The natural outcome of life is death. We all know that death is inevitable. Mom is almost 98 years old. Yesterday her doctor told her she will probably live until she’s 100 or more. Mom says she’s ready to die. “But not today.”

Have you read the fascinating book, Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green?

I love this book. I’ve read it, I gifted it. Twice. Now I’m listening to the Audible version.

Did you know that the life expectancy for humans didn’t change much until the 1900s? Wow! Someone who lived during the time that”The Gilded Age” took place could expect to live about the same number of years as someone from the “Bronze Age.” And not much longer than a caveman.

What made us start living longer?

Here’s a few things that contributed:

• Germ Theory: Even though Girolamo Fracastoro proposed that “germs” caused disease in 1546, his thinking did not catch on until the nineteenth century. Finally in 1867 Louis Pasteur‘s germ theory  popularized disinfection.
• Aespectic Technique: Believe it or not, hand washing before surgery was not common practice until almost 1900.  Ignaz Semmelweis showed in 1847–1848 that hand washing prior to delivery reduced infection. Still, most surgeries took place in open air without hand washing. This is why President Garfield died from his gunshot wound. He was shot on July 2 and didn’t die until September 17 from infection introduced when his doctor took the bullet out.
• Antibiotics: There is evidence that some ancient civilizations drank teas and fermented beverages that had antimicrobial effects. The first widely used antibiotic, sulfaonamide, did not become part of our disease fighting arsenal until 1932. Penicillin became available to the public after World War II.
• Vaccines: Compulsory Vaccine policies started in the 1890s for diseases like smallpox and anthrax. By the 1950s smallpox was nearly eradicated and polio was under control. We developed vaccines for influenza, including those against diphtheria, measles, mumps, and rubella. Vaccines work by exposing the body to the disease or something close enough to the disease to build up immunity to the disease. Over time, the safety of vaccines has improved.
  • The first vaccines required a small dose of the actual or weakened disease organism.
  • The second generation vaccines just use a protein from the disease organ organism. This reduces the chance of an unwanted reaction.
  • mRNA vaccines work by training the body to to recognize the disease to respond with a quickly when exposed to the disease.
    

Antibiotics and Vaccines moved the needle!

We could be going along expecting to live until the mid-thirties. A wizened granny might make it to 50. Yet, here we are expecting to live until the mid-seventies or more. We might even be lucky, like Mom and live to 100 or more. Well, that is, if we wash our hands, use appropriate medication, and get vaccinated against deadly diseases.