Mercy Internist Dr. Janet O'Mahony Comments on New Study on Life Expectancy

Janet O'Mahony, M.D., an Internal Medicine Doctor and a member of Mercy Personal Physicians Downtown in Baltimore, Maryland, addressed questions from MEN'S HEALTH magazine concerning a new study which found that life expectancy gains have slowed sharply. Here are Dr. O'Mahony's comments:

Why do you think life expectancy gains have slowed?

Most of the gains in longevity over the past 100 years are related to public health advances like sewers, clean water to prevent diarrhea illnesses like cholera, and vaccines to prevent childhood deaths like measles. Once you make it to adulthood, you can worry about things like heart disease and cancer that are the number one and two killers in adults. Because these illnesses affect older people they have less of an effect on overall life expectancy. Deaths in children cause more years of life lost.

The declines in life expectancy were mostly related to COVID. Remember we lost over one million lives to COVID-19 just four years ago. This is more people than die of heart disease or cancer and it is still in the top 10 as of 2023.

The other "epidemic" the opioid epidemic has caused many deaths from overdose.

Influenza is in the top 20 causes of death.

Suicide is up there.

The number one killer in children is guns.

Domestic violence is a killer of women and children.

There are a lot of "longevity influencers" who claim that they're adding decades to people's lives. Why might those claims be inaccurate?

Certain wellness "influencers" want to blame diet and exercise. Access to high quality food and walkable neighborhoods are just as much a marker of poverty as infant mortality and has little to do with "lifestyle" choices.

You would have to make big gains in the issues above before you need to start to worry about the number of French fries we consume in this country. On an individual basis though, these things do matter. We know that regular exercise and a good diet can be protective against heart disease and cancer.

What should people take away from this?

The number one risk reduction an individual can do is stop smoking. Smoking kills by causing heart attack, stroke, cancer and lung disease plus so many other health negatives. Fortunately, a lot less adults are smoking these days at about 11 percent. More people actually smoke marijuana than cigarettes these days.

The Mediterranean diet has been shown to be the most effective at prevention. This is a diet high in olive oil, high in fruits and vegetables, dairy and grains. Low in red meat. Low in sugar. Lower salt consumption is also helpful for people with high blood pressure.

Exercise has been shown to help pretty much every disease at any level of exercise.

Access to quality primary care to diagnose and treat high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and high cholesterol.

Access to cancer screening tests like mammograms and colonoscopies is also felt to save lives.

Vaccines, particularly childhood vaccines have saved countless lives. Adult vaccines include influenza yearly in all adults, COVID updates in everyone, pneumococcal pneumonia in everyone over 50, RSV vaccine in people over 75 plus people over age 60 with risk factors for pneumonia like smokers and people with lung disease. Hepatitis A and hepatitis B vaccines for adults that never had this. HPV vaccine is usually give at age 12 but can be administered up to age 40.

For an individual concerned about their own personal life expectancy, I would suggest a consultation with their primary care physician to discuss their personal risks based on their own family and medical history and risk factors. Prevention, screening and treatment of the common health problems can help a person live a healthy and hopefully long life.

Dr. Janet O'Mahony is an advocate for patient health and regularly contributes advice and feedback to media outlets, online resources and publications. Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Dr. O'Mahony received her medical degree from University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. She completed her Internship at Baltimore VA Medical Center and Residency at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland.