Macular Degeneration: The Downside of Living Longer

摘要

Nothing Could Be more emblematic of modern progress than the aging of the population. In the America of 1900, even then the most industrialized nation on Earth, the average life expectancy was 49. Today, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the average American can expect to live to be 83. While few of us would turn down an extra 34 years of good food, sunsets, invigorating vacations, and time with our loved ones, there is an increasing likelihood that our enjoyment of those years could be marred by disability. The very successes of science and medicine in this technological age have created a paradox—a longer life, but with more life-diminishing diseases.