Does Anyone Die of Old Age Any More?
The following should come as no surprise to most of us. If you ask wiki.answers.com for the most common cause of death in the US, it has a two word answer.
Heart Disease
The CDC’s FASTATS website confirms this information. The American Heart Association tells us that an estimated 5.7 million people are living with heart failure As little as most people know about health statistics, almost anyone you ask will tell you the same thing.
The CDC’s National Vitals Statistics Report Volume 57 Number 14 shows final death figures for 2006. Totals deaths are 2.426 million, roughly 0.8 of a percent of the population. More detailed figures, broken down by cause of death, for 2005 show 2.448 million.
Major cardiovascular diseases account for 824,000 of the 2006 figures and 856,000 of the rougher 2005 figures, so approximately the same percentage. So the figures are right, right?
Well let me ask a different question. Of the overall US population how many people who die are over the age of 70, or for that matter 80? Well for 2006 the figure for people over the age of 70 was 1.59 million, or about 65%. For people over the age of 80 the figure was 1.07 million or about 44%. That makes sense, most people who die are elderly, and the age that people live to has steadily increased over the last 40 years.
Of the 2.448 million in the 2005 data, 1.39 million of the people who died were over the age of 75, or 57%. But of the deaths due to cardiac disease, a whopping 68% of the deaths were in people over the age of 75.
Put another way, the 582,000 deaths due to cardiac disease in the over 75 population, accounted for a whooping 23.7% of all deaths in the US.
I realize I run the risk of sounding callous when I raise this topic (or ageist) but for me that paints a very different picture. We talk about preventable heart-disease, and within reason I fully support that, but to lengths do we go to prolong life when people go through the natural process of aging?
Does anyone in America die of old age any more? If you where to believe the CDC stats, no. The 105 year great-great-grandmother who has 46 great-great-grandchildren does not die of old age when her heart stops, she dies of heart failure, a disease of the heart.
At some point we, as a country, have to come to terms with our mortality. As much as the baby-boomers want to live forever, we won’t. And can’t. And shouldn’t.
Death is as natural as birth, and coming to terms with death, and learning to age gracefully and live our years with the best quality of life we can is clearly something to be desired. Listing heart disease as the number one killer with no discussion on the role age plays in that statistic does nothing to foster that goal.
I hope to live to be a hundred (God help my children), and when I die I hope to die of old age. Part of the process of reforming healthcare has to be understanding and accepting the process of aging. The debate makes us uncomfortable, and I have no doubt someone will accuse me of being a Nazi proposing death panels, and I am not.
I am simply asking that as we look at aging, and health, and healthcare, and healthcare costs, we re-evaluate how we view aging and quality of life, and if it is appropriate allow that to become part of the national debate in a loving and humane way.
Heart Disease
The CDC’s FASTATS website confirms this information. The American Heart Association tells us that an estimated 5.7 million people are living with heart failure As little as most people know about health statistics, almost anyone you ask will tell you the same thing.
The CDC’s National Vitals Statistics Report Volume 57 Number 14 shows final death figures for 2006. Totals deaths are 2.426 million, roughly 0.8 of a percent of the population. More detailed figures, broken down by cause of death, for 2005 show 2.448 million.
Major cardiovascular diseases account for 824,000 of the 2006 figures and 856,000 of the rougher 2005 figures, so approximately the same percentage. So the figures are right, right?
Well let me ask a different question. Of the overall US population how many people who die are over the age of 70, or for that matter 80? Well for 2006 the figure for people over the age of 70 was 1.59 million, or about 65%. For people over the age of 80 the figure was 1.07 million or about 44%. That makes sense, most people who die are elderly, and the age that people live to has steadily increased over the last 40 years.
Of the 2.448 million in the 2005 data, 1.39 million of the people who died were over the age of 75, or 57%. But of the deaths due to cardiac disease, a whopping 68% of the deaths were in people over the age of 75.
Put another way, the 582,000 deaths due to cardiac disease in the over 75 population, accounted for a whooping 23.7% of all deaths in the US.
I realize I run the risk of sounding callous when I raise this topic (or ageist) but for me that paints a very different picture. We talk about preventable heart-disease, and within reason I fully support that, but to lengths do we go to prolong life when people go through the natural process of aging?
Does anyone in America die of old age any more? If you where to believe the CDC stats, no. The 105 year great-great-grandmother who has 46 great-great-grandchildren does not die of old age when her heart stops, she dies of heart failure, a disease of the heart.
At some point we, as a country, have to come to terms with our mortality. As much as the baby-boomers want to live forever, we won’t. And can’t. And shouldn’t.
Death is as natural as birth, and coming to terms with death, and learning to age gracefully and live our years with the best quality of life we can is clearly something to be desired. Listing heart disease as the number one killer with no discussion on the role age plays in that statistic does nothing to foster that goal.
I hope to live to be a hundred (God help my children), and when I die I hope to die of old age. Part of the process of reforming healthcare has to be understanding and accepting the process of aging. The debate makes us uncomfortable, and I have no doubt someone will accuse me of being a Nazi proposing death panels, and I am not.
I am simply asking that as we look at aging, and health, and healthcare, and healthcare costs, we re-evaluate how we view aging and quality of life, and if it is appropriate allow that to become part of the national debate in a loving and humane way.
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