A matter of life and death

Life expectancy is stalling – and the UK is the 'sick man of Europe'. As longevity medicine rises, Helen Coffey explores why our mortality rate appears to be catching up with us

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If one were to judge by splashy headlines alone, it would be easy to imagine that humans are living for longer than ever before.

The field of longevity medicine has sparked widespread fascination, spurred on by billionaires spending their vast wealth on experimental treatments in a quest to live forever. Interest in biological age, which denotes the physical rather than chronological age of body and brain, has ramped up, while places with the highest concentration of centenarians have been dubbed “Blue Zones” and studied to determine whether these people hold the key to unlocking eternal life.

However, behind all the cutting-edge epigenetic testing and space-age supplements lies a very different truth. We are not living for longer. On the contrary, life expectancy in the UK and other advanced nations across the world is stalling.

Life expectancy is a measurement that estimates, at birth, how many years the average person might be expected to live based on current mortality rates. Over the past 150 years or so, this projected number rose significantly. A man and woman born in England in 1841 could reasonably expect to live to the unripe old age of 40.2 and 42.3 years old, respectively. By 1920, this had risen to 55.8 and 58.7, thanks to widespread improvements in nutrition, hygiene, housing, sanitation and control of infectious diseases. Post-Second World War, gains continued to be made, and by the turn of the century, life expectancy had rocketed to 76.6 for males and 80.4 for females. Childhood immunisations, universal health care, medical advances in treating heart disease and cancer and a stark decline in smoking all played a significant role.