How age is not the most important factor in health decisions.
Updated: Jul 27, 2023
For many, age is an important, if not the most important factor when making health decisions, or choices related to ones lifestyle, dieting, or what treatments or screenings to have or not have.
Yet, an increasing number of health authorities are looking at other factors to advise course of actions for the general public as a whole, or physicians as they help patients navigate the decision making process related to their health.
The American Cancer Society, The American College of Physicians among other entities, are increasingly advising looking at Life expectancy rather than age, to make the best decisions related to health. Simply put, life expectancy is age seen through the prism of other risk factors...
Lifestyle choices, hereditary and environmental factors have a great impact on top of age, in estimating the life expectancy of an individual, hence deciding whether certain health decisions or screenings make the most sense or not.
Understanding the persons life expectancy, especially for older individuals is very key in helping doctors and patients alike plan, and make healthy decisions tailormade for each and everyone, and that are least prone to risks and most likely to produce desired outcomes for patients when possible. and which are the likeliest to help them.
For those individuals who are interested, there are many reputable institutions offer such useful calculators for health expectancy, that help patients decide what course of action, screenings or medical procedures make the most sense.
