American Heart Assoc. – Crooked Creek by Sue Mattingly

Life Expectancy

Life expectancy is a tricky term. Statistics vary greatly in the way they are gathered and calculated, e.g., whether they include infant mortality and what country is being studied. As the chart below demonstrates women have a longer life expectancy than men, but we will not discuss the possible reasons for that here. Let’s just look at ways of “Staying Alive” for all of us.

TIME	FEMALE	MALE	COMBINED
2012			78.7
1985			62
1900			30
Current	80.1	73.4
Born in 2018	81	76

Various sources including USA Today, Statistica and Wikipedia

Staying Alive

There is no lack of advice out there for ways to stay healthy and live a long life. Every person who hits 100 years has some type of answer for the secret to their longevity. Some say a glass of wine a day or perhaps a cigar or some other thing they enjoy.

Do you have “secrets” to a long, healthy, and happy life? If so, please share them with us. I can’t say that I do, so I’ll share what some of the experts tell us. We’ll just look at a few over the next several posts.

First: A Four-Legged Friend

Those of you who own a pet will probably attest to the fact that pets reduce anxiety. Research also shows they lower the owner’s blood pressure. For those of you who may doubt this advice let’s see what the American Heart Association says.

In the journal “Circulation” the AHA recommends owning a dog, in particular. As an owner of cats, I’m hurt, but I can see one big advantage to having a dog. Dogs must be walked so the owner is more active. But, the AHA goes even further and states that a person with a dog is more likely to survive a heart attack.