It's only people too young to imagine themselves being old who are 'celebrating' longer life (if you could call old age a 'life'). Doctors and the drug industry are making a mint out of, and enjoying the experimentation, of keeping chronically ill people alive for the sake of fame. It's time to allow people to die with some dignity before the sheer misery of old age infirmity arrives.

Professor Curson does not give us the source of his evidence backing his claim that "our health continues to worsen with age". The regular surveys on disability ageing and carers conducted by the ABS present a more optimistic picture. These show that between 1998 and 2015 rates of severe and profound disability fell for Australians aged 65 and over. This finding was especially strong for people aged 85 and over. See https://www.yourlifechoices.com.au/is-ageing-our-biggest-threat?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=volume%2016%20issue%20131%20daily%20enews%20friday&utm_content=volume%2016%20issue%20131%20daily%20enews%20friday+version+b+cid_5832fe709a4de977939d8d32e1aaca78&utm_source=campaign%20monitor&utm_term=support%20her%20claim

Everybody gets old! And big pharma makes its biggest profit margins from MANAGING it, with a little help from their friends! With statins up there as a major money maker/most profitable drug marketed by the HEALTH INDUSTRY!

A recent double blind study found all those not taking the placebo suffered some cognitive impairment! See the case against statins, google scholar.

Sugar in amounts added to processed food and soft drinks, is a virtual poison that contributes to obesity/type two diabetes? It costs somewhere north of $70,00.00 per to house folks in nursing homes and somewhere south of $40,00.00 with service provision yard maintenance/housework that allows them to stay at home!

There's a lot of cost effective, comparative, low cost preventative care, HRT, Hyperbaric oxygen therapy, hydro therapy and medically supervised chelation therapy; routinely rejected by the friends of big pharma, who usually wax lyrical about diet and exercise!

Almost if that was all there was to preventative medicine; given more prevention, would massively eat into the health client profit model! I have no wish to live beyond my divinely allotted time!

Just that the Quality of that twilight be the best it can be!

And some health care professionals seem to believe, all that's required is managed symptoms that could instead be prevented by a different less authoritative, we know best approach?

All to often accompanied by mind boggling intellectual arrogance, unwarranted standard professional cynicism and we know best elitism, I believe, bordering on fanatical fundamentalism?

To the point, where the profession rose to a virtual generic man in hostile opposition to the evidence that proved stomach ulcers were the product of bacteria, rather than over abundant stomach acid!

And to encapsulate, aging can be a far better vastly less costly experience than the often highly profitable, aged care industry allows? I mean something as simple as calcium free vitamin D supplements, often improves the body's immune response, bone density and sometimes assists preventing some age related depression?

And consequently, like all preventive medicine! Extends the time out of the clutches of profitable (problematic) aged care!
Alan B.

The idea of living longer and longer lives in good health,has always been
a rose coloured glasses idea.

It buys into people wanting to believe they can find a magic pill or food
to stave off illness and death.

The single thing that has had the most effect on allowing people to live longer
is modern medicine.
Immunisation, the advances in treating high blood pressure and new ways of
clearing blocked arteries. The biggest saver of lives has been penicillin.
A simple scratch became infected and caused blood poisoning which caused death before penicillin.
People havent stopped suffering from high blood pressure and heart disease it is
just better treated. Nevertheless people still have these chronic diseases.
Another thing with old age, is frailty, it may not show up as chronic illness
on statistics, but people as they age find the wearing out of the bodies systems
causes strong fatigue and mobility problems.
There are some who are seen to be more robust for their age but they are in the minority. The bigger percentage of people who reach 60years live with
some kind of condition. With the aid of modern tablets and treatments they
manage those conditions fairly well. Nevertheless no tablet or pill can totally
cure or alleviate these conditions entirely. So there is not total freedom from
symptoms.

Dont tell the food police this, they think health,life and death can be totally
controlled by diet and exercise alone .And Yes, there are great benefits,,I dont dispute that,
but I dont think it gives them the total control over their health like they think it does.

Here we go again; alarmist claims that we are an ageing population. Guess what - nobody who is alive isn't ageing. We are living longer than previously because we are healthier - and claims in this article fly in the face of other findings.

If people continue to neglect their health - as is seemingly happening in some younger generations - their paradise will not be delayed, because they will not be living as long as their parents. Maybe that is nature's way of ensuring we do not have an overpopulation problem.

There is no apparent anomaly with the relationship between growing older and having more chronic illnesses.
However most people would prefer to still be alive, albeit with poorer health than they had 20 years ago, then to be dead and be free from pain and risk.
The author uses dubious projections to support his argument, for example "at present there are an estimated 342,000 Australians suffering from dementia and this number will probably increase to more than 900,000 over the next 15 years".
The fact is that we are living longer and generally healthier lives because the incidence of debilitating illnesses continues to decline.
The number of Australians living with dementia in 15 years' time is likely to be a smaller proportion of the (larger) Australian population than it is today, due to impressive advances in neurological knowledge of what causes the disorder and better treatments (such as induced pluripotent stem cell therapies) to control or lessen the condition. The same goes for many cancers and other life-threatening diseases and no doubt will apply to other newer disorders such as obesity and substance abuse.
To take but one example, there is now an ever growing number of veteran cricketers playing in national over 60s and over 70s tournaments, a small but significant testimony to the increasingly active enjoyment people are experiencing as they age.

cotty

The things you say will cause better health and longer living times
are like I said, bought about by advances in medical science,

Not as claimed by the food police, diet and exercise, although that
certainly plays a part.