Monday, 07/31/06

Casual synchronicity in the New York Times: Gina Kolata, on the numerous remarkable increases in human longevity, body size, and protracted healthiness in the last 150 years. Salting with Civil War infirmity anecdotes, she's pushing a notion that immense, life-long health benefits are derived from one's condition at birth and for the first couple years of life, and tosses in an actuarial hand grenade: "Today's middle-aged people are the first generation to grow up with childhood vaccines and with antibiotics."

Her unstated point (and she's admittedly susceptible to hyperbole) is that no one has any idea how long boomers are going to live. Another remarkable throwaway line: "even the cancer rates were higher" among people with serious diseases early in life. I'm not sure how they track that, but it's remarkable to me, given the conventional wisdom that cancer has never been more prevalent than in the modern age.

Counterpoint: Bob Morris, tucked awkwardly in the "Sunday Styles" section, on the familial tensions of spending enormous amounts of money on the last years, months, or weeks of a person's life. And you thought Medicare was in trouble before. 05:06PM «

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