It is now generally accepted that aging is plastic and that how we age is becoming more and more under our control. Many people believe that this is due to things such as better hygiene (personally and socially), better medicine, and even safer work conditions. And, while these reasons are valid and true for increasing our life expectancy, they are not the reason for humans to live longer. The most important factor in longevity is lifestyle.Improved hygiene greatly improved our odds of getting through childhood. Better medicine (like antibiotics) took care of diseases that got us in early adulthood. Safer work conditions even helped us get through to retirement age (barely). But for every hurdle we clear, there seems to be another one waiting to appear, like we are running through a never ending gauntlet (future post coming soon) of diseases and ailments. But the hurdles we face now are more and more due to lifestyle choices that are completely, 100 percent, under our own control.
