Preventing aging is better than treating serious diseases
Studies have found that delaying aging is more beneficial than treating individual critical illnesses. For Americans, delaying aging and increasing life expectancy by ten years is worth more than $7 trillion per year!
When I was in graduate school, my professor at the University of Chicago, Kevin Murphy, was studying the economic contribution of medical innovation and found that in the thirty years since the 1970s, declines in heart disease mortality alone had made the life expectancy of Americans increased by more than 3 years. Along with the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases and various cancers, the average life expectancy increases by about 5 years. Human life has a price, and the economic contribution of these medical innovations brings a return worth over $3 trillion to the United States every year, which is equivalent to half of the GDP!
Yes, after the “epidemiological transition” of the last century, epidemics that threaten humanity have shifted from infectious diseases that threaten younger generations to chronic diseases that threaten older generations, and to cardiovascular diseases and chronic diseases such as various cancers, the The traditional medical answer is that treatment is better than prevention. Just imagine that the more effective we invest in treating heart disease, the greater our chances of surviving to age 60 and the greater our risk of various types of cancer. As a result, the demand for prevention and treatment of various cancers will be greatly increased. Think about it, when cancer doesn’t kill us, the prevention and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s will only become more valuable. Therefore, I believe that the most important economic revelation of health capital in the twentieth century is the increasing returns on health investments, and this increasing return is due to the complementary relationships between different investments in health capital.
Let’s test everyone: who is the number one killer and highest risk factor for cardiovascular disease? Is your blood sugar high? Or hypertension or hyperlipidemia? No, the answer is advanced age! It turns out that advanced age is the highest risk factor for all chronic diseases. To tell the story of longevity in the 21st century, experts from two major disciplines recently jointly published an article “The Economic Value of Targeting Aging,” which highlights: In the 21st century, extending healthspan is more valuable than simply extend your lifespan. and delaying aging is more useful than treating individual serious diseases. Delaying aging and increasing life expectancy by ten years is estimated to be worth more than $7 trillion per year. By resisting aging, we can finally meet all our health needs.
The author is the chief economist of Orientis (he studied at the Chicago School of Economics and excels in business because he believes that business practice is the best standard for testing the truth of the market).
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