college yearbook pictures with later life satisfaction or marriage stability. This makes sense according to Sonja Lyubomirsky, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside, as well as (who knew they had these?) a happiness researcher and author of The How of Happiness. “Most likely, the smiles are an indicator of the baseball players’ dispositions.”

Science does know that those who are happier tend to live longer, and while there is no cause-and-effect evidence, there is solid support for the idea that happiness… simple joy in life does predispose people to living longer. Probably better too.

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Earlier work has shown that patients with heart disease who have a high intake of omega-3s have higher survival rates, and this new study sought to explain why this might be.

“We’ve shown an entirely new effect of omega-3 fatty acids, which may be to slow down the biological aging process in patients with coronary heart disease,” explains lead author Ramin Farzaneh-Far, MD, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of California San Francisco.

Farzaneh-Far and the team looked at a marker of biological age – shortening of telomeres, the structures at the end of a chromosome that are involved with its replication and stability.

Experts believe that as telomeres shorten, the eventual result is the death of the cell. In earlier work by the team, the telomere length of heart disease patients was a powerful predictor of death and bad outcomes. The shorter the telomeres, the greater risk of death.

For the study, the researchers evaluated 608 outpatients in California who had stable heart disease and had been recruited from the Heart and Soul Study.

At the start of the study and at the five-year point, blood samples were taken and evaluated for omega-3 fatty acid levels. DNA from the blood allowed researchers to look at the length of the telomere of the leukocyte, a type of blood cell. The subjects were followed up until January 2009.

“Patients with the lowest blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids exhibited a rate of telomere shortening 2.6 times faster than patients with the highest levels of omega-3 fatty acids,” Farzaneh-Far tells online medical resource WebMD. And while no one has enough information to convert telomere length to years of aging, experts suspect omega-3 might be one of many influences on the length of telomeres – others being inflammation, obesity, oxidative stress and lack of activity.

Would lots of omega-3s in the blood help a patient with heart disease? Experts can’t say for sure.

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Omega-3s Slow Aging Continued…

There was no association between omega-3 fatty acid levels and telomere length back in September 2000 and December 2002 when the study began. But by the end of the follow up period the team saw the higher the blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids in the subjects, the slower the rate of telomere shortening.

Of course this is exciting news, demonstrating how sources of omega-3s work at a cellular level. One day your doctor might even be able to conduct a test that examines your telomere length with an eye to predicting your risk of heart disease.

Whether you’re a heart disease patient or not, this research might have you wondering what to do about omega-3s?

The American heart Association recommends a gram a day of omega-3 fatty acid for those who do have heart disease. Look for natural dietary sources like oily fish (salmon, mackerel, albacore tuna) or supplements.

If you don’t have heart disease, the AHA suggests you eat a variety of fish at least two times a week, as well as trying to add more healthy oils like canola, soybean and flaxseed to your cooking.

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And while being active is important to young people, there was little research on the effect of high impact exercise on bone density as we age.

Now some new research finds high-impact exercise may be even more critical as we get older, especially since bone mass peaks during the 30’s and declines afterward.

A sampling of senior athletes, both men and women aged 50 to 93, who took part in the 2005 National Senior Games (also known as the Senior Olympics), including 560 who competed in high impact sports like basketball, road racing, track and field, triathlons and volleyball found that these athletes had higher bone mineral density than those who didn’t take part in these activities.

These findings appear in the November/December 2009 issue of Sports Health: A Multidisciplinary Approach.

The athletes completed a detailed health history questionnaire and underwent ultrasound to measure bone mineral density.

They were classified by the researchers as participating in high impact sports or low impact sports. The ultrasound scans revealed that older athletes who participated in high impact sports had better bone mineral density than those who took part in the low impact variety.

This even after age, sex, obesity and use of any osteoporosis medication was factored in.

“Our study represents the largest sample of bone mineral density data in mature athletes to date,” says Dr. Vonda Wright, an assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. “My colleagues and I were surprised to see that active adult participation in the high-impact sports had such a positive influence on bone health, even in the oldest athletes.”

Of course osteoarthritis (abbreviated as OA, sometimes also called degenerative arthritis) and other conditions might keep older folks from taking part in high impact activities.

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High Impact Great For Older Bones Continued…

Osteoarthritis is the most common form of the over 1000 different types of arthritis, affecting over 20 million Americans, most as they get older when the water content of the cartilage increases causing the protein makeup of the cartilage to degenerate.

Without the cartilage cushion, friction of the bones causes pain and the limitation of mobility and is most common in the hands, feet, spine and large weight bearing joints like the hips and knees.

If you know you have this condition, talk to your doctor about what activities are best for you before you begin any exercise program.

Still it’s good to know that not only young bones can benefit from high impact exercise. Things like weight training, walking, hiking, jogging, climbing stairs, tennis and even dancing can play a positive role in keeping your bones healthy as you get older.

But remember, always check with your doctor first, and work to make regular activity, at least 30 minutes on most days of the week, part of your routine.

Your bones (and the rest of your body) will thank you.

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Improvements in medical care, as well as changes in diet and lifestyle are all helping us live longer, but our bodies are still wearing out at the same rate. In an effort to promote “50 active years after 50″ experts at Leeds University are launching a research initiative that will invest $88 million over the next 5 years to uncover innovative solutions to make this a reality.

They suggest that options like own-grown tissue and durable implants, new medical devices and regenerative therapies will allow people to be as active in their second 50 years as they were in their first 50.

The research will focus on the areas most affected by age – joints, spine, teeth, heart and circulation. New heart valves, hips and knees are the starting point, though someday experts hope that nearly any body part that wears out with age might be replaced.

The Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering at Leeds has already completed a hip transplant that should last a lifetime.

This is far better than the 20 year maximum life expected out of today’s artificial hips. The newest hip mechanism is a combination of a durable cobalt-chrome metal alloy socket and a ceramic ball able to hold up to the 100 million steps a patient can be expected to take before their hundredth birthday.

And unlike studies that focus on stem cells or growing spare parts in a laboratory, this work uses your body’s own regenerative systems.

Professor Eileen Ingham and her team have come up with a way to help the body enhance itself. The idea is to make transplantable tissues, maybe even organs, that are made naturally by the body. This would mean no rejection, the main reason that today’s transplants wear out and fail.

Using a “scaffolding” technique, researchers have managed to make heart valves that are fully functional.

The process involves a healthy donor heart valve (from a person or suitable animal), cartilage or other vessel being washed using a cocktail of enzymes and detergents that gently strip away cells. The inert “scaffold” that remains can be transplanted into a patient without any concern over rejection. Once the inert material is in place, the body takes over and repopulates it with cells.

Animal trails, as well as work involving 40 Brazilian human patients are showing promising results.

The technology has been licensed to the NHS National Blood and Transplant Tissue Services so it can be used all across the UK on any donated human tissue. Today the NHS is investigating using this technique on donor skin for burn patients.

Of course what experts are hoping for is to be able to eliminate the need for donor organs. Technology to replace all donor tissue might take from 30 to 50 years because each product must be designed and tested on its own.

Professor Christina Doyle of Xeno Medical (the company that’s developing the technology) points out that other researchers are working on regenerative therapies grown completely outside the body, looking at how to “stop” aging with more and more vigour.

Today we have more hope than ever that those years after 50 will be healthy, active ones lived in a body of someone half that age.

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American researchers have found that being fat in middle age cuts a woman’s chances of reaching a ripe old age in good physical and mental shape by almost 80%.

The study appears online in the medical journal BMJ, and was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the Boston Obesity Nutrition Research Center.

With average life spans increasing due to advances in both detecting and treating illness, it’s those extra pounds so many of us carry that might just undo these hard won gains.

And since fat is known to act the same way in both men and women, it’s likely these results linking extra weight at midlife with a reduced chance of a healthy old age hold for men as well as women.

The team of researchers observed over 17,000 female nurses, part of the U.S. Nurses’ Health Study, who were an average age of 50 years and healthy, when the study began in 1976.

The subjects weight and health changes such as occurrence of chronic diseases, information on cognitive function, physical function and mental health were taken every 2 years by questionnaires until 2000. In terms of weight we know that a Body Mass Index (BMI) between 19-25 is considered more healthy, numbers from 25-29.9 designate a person thought to be overweight, and a value over 30 is categorized as obese.

Researchers Qi Sun and colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston found that for every one point increase in BMI women had a 12% lower chance of making it to age 70 in good health compared to those with lower BMI.

Good health was defined as being free of 11 different chronic conditions while also having enough physical and mental ability to do everyday things like shopping, cleaning or climbing stairs.

What’s more, for every 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) a woman gained after age 18, her odds of living past 70 dropped by 5%. Subjects who were already overweight at 18 and then gained more than 10 kilograms later in life had about a 20% chance of making it to age 70 in good health.

You can see how those extra pounds early on can bring some real troubles as you get older. The diseases often plaguing these overweight women were major, life changing ones – like diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

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Overweight In Middle Age Can Reduce Life Continued…

“People may think they can safely gain weight through their 20s, 30s and 40s, but there is no evidence that gaining weight is natural,” points out Aviva Must, professor and chair of the public health and community medicine department at Tufts University School of Medicine, but not part of the study. “These results suggest that small weight gains are not innocuous.”

Medical experts agree that our population is aging, and that obesity is more common than ever before. In fact, in 2003-4, a record 66.3% of American adults were overweight or obese – this compared to just 14.5% in 1976 when the Nurses’ Health Study began.

