Is it hard to die from old age?

[Mr Rayon]

What percentage of people in Western society die from natural causes as opposed to by disease? If you live longer, will you just end up developing more illnesses/diseases until one eventually kills you? Who is the oldest person to have ever lived without developing any chronic illness and dying naturally? How old were they?

 

Any thoughts?

Edited November 26, 2010 by Voltman

[Sisyphus]

If you live longer, will you just end up developing more illnesses/diseases until one eventually kills you?

 

Yes. There is no such thing as dying "of old age." It's just that as your body ages and every part of you simultaneously gets more decrepit, you get more and more prone to all sorts of diseases and malfunctions, and one of those is what kills you. "Natural causes" just means something internal as opposed to external like a car accident or something.

 

Who is the oldest person to have ever lived without developing any chronic illness and dying naturally? How old were they?

 

The oldest well-documented person was 122 years old. I don't think they bothered to figure out an exact cause of death.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldest_person

[John Cuthber]

"What percentage of people in Western society die from natural causes as opposed to by disease? "

Diseases are natural.

[Twinbird24]

Well, I wouldn't say ALL diseases are completely natural, because they could be caused by unnatural things, like smoking too many cigarettes and not getting enough exercise, as well as other hazardous synthesized chemicals (like DDT), surely these things can't be completely natural.

[zapatos]

Well, I wouldn't say ALL diseases are completely natural, because they could be caused by unnatural things, like smoking too many cigarettes and not getting enough exercise, as well as other hazardous synthesized chemicals (like DDT), surely these things can't be completely natural.

I'm curious as to why you believe things like smoking are unnatural. Or even why DDT is unnatural. Birds make nests, bees make honey, people make cigars and DDT. I've always felt that we were as much a part of nature as birds and bees. Why should their products be considered natural but not ours?

[Versa]

Nowadays in our modern world, despite advancement in technology, it's not our concern on the medical knowledge that we have. It is the environment that we live in that is becoming worse. The air becoming polluted, our food being tampered with different chemicals up to the daily accessories that we use like plastics, having the resin and dust accidentally consumed in. The worst fear I think is cancer and I think in years to come, it will be rare that human actually survive that long to die of old age.

[zapatos]

The oldest well-documented person was 122 years old. I don't think they bothered to figure out an exact cause of death.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldest_person

I always loved this part of the story of the life of Jeanne Calment, the 122 year old you mention:

 

"In 1965, aged 90 years and with no heirs, Calment signed a deal to sell her former apartment to lawyer André-François Raffray, on a contingency contract. Raffray, then aged 47 years, agreed to pay her a monthly sum of 2,500 francs until she died. Raffray ended up paying Calment the equivalent of more than $180,000, which was more than double the apartment's value. After Raffray's death from cancer at the age of 77, in 1995, his widow continued the payments until Calment's death."

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Calment

[Anilkumar]

Hi there,

 

Death comes from the malfunction or the incapacity of the systems.

 

Disease comes from the malfunction or the incapacity of the immune system.

 

Thanks.

[Mr Skeptic]

In the US, it is illegal to die of old age (or rather for the doctor to report that as cause of death). In any case, "old age" doesn't really kill you, it just means you're breaking down bit by bit and when one of the important bits completely breaks down that is what kills you. Of course lots of less important bits failing or partially failing simultaneously might also do it, then it's hard to say what exactly was the cause. Much like a car can't really "die of old age", it's always one or more specific things breaking that means the car is broken.

[Twinbird24]

I'm curious as to why you believe things like smoking are unnatural. Or even why DDT is unnatural. Birds make nests, bees make honey, people make cigars and DDT. I've always felt that we were as much a part of nature as birds and bees. Why should their products be considered natural but not ours?

 

Smoking, not getting enough exercise and eating improperly is not healthy, it's the exact opposite, it's just harming your body and health, and things like DDT are harmful to the environment. It's not natural to wake up and eat sugary cereal for breakfast, a BigMac for lunch, and KFC for dinner, sit and watch TV all day - living this sedentary lifestyle is not "natural." Raising a chicken in an environment where is has 2 inches to move and getting it to grow faster by pumping it with steroids is not natural. One of our products was the atomic bomb, was this natural? One of our other products was poisonous gas used to kill people, is this natural?

[zapatos]

Smoking, not getting enough exercise and eating improperly is not healthy, it's the exact opposite, it's just harming your body and health, and things like DDT are harmful to the environment. It's not natural to wake up and eat sugary cereal for breakfast, a BigMac for lunch, and KFC for dinner, sit and watch TV all day - living this sedentary lifestyle is not "natural." Raising a chicken in an environment where is has 2 inches to move and getting it to grow faster by pumping it with steroids is not natural. One of our products was the atomic bomb, was this natural? One of our other products was poisonous gas used to kill people, is this natural?

I understood from your first post that you believe there are things that are not natural. Here you just gave me a list of additional items you think are unnatural. But my question remains. Why do you think these things are unnatural? It seems as if you are implying that 'harmful' is the same as 'unnatural'.