Extra Life

I just finished the book Extra Life: The Astonishing Story of How We Doubled Our Lifespan by Steven Johnson.

We now live an extra life longer (20,000 hours of life more) than we used to!

Human life expectancy more than doubled over the past century:

• From a global average of 32 years in 1900
• To 73 today

What made this happen?

It wasn't doctors.

One thing we have done is helped more infants live through adolescence. This brings up the average of our life expectency. Additionally, he gives several other reasons.

3 factors account for saving the lives of billions:

• Artificial fertilizer
• Toilets and sewers
• Vaccines

5 factors account for saving the lives of hundreds of millions:

• Antibiotics
• Bifurcated needles
• Blood transfusions
• Chlorination
• Pasteurization

Those that have saved millions are those we attribute to doctors such as:

• AIDS cocktail
• Anesthesia
• Angioplasty
• Antimalarial drugs
• CPR
• Insulin
• Kidney dialysis
• Oral rehydration therapy
• Pacemakers
• Radiology
• Refrigeration
• 3-point seat belt

These 21 factors account for the bulk of why we are living so much longer per this author ... and I think he's right.

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