Adding to the need to get rid of those extra pounds is the work by British researchers published earlier this year that found those with a BMI from 30-35 die almost 3 years earlier than those with BMI’s in the normal range.

Anyone with a BMI over 40 is considered morbidly obese and likely to die almost 10 years before they should.

All the more reason for getting up – getting active now, so average age expectancy is increased

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Israeli researchers are the first to find that even a little bit of activity (about 4 hours a week) in the routines of the most elderly people (those in their mid to late 80s) can extend life by at least few years.

In fact, the three year survival rate of active subjects in their 80s was almost three times higher compared to those of the same age group who weren’t active.

What’s more, those who were active even at this advanced age reported less loneliness and depression, along with a better ability to do everyday things. It seems that exercise, when done properly and regularly, has benefits to body, mind and quality of life at any age.

The study included 1,861 residents of Jerusalem who were seventy years old in 1990. The participants filled out questionnaires covering their health and levels of activity from this point through 2008.

At age 85, 64% of the subjects were physically active – a large number that’s almost certainly a factor of the Israeli lifestyle. Still, the team believes that the benefits of being active would be seen in the elderly populations of other countries.

During the course of the study there were 512 deaths, just a bit fewer than 7% of the active 85 year olds were dead by the age of 88; about 24% of the 85 year olds who were not active had died by this same age.

A look at the percentages here tells the tale that death rates were lower in the active seniors. The team even accounted for factors that affect survival such as the participants overall health and smoking status, and yet still activity levels were strongly related to living longer.

The results of this work add weight to the idea that being active, even in old age, is good for you.

Similar benefits have been shown for younger people, those in their 60s and 70s. What’s most encouraging of all is that it’s never too late to start. Even for those of this age group who weren’t active before, once they started, their three year survival rate was double that of the inactive subjects of the same age.

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Exercise Goes A Long Way – Even In Your Mid 80s Continued…

Experts not involved in the work point out that the study can’t rule out that subjects who were able to exercise at such an advanced age might have started off healthier in the first place.

The good news for older folks is that the type of activity doesn’t have to be super-strenuous, it can as gentle as walking in 15 minute increments a few times a day. “As little as four hours a week was as beneficial as more vigorous or prolonged activity,” points out study author Dr. Jeremy Jacobs, a geriatric specialist at Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem.

If you’d like to get more active, but you’re getting up there in years, don’t despair. Talk with your doctor about the kinds of activity that might be right for you.

Consider working with a personal trainer so that you’re using proper form – so you get the most from your workout and reduce the chance you’ll hurt yourself.

You’ll also want to be sure you take in enough fluids – especially if you’re active in warmer weather. It’s important to start slow and build over time. As the research shows, people do live longer with exercise, and you don’t need to be doing workouts worthy of professional athletes, just getting up and going is enough.

To your good health,

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Experts say there are things you can do to improve your memory and keep your brain healthy, no matter how old you are.

Check out these suggestions and see how many you can make part of your regular routine…

- Floss every day – plaque on your teeth is unexpectedly bad for your brain. “The plaque between teeth can cause an immune reaction that attacks arteries, which then can’t deliver vital nutrients to brain cells,” points out Dr. Michael Roizen, co-author of YOU–The Owner’s Manual: An Insider’s Guide to the Body that Will Make You Healthier and Younger. Keep the floss with all the things you use to get ready in the morning so you’re less likely to forget.

- Multitask during a workout – stretching brain and body at the same time can have a real impact on both body and mind. Experts suggest doing double duty revitalizes brain cells. You might try a crossword while riding a stationary bike, listen to books on tape or language lessons while on the treadmill or jogging. If doing two things at once isn’t your thing, do the mental exercise right after your physical workout when your brain is pumped full of energy.

- Eat brain foods – DHA, an omega-3 fatty acid known to be important for optimal brain function, can be found in salmon, trout and even fortified options like yogurt. It’s good for your brain to try to get all you can from natural food sources. “DHA decreases arterial inflammation and improves repair of the protective sheath around nerves,” Roizen explains. “The result is less age-related memory loss, less Alzheimer’s disease, less depression, and a quicker mind.”

- Play games – handheld or video games aren’t just kids’ stuff; these help sharpen your memory as well as your problem solving and spatial skills. You can use things like the new 3D Rubik’s Cube, handheld games like Tetris or solitaire, electronic games like the Wii or Nintendo DS, even games like Jeopardy or Millionaire on TV, anything that stretches your thinking or is a new-to-you activity will work wonders.

- Get moving – getting your heart rate up three times a week for 20 minutes at a time brings more oxygen to the brain and helps it grow new cells. Walking, cycling or any activity that gets you up and moving on a regular basis is a great choice. In fact, exercise like this may be two to three time more effective as anything else you do for your brain according to Sam Wang Ph.D., an associate professor at Princeton University and co-author of Welcome to Your Brain: Why You Lose Your Car Keys but Never Forget How to Drive and Other Puzzle of Everyday Life.

