first the good news you probably won’t
be murdered run over by a bus or eaten
by a shark
murders transport and animal accidents
kill just 7% of people in the developed
world every year now the less good news
most people when asked say they would
like to die quickly ideally without
warning and in their sleep but the
reality is that your death will almost
certainly be lingering drawn-out and
with plenty of forewarning that’s
because it’s likely you will die of a
chronic disease roughly 87 percent of
deaths in the developed world are caused
by non infectious disease a condition
that starts deep in the tissues of your
own body and lasts a long time
slowly and ruthlessly reducing your
ability to lead a full life until you
die
this means you will probably die in
hospital 60% of us do with one in ten
having been there for a month or more
just 18 percent of us die in our own
homes comforted by the sight of familiar
surroundings and possessions on the plus
side you will probably not die in pain
pain is fully controlled in sixty to
seventy percent of cases of chronic
disease though dying inevitably involves
some neurological and bone pains that
are hard to relieve that how you die but
what exactly will kill you most likely
your heart you have a one in three
chance of dying from a cardiovascular
disease that means a failure of your
circulatory system the system of veins
and arteries that is steadily and
rhythmically pumping blood around your
body at a rate of around 80 beats per
minute right now as you watch this film
12% of you will die from a heart attack
an 8% from a stroke the single biggest
risk factor is something you can do
little to prevent high blood pressure in
over 90% of cases the cause of high
blood pressure is simply unknown the
next thing most likely to kill you is
cancer caused when a mutation develops
in one of your cells and reproduces
uncontrollably
cancer is responsible for a quarter of
all deaths in the developed world
chances are that a cancerous cell has
already developed in your body it can
take many years for it to divide and
grow and form a tumor big enough to
cause symptoms or show up on a scan
it will probably be in your bowel or
lung cancers in those parts of the body
are the most common making up 13% of all
new cancer cases there are variations
due to gender of course if you’re a
woman then cancer will most likely start
in your breast and if you’re a man it
will get going in your prostate you can
reduce the chances of getting some
cancers 22% of them are caused by
smoking but two-thirds of cancers are
non preventable
which means no change to your lifestyle
or diet will ever help and by far the
biggest risk factor is the least
preventable of all age 63 percent of
people who get cancer up over the age of
65 if cancer doesn’t kill you and
cardiovascular disease doesn’t either
then a respiratory disease probably will
nine point four percent of people who
died in 2010 died from a condition like
bronchitis or emphysema that affected
their lungs and then there are a myriad
of lesser causes chief among them is
dementia 4.3 percent of us will go this
way though that’s not to say that it’s
unlikely you’ll get dementia because
current estimates suggest a third of
people who die of other causes also have
dementia what we can say is that when
you die you will almost certainly be old
by 2030 people over the age of 65 will
account for 86 percent of deaths in the
developed world while 44 percent will be
people over 85 which brings us to the
most pressing question of all when will
it happen probably when you’re about 80
on average people in the developed world
live to be seventy nine point seven
years old which means that if you’re 15
you have roughly 65 years left and if
you’re closer to 45 it’s more like 35
and if you’re 65 and all goes well you
have about 15 years left there are
variations of course women live about
five years longer than men if you live
in Japan you’ll probably live three
years beyond 80
whereas living in Hungary or Turkey
might mean you live five years less if
you’re overweight you might lose a year
while being severely obese risk losing
up to 13 years if you had a degree by
the time you were thirty you might live
six years longer than someone who didn’t
and if you’re in a happy relationship
you might live longer too one scientist
is liking the effect on your health of
companionship to that of not smoking
though we can never predict the future
these facts and figures can’t change one
simple
incontrovertible gastly fact the
likelihood that we will all die is a
hundred percent which is why in the time
that remains we must be kind especially
to those around us and to ourselves we
must understand our true talents and
potential and try to put them to use and
we must appreciate every day aware that the end might not be so far away
