Had I not recently experienced a pothole in my road of a healthy life, I would still believe that the end of life was mainly dictated by the number of years you have lived and not so much the result of how or what your body has developed during those years.
Not much research is required to agree that it is statistically accurate to recognize that the lives of a vast majority of people expire in their older years. But the all-encompassing reach of that “truth” dissipates when you understand what may have been the primary causes of that result.
I believe medical records support the conclusion that most of the people who die in their senior years do so because of heart failure or the effects of many different types of cancer. The only participation of age in that equation is that the more people with heart disease or cancer issues who neglect to take steps towards the detection of those problems the more difficult it is to treat them and, not surprisingly, after a certain amount of time passes those issues initiate end of life medical effects that cannot be eradicated because of the passage of time during which there was no detection or treatment.
In my past several years I have rarely experienced the feeling that my advancing age was moving me closer to the end of my life. I just thanked the Lord that I was given a few extra innings to enjoy my family, friends and life in general. Now, however, I will attempt to schedule medical visits to determine whether there is anything my aging body is experiencing that should be the subject of treatment sooner than later. If I can accomplish the latter, this statistic regarding final age should be able to continue its climb towards 100. That may not be an enviable score on the golf course, but I would love to have a shot at it in life!