Even better news for the too-busy-to-workout crowd? The latest research finds that just one moderate to rigorous exercise session a week can make you 30% more likely to hold onto your cognitive functioning as the years pass.

- Start a club – it can be a book club, a bridge club, regular dinners, in fact anything that helps you combine strategy and memory offers a challenge to the brain to learn new things, exercising cells so they don’t just die off. Socializing while you play, rather than enjoying a solitary game, adds a level of involvement and challenge that does a whole lot for your brain (not to mention your social life).

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Smart, Easy Ways To Keep Your Memory Sharp At Any Age Continued…

- Use your fingertips – any fingertip activity, like knitting, using chopsticks, even rolling a pen/pencil between your fingers helps your brain by boosting circulation. Good circulation serves to eliminate waste products that might prevent much-needed nutrients from reaching your brain. What’s more, studies show that using the concentrated areas of nerve cells in your fingertips directly stimulates your brain.

- Be careful with medications – research has shown that nonprescription sleep medications might cause some “cognitive impairment” in older people. Also, the drug known as diphenhydramine (in many allergy preparations and nighttime pain pills) is known to have an “anticholinergic” effect – blocking communication between nerve cells. Talk with your doctor about the right medication for your needs, and be sure to mention any cognitive side effects you experience.

Even if you can’t make all of these ways to improve your memory, and include them as part of your life right now, try to adopt one or two into your routine and see how you feel. Chances are these simple, natural choices will bring benefits to your brain (and body) not only today, but for years to come.

To your good health,

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If that’s not for you, you can find a more general answer in a just released longevity study report out of the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics known as the National Vital Statistics Report released in August 19, 2009 on life expectancy.

Even though the data is preliminary, it can be counted as reliable and is often confirmed by final numbers.

The numbers go like this – a total of 2,423,995 people of all ages died during 2007, down from the number of deaths in 2006. The nation’s age adjusted death rate also dropped from 776.5 deaths per 100,000 in 2006, to 760.3 in 2007. Good news for the U.S., though there are large variations in life expectancy around the world.

In May 2009 a World Health Organization report titled World Health Statistics 2009 found that Japan had the highest life expectancy in the world at 83 years.

The African countries of Burkina Faso, Burundi, Mali and Nigeria had a horrendous life expectancy of just 49 years.

Most of the difference can be attributed to differences in public health, medical care and diet from place to place. Poorer nations dealing with the scourges of war, starvation and disease pay a human toll as well.

Life expectancy is a measure computed for a group of people, all born in the same year, assuming that mortality at each age stays constant going forward.

Quality of life in an area of the world also has an impact on life expectancy as does your family history and lifestyle. As you might expect, improvement over the centuries, especially during the Industrial Revolution, has impacted the infant mortality rate, though some countries still lag sadly behind.

Infant mortality is an important component in all of this. A baby born in 2007 has a life expectancy that’s 1.4 years longer than babies born just a decade earlier. The preliminary infant death rate was 6.77 deaths per 1,000 live births, unchanged since 2006.

The top three causes of infant death were birth defects, disorders related to early delivery and low birth weight, and finally the heartbreaking sudden infant death syndrome.

Our life expectancy continues to go up in the United States, increasing by 2.5 months in 2007 over 2006 levels. Based on the latest numbers life expectancy…

-For babies born in 2007: life expectancy is 77.9 years (up from 77.7 years in 2006)

- For white women born in 2007: life expectancy is 80.7 years (up from 80.6 years in 2006)

- For white men born in 2007: life expectancy is 75.8 years (up from 75.7 years in 2006)

- For black women born in 2007: life expectancy is 77 years (up from 76.5 years in 2006)

- For black men born in 2007: life expectancy is 70.2 years (up from 69.7 years in 2006)

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U.S. Life Expectancy Rising By More Than A Year Continued…

The Center for Disease Control report also lists the top fifteen causes of death, along with the change in their age-adjusted death rate since 2006. Most went down…· Heart disease: down 4.7%

· Cancer: down 1.8%

· Stroke: down 4.6%

· Chronic lower respiratory diseases (lung diseases): up 1.7%

· Accidents: down 5%

· Alzheimer’s disease: no significant change

· Diabetes: down 3.9%

· Influenza and pneumonia: down 8.4%

· Kidney disease: no significant change

· Septicemia (an infection that affects the blood and other parts of the body): unchanged

· Suicide: no significant change

· Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis: no significant change

· High blood pressure (hypertension): down 2.7%

· Parkinson’s disease: no significant change

· Homicide: down 6.5%

The CDC will publish the final life expectancy longevity study and death numbers later in 2009.

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