be murdered run over by a bus or eaten
by a shark
murders transport and animal accidents
kill just 7% of people in the developed
world every year now the less good news
most people when asked say they would
like to die quickly ideally without
warning and in their sleep but the
reality is that your death will almost
certainly be lingering drawn-out and
with plenty of forewarning that’s
because it’s likely you will die of a
chronic disease roughly 87 percent of
deaths in the developed world are caused
by non infectious disease a condition
that starts deep in the tissues of your
own body and lasts a long time
slowly and ruthlessly reducing your
ability to lead a full life until you
die
this means you will probably die in
hospital 60% of us do with one in ten
having been there for a month or more
just 18 percent of us die in our own
homes comforted by the sight of familiar
surroundings and possessions on the plus
side you will probably not die in pain
pain is fully controlled in sixty to
seventy percent of cases of chronic
disease though dying inevitably involves
some neurological and bone pains that
are hard to relieve that how you die but
what exactly will kill you most likely
your heart you have a one in three
chance of dying from a cardiovascular
disease that means a failure of your
circulatory system the system of veins
and arteries that is steadily and
rhythmically pumping blood around your
body at a rate of around 80 beats per
minute right now as you watch this film
12% of you will die from a heart attack
an 8% from a stroke the single biggest
risk factor is something you can do
little to prevent high blood pressure in
over 90% of cases the cause of high
blood pressure is simply unknown the
next thing most likely to kill you is
cancer caused when a mutation develops
in one of your cells and reproduces
uncontrollably
cancer is responsible for a quarter of
all deaths in the developed world
chances are that a cancerous cell has
already developed in your body it can
take many years for it to divide and
grow and form a tumor big enough to
cause symptoms or show up on a scan
it will probably be in your bowel or
lung cancers in those parts of the body
are the most common making up 13% of all
new cancer cases there are variations
due to gender of course if you’re a
woman then cancer will most likely start
in your breast and if you’re a man it
will get going in your prostate you can
reduce the chances of getting some
cancers 22% of them are caused by
smoking but two-thirds of cancers are
non preventable
which means no change to your lifestyle
or diet will ever help and by far the
biggest risk factor is the least
preventable of all age 63 percent of
people who get cancer up over the age of
65 if cancer doesn’t kill you and
cardiovascular disease doesn’t either
then a respiratory disease probably will
nine point four percent of people who
died in 2010 died from a condition like
bronchitis or emphysema that affected
their lungs and then there are a myriad
of lesser causes chief among them is
dementia 4.3 percent of us will go this
way though that’s not to say that it’s
unlikely you’ll get dementia because
current estimates suggest a third of
people who die of other causes also have
dementia what we can say is that when
you die you will almost certainly be old
by 2030 people over the age of 65 will
account for 86 percent of deaths in the
developed world while 44 percent will be
people over 85 which brings us to the
most pressing question of all when will
it happen probably when you’re about 80
on average people in the developed world
live to be seventy nine point seven
years old which means that if you’re 15
you have roughly 65 years left and if
you’re closer to 45 it’s more like 35
and if you’re 65 and all goes well you
have about 15 years left there are
variations of course women live about
five years longer than men if you live
in Japan you’ll probably live three
years beyond 80
whereas living in Hungary or Turkey
might mean you live five years less if
you’re overweight you might lose a year
while being severely obese risk losing
up to 13 years if you had a degree by
the time you were thirty you might live
six years longer than someone who didn’t
and if you’re in a happy relationship
you might live longer too one scientist
is liking the effect on your health of
companionship to that of not smoking
though we can never predict the future
these facts and figures can’t change one
simple
incontrovertible gastly fact the
likelihood that we will all die is a
hundred percent which is why in the time
that remains we must be kind especially
to those around us and to ourselves we
must understand our true talents and
potential and try to put them to use and
we must appreciate every day aware that the end might not be so far away
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