X-Message-Number: 2798 Date: Fri, 3 Jun 1994 17:16:29 MST From: "Richard Schroeppel" <> Subject: CRYONICS Average Life Span? Max More quotes Roy Walford ... > The 120 Year Diet (Pocket Books, Simon & Schuster, 1986): p.22 has a chart similar to the one in his earlier book, in a section on average and maximum lifespans. A brief quote: "Curves A, B, and C are the survival curves for the United States in 1900, 1950, and 1982. The *average life span* has been increasing since the turn of the century. This largely reflects the virtual conquest of infectious diseases and to some extent other diseases in First World societies. But it can be shown mathematically that if *all* known diseases were cured -- no heart disease, no stroke, no cancer, no diabetes -- the average life span would move up to 85 years of age, *but no further*, unless the aging process itself were brought under control." Max, can you or Walford back this up? Is there some cheat involving infant mortality, or has somebody dropped a decimal point? The conclusion is sufficiently implausible that I suspect fudging. Rich Schroeppel Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=2798