But the effect is to raise alarm more than our spirits. The media bombard us with medical news - breakthroughs in biotechnology and reproductive technologyįor instance. Today feel confident, either about their personal health or about doctors, healthcare delivery and the medical profession in general. In myriad ways, medicine continues to advance, new treatments appear, surgery works marvels, and (partly as a result) people live longer. The heartening list goes on and on (15,000 hip replacements in 1978, over double that number in 1993). Deaths in the UK from infectious diseases nearly halved between 19 between 19 stroke deaths droppedīy 40 per cent and coronary heart disease fatalities by 19 per cent - and those are diseases widely perceived to be worsening. Recent past in 1950, the UK experienced 26,000 infant deaths within half a century that had fallen by 80 per cent. Break the figures down a bit and you find other encouraging signs even in the To live to seventy-nine, eight years more than just half a century ago, and over double the life expectation when Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837. Longevity in the West continues to rise - a typical British woman can now expect According to all the standard benchmarks, we've never had it so healthy. THESE ARE STRANGE TIMES, when we are healthier than ever but more anxious about our health.
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