As a starter, let's look at diabetes which is a lifelong disease that occurs when there's too much glucose or sugar circulating in our blood due to the pancreas not producing enough insulin or the insulin response is no longer working properly. Diabetes is a very common disease now. Diabetes is also very easily and readily treatable by many different drugs and lifestyles changes or modifications. According to WHO ( World Health Organization ), the prevalence of diabetes in persons 18 years or older is nearly doubled from 4.7% in 1980 to 8.5% in 2014. Worldwide obesity is nearly tripled since 1975 according to WHO. Obesity is the leading risk factor for type 2 diabetes. So why are obesity and diabetes on the rise? We have learned a lot about the disease and its treatment, and yet we ignore the simple and common sense way to fix the problem.

The Status Syndrome: How Social Standing Affects Our Health and Longevity Paperback – 7. September 2005

by Michael Marmot

This is a good description of factors that influence our health and how we improve health in this world. The health is improved, some disorders are gone bur their are trends among people with not enough knowledge that do not take vaccine for their babies even if it is available and the like.

Beatrice, thank you for your response. I haven't read the book, but the title does tell very significant revelation regarding the book. Social standing usually refers to the economic and financial status of the individuals. Money does buy a lot of stuff including the best medicine and medical care that's available anywhere on earth. That is the very reason I thought of this discussion, that the best medical care and medicine available out there right now actually haven't done anything to prolong our absolute lifespan as human beings. It's true that modern medicine has increased the average human lifespan when the access to such privilege can be afforded, but the maximum lifespan has not been increased by modern medicine as clearly and nicely explained by Gustav in my discussion regarding "fasting". Do poor people really have more stress than rich people to cause such detrimental effects on their health? I would like to think that it is not the social standing or the economic that causes the discrepancy between the rich and the poor in regard to being healthy, but it is the knowledge and the availability of the knowledge of what is true that plays the main role. For example, if someone truly knows and believes that smoking is the main culprit of many diseases, he/she doesn't have to be high in social standing to choose not to smoke. I can give you many other examples that show "knowledge" is much more important that social standing.

of course we are healthier, not only because health and average of lifespan are co-related, but because "cenestesis" and life quality are better; my father and my grand-father were smokers, did not control blood pressure or cholesterol, and so on

Not so fast and so simple. Do having more treatments and having more medications make us any healthier? We may live longer with medications, but we're still ill. Is having more sedentary lifestyle any healthier than active lifestyle? Why are obesity and diabetes much more common now than ever before? The same goes with many other diseases and disorders. Just because the medications and treatments are now available for almost most of the diseases men ever develop, it can not be translated as easily that we're actually healthier now that we don't get sick as easily or as often. Anxiety and depression as well as other major mental illnesses and suicide rate are on the rise. Is it because we're healthier now and that we have the treatments for them?

Living things adapt and evolve through time to adjust to their living conditions. How we adapt will determine on how we will turn out to be. In artificial world where most everything can be produced artificially, it will be interesting to see how human adaptation and evolution will shape our future. In today's world, we rely a little too much on the "cure" instead of "prevention" which is not a good recipe to adapt to mutated pathogens. We're not evolving to become stronger organisms by consuming more "pills" to fight pathogens and diseases. By doing so, we're not giving our genes a chance to develop naturally to adapt and evolve to combat diseases from within ourselves. Do the viruses and other microbial pathogens have artificial way produced by themselves that help them become stronger?

Dear Ben Martinez,

Yes, the average lifespan of people has increased significantly compared to what it was 2 centuries ago. Thanks to the technological progress, the increase in schooling, education, media development and information globalization, the general awareness of citizens of the importance for human health of leading a healthy lifestyle, healthy eating, physical activity and using the services of healthcare institutions is increasing. In addition, vaccines have virtually eliminated epidemics caused by various viruses. This will also happen with the SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) coronavirus pandemic. Thanks to new, innovative, highly effective vaccines, humanity will win the fight against the Coronavirus.

Best regards, Have a nice day, Stay healthy!

Dariusz Prokopowicz

Dear Ben Martinez,

Yes, the average lifespan of people has increased significantly compared to what it was 2 centuries ago. Thanks to the technological progress, the increase in schooling, education, media development and information globalization, the general awareness of citizens of the importance for human health of leading a healthy lifestyle, healthy eating, physical activity and using the services of healthcare institutions is increasing. In addition, vaccines have virtually eliminated epidemics caused by various viruses. This will also happen with the SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) coronavirus pandemic. Thanks to new, innovative, highly effective vaccines, humanity will win the fight against the Coronavirus.

Best regards, Have a nice day, Stay healthy!

Dariusz Prokopowicz

Yes, the average has improved dramatically, but the maximum lifespan has not.

Medicine is a much slighter contributor than we imagine, as well as many medicines causing accumulative harm. The responsibility for the general population's health from the 19th century lies with the installation of sanitation in all the large cities, increased hygiene, better food and freedom from a number of diseases.

The discoveries of disease causing microbes and the pathogenesis of diseases make us possible to treat and to prevent illnesses. Better hygiene can reduce the chance of infection. Good and sensible diet that supplies quality nutrients will keep the body strong and avoid many chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease. Since modern society no longer requires the body to do physical work, artificial and forced physical activity in a form of "exercise" is also required to keep good health. The discovery and invention of modern medicine may, in some cases, cause complacency in the population and reduce the incentive to do preventive care. Why follow a diet and do regular exercise if there's always medicine that can mitigate whatever ailment there is out there as a result of modern lifestyle?

Isn't modern medicine truly wonderful? We now have drugs to treat diabetes quite effectively. Not only can these drugs normalize the blood sugar, but they can also slow the emptying of the stomach and stimulate the brain receptors that control appetite. The blood sugar can return to normal, and the decrease desire to eat more than the body needs which may cause weight loss of up to 20% are nothing short of a miraculous discovery. It almost fits the definition and desire to just pop a "magic pill" and everything bad will go away. The wonderful drugs will most definitely play very important role in cardiovascular health since both diabetes and obesity have adverse effects on the cardiovascular system. Here's yet another very good example of how modern medicine effectively not only influences the quality of life but also the way we choose to live. How much longer until the "fountain of youth" pill is discovered? Infinity may be achievable after all :) Not!

Medicine of the last two centuries is the most important and incredible success of human being. It's sure as the rising of sun tomorrow. The interesting question is: why some people don't believe in this truth?

What people believe or how people behave often has nothing to do with the "truth". I prefer to refer to the "truth" as a simple fact because some people's truth depends on their impression of the fact. How people perceive the fact will become their truth. Perception can be the truth no matter how different it is from the simple fact. The earth can easily be perceived as flat as far as the eyes can see. And some people do believe that the earth is flat.

Ok, your interesting answer is a philosophical answer; instead of "truth" I can write "evidence" or others synonims. But I am sure that old medicine was a failure, and modern medicine is a success, and I continue to ask myself why a lot of people do not agree, even people who is living only thanks to a doctor or a drug.