The Epidemic of Aging
December 31, 2019
Aging kills…
0 death since you started reading.
Around 60 million people died in 2019. How did they die?[1] The excellent website ourworldindata.org indicates that in the world today so-called ”Non-communicable diseases” (NCDs) dominate mortality figures at a global level, and account for the majority of deaths in high-income countries.
Most of these deaths are actually due to aging. NCDs include Parkinson’s disease, autoimmune diseases, strokes, most heart diseases, most cancers, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s disease, cataracts, and others. NCDs may be chronic or acute.
Of course, causes of death vary by country and income levels across the world.
Deaths from causes such as infectious disease, malnutrition, nutritional deficiencies, neonatal and maternal deaths in high-income countries is typically very low in relative terms. These causes of death are still prevalent across low-to-middle income nations.
This is not something NEW, and as a consequence, sadly overlooked…
Aging is a disease
Everyone has it. It is chronic in nature and leads to immune deficiencies amongst other things. It kills indirectly more than anything else on earth. It is a direct threat to you and your family.
Age-standardized Death Rates are a disgrace.
The World Health Organization often refers to age-standardized statistics. They dehumanize older people and are one of the darkest form of discrimination, unfortunately widely accepted.
Sources:
- Breakdown of deaths by age from [Causes of Death by Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser]](https://ourworldindata.org/causes-of-death)
- World Health Organization (WHO) World Age-standardized death rates
- Non-communicable diseases Wikipedia
