The Cost of Just One Age-Related Condition

Age-related degeneration is an ongoing corrosion of all our resources - for all resources spring from human action, which requires health and life. Aging costs us greatly in every way; here, EurekAlert! catalogues just one fraction of the whole: "Arthritis and other rheumatic conditions exact a large and growing economic toll on the nation as a result of the increase in numbers of persons affected, rather than an increase in mean expenditures and earnings losses ... In 2003, employed adults with arthritis earned an average of $3,613 less than healthy working adults between the ages of 18 and 64. Nationwide, raw earnings losses due to arthritis totalled $108 billion, up from $99 billion in 1997. ... Since the number arthritis sufferers is projected to increase steadily to nearly 67 million by 2030, [the] economic toll threatens to continue to escalate. He calls urgent attention to the need for cost-effective efforts to decrease medical expenses and increase the earning power of people with arthritis." This projection is a future in which we fail to support and advance medical research. The solutions proposed in the article are, as ever, second-rate, given that we're in the midst of a biotechnology revolution. The real solution to age-related disease is to push hard for cures, preventions, and real anti-aging research like SENS.

Link: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-04/jws-tei042307.php

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