Well, I just did my stress test while all wired up and then went through that scanner again, and I got the all clear. It seems I'm in pretty good shape for the shape I'm in!
Of course, the reason Australians are living longer is because of what we’ve done over the past 200 years. Growing scientific knowledge has underpinned improvements to living conditions (e.g. sewers, clean water and safe transport) and medicine (antibiotics, other pharmaceuticals, X-rays, etc.).
These changes have more than doubled the average lifespan at birth from around 35 at colonisation to 82 years. We know evolution has played little, if any, part in this: it doesn’t work that fast. Besides, evolution was only ‘interested’ in protecting successful genes through survival of offspring to maturity – around the time we reached our 30s.
If communities can influence their longevity, individuals can do the same. In the 1980s, research began to identify what was associated with people living longer. Studies take about 20 years to determine which group members survive and why. Publications from the early 2000s revealed expected and unexpected factors associated with longevity. We can group these loosely into five categories: Surroundings, Health, Attitude, Parents and Eating (SHAPE).
Check out the SHAPE Analyser and, whatever the result, do as the mayfly does and live every day as if it is your last. One day it will be.
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