are we really living longer?

Are we really living longer?

According to the latest biennial snapshot from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Australians are living longer. Men and women that reach 65 can expect to live to 83 and 86 respectively. However while we are spending more time on this planet, are we really ‘living’ longer?

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, from 1998 til 2003 we increased our life expectancy by 1.3 years, but for girls 1.2 of those are taken up by disability, leaving us an extra .1 years – hardly an impressive increase, but we’ll take it.

However when you consider that 77% of the population are suffering from a long term health condition the picture gets worse, and we are not just getting sick because we are older. The stats show that a whopping 41% of 15 year olds are also chronically ill.

Chronic conditions like mental disorders and diabetes are on the rise. In fact the rates of diabetes have doubled in the last two decades.

The reason for the discrepancy between life expectancy and ‘quality life’ is our health focus. Almost all of our time and money goes towards what I would call crisis care – in other words, waiting until people are sick and then trying to manage it. In fact less than 2% of our health care budget is spent on preventative health, and even much of that is spent on early detection rather than creating health.

The only way to create a longer and higher quality life is through lifestyle change. So if you want to live a long, happy, healthy and productive life, don’t rely on the health care system to get you there: start taking a proactive approach to your health and wellness. Begin making changes to how you eat, think and move and you too can start to “live” more.

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Are we really “living” longer?