Average life expectancies

RA reduces a patient s average life expectancy by 3 to 10 years, but RA alone rarely causes death.11,12 Instead, specific comorbidities contribute to premature death independent of safety issues surrounding the use of immunomodula-ting medications. O The comorbidities with the greatest impact on morbidity and mortality associated with RA are (1) cardiovascular disease, (2) infections, (3) malignancy, and (4) osteoporosis.11,12... 

Another parameter that is used to describe the decay of a radioactive species is the mean life (x), which is the average life expectancy of a radioactive atom. The mean life is defined as... 

The world s population continues to grow and the average life expectancy continues to increase. Pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical products are more in demand as the population expands, requiring novel and specialized medications to treat common and debilitating diseases. The industry is challenged to rapidly discover and commercialize products to treat existing unmet medical needs and emerging threats as viruses mutate into new diseases that threaten the stability of the world as we know it. 

Since the introduction of modern medicine and better health habits, the average life expectancy of humans has increased dramatically—in the United States from about 48 years in 1900 to about 78 years in 2000.The maximum attainable human life span of about 120 years, however, appears to have remained fairly constant. Is there truly a limit to how long we can live Is it possible to change how long we live while still maintaining a youthful vigor and resilience After all, the quality of life matters just as much, if not more, as the quantity of life. 

In the past 20 years, the average life expectancy within most nations has risen by a couple of years, but so has the healthy life expectancy, which is a measure of how long people remain in good health. Are the two necessarily related How so ... 

Finally, the term used to examine the average life expectancy, or mean life (rm), of a radioactive atom is expressed as follows ... 

Mean-life the average life expectancy of a radioactive nuclide. 

Prince Albert died in 1861 at the age of 42, because the doctors at that time did not know how to treat typhoid fever (antibiotics had not then been invented). Albert was comparatively old when he died, as the average life expectancy in the early nineteenth century was between 40 and 50, and infant mortality was almost 20 %. 

The discovery of penicillin by Fleming in 1928, and many other antibiotics in the 1940-1950s and onwards, considerably reduced death rates from bacterial infections. Now the average life expectancy is almost 70 and increasing.2... 

Fries (FI 5) proposed that after traumatic deaths are excluded, the elimination of coronary heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and various other chronic diseases would result in a maximum average life expectancy of 85 years. As these diseases become uncommon, he proposed that (a) the number of very old would not increase (b) the average period of decreased physical activity and vigor would decrease (c) chronic diseases would involve a smaller percentage of life span and (d) medical care needs in later life would decrease. Others, however, have argued against these predictions (S10). Nevertheless, from 1900 to 1990 there has been a definite rectangularization of the mortality curve (FI 5) in the United States, with a resultant compression of mortality (N6, N7). Thus, a person would ideally be healthy and both physically and mentally active until a very short time before a final illness strikes and death rapidly follows (Fig. 1). 

It is estimated that about 2000 years ago, the average life expectancy (birth to death) of a Roman citizen was 22 years (W6). From then to 1900 it increased to 47 years in the United States and over the subsequent nine decades (1992) increased to 75.8 years (G16) (Fig. 1). This remarkable increase in life expectancy since 1900 is due primarily to the prominent decline in neonatal, infant, and maternal mortality rates, along with the control of various infectious diseases. More recently, there has been a significant, albeit much less, reduction in early deaths due to coronary heart disease and stroke (i.e., due to atherosclerosis), as well as to improved management and treatment of diabetes mellitus, cancer, and various other chronic disorders. Nevertheless, the maximum theoretical life span has possibly increased slightly over the past many centuries. The oldest-ever documented person in the world, Jeanne Calment of France, died on August 4, 1997, at the age of 122 years, 5 months, and 14 days (W10). It has recently been suggested that the maximum life span could be extended to 130 years or more (M6). 

If the average life expectancy of all age groups of these survivors as well as the statistical distribution of the Jews over these age groups in 1945 were known, it would be possible to calculate approximately how many Holocaust survivors were still alive in 1945, i.e., after the war ended. Unfortunately we do not have such data, but we can on the one hand estimate this age distribution by extrapolating it from the known statistical distribution of the Jews of the 1920s and 1930s,95 corrected by Amcha s statement about the V3 of child survivors . On the other hand we can draw on the life expectancy statistics of another people whose fate from 1945 onwards was at least similar to that of the surviving European Jews of that time. 

A major development in the treatment of breast cancer has been the success of Herceptin, an anti-HER2 monoclonal antibody, in treating the 20-25% of breast cancers in which HER2 is overexpressed (Slamon et al, 2001). Although not a cure—average life expectancy is extended... 

The median age at the onset of menopause in the United States is 51 years, whereas the average life expectancy for women is 81 years. Thus American women can expect to be postmenopausal for more than one-third of their lives. 

There was no evidence for a subthreshold dose for these carcinogens, since no deviation from linearity was recognizable even at the lowest carcinogenic dose level despite latency periods approaching the average life expectancy of the test species (2.5 years). 

These observations have to be noted in the context of the disease patterns in ancient times. Cancer was undoubtedly comparatively rare since the average life expectancy was quite short - probably 30-40 years - and cancer is usually a disease of middle to old age. Surgeons and physicians were much more concerned with the treatment of gastrointestinal problems caused through consumption of contaminated food or water sexually transmitted diseases and battlefield injuries. 

Although trade secrets potentially offer protection for an unlimited duration (i.e., so long as secrecy is maintained), in practice the time of protection is often relatively brief One estimate is that most trade secrets have an average life expectancy of about 3 years (274). Because of the intense competition, employee mobility, and FDA disclosure requirements, the lifetime of an average trade secret in the drug discovery and development industry may be even shorter. 

Devices based on electrochemical phenomena represent a multimillion-dollar market annually for health care (15). Applications are probably most important in the sphere of population well-being. For example, experience with heart pacemakers shows that the typical use is for those in the 60- to 80-year age bracket who will lead a relatively active and normal life and have a "statistically average" life expectancy with the assistance of a pacemaker. Without this device, the person would be debilitated and have a life expectancy of only 1 to 2 years. The current market for pacemakers is estimated at nearly 300,000 per year worldwide, about half that in the United States (15). With a battery cost on the order of 100 for an implanted pacemaker, the dollar value ranges from 15 to 30 million for the batteries alone (predominantly lithium-iodine systems). The total cost associated with implanting pacemakers is a hundred times greater. 

We all know people who have aged well and others who have aged badly. There may be a discrepancy between our biological age and our chronological age. The average life expectancy of 75 years conceals a huge amount of variation. It is not uncommon for people in their 50s to die of... 

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