Just considering the relative numbers of people living in the US, you would expect to see more people in every age group:

1910 US population 92,228,496
2010 US population: 311,243,339

I vividly remember one SAR operation where we searched for an elderly gentleman who had not returned from his daily stroll in the desert around Tucson. It didn't take long to find him - about a mile down the trail his heart had stopped functioning.

What impressed me was the serene, composed expression on his face - definitely not a bad way to go.....

True, althought the article does say that the increase is in spite of taking increases in population into account.

However, longevity of some members of a population doesn't say much about the overall health of the population. Does anyone think our younger generations, who struggle with unheard of levels of asthma, obesity, Type II diabetes, etc. are symbols of health and longevity?

Paul810... if great grand Dad happened to bring home one of those Singer 1911s and gave it to you.... your kids would have a good start on college tuition

Yea, unfortunately he didn't. I think at that time getting them out to the troops was more important.

their contract was for only 500 and went to the Army Air Corps

The vast majority of the longevity gains have come from our having clean water, sewer systems, clean and abundant food. The biggest obstacle to advancing average longevity has long been infant and childhood mortality and failure to develop properly. For most of human history getting kids to puberty was the biggest trick. Young adults, even today, tend to fall to violence, accident and suicide. It was fairly common for wealthy Romans 1200 years ago to get into their sixties, and occasionally seventies.

We lost most of all that for better than a thousand years after the Roman empire disintegrated and the western world had its dark ages.

In terms of actual contribution to longevity medical science hasn't added a whole lot. The big improvement hasn't been so much longevity but quality of life.

I was made to understand that The Wealthy romans,Very Rarily,made it into their 50's due to Excessive over eating & Lead poisoning.Back then If you were obese,You were Wealthy & You drank very acidic wine from Lead Goblets,The Poor people couldn't afford this rare/expensive metal,& Unfortunately lived longer!Medical science on the other hand only recently had developed theory into fact,ie. Variable Blood types,Penicillin,etc. before that it was Blood letting,fasting,& Laudanum for Consumption,Measles,Small pox,Toothaches,etc.Aside from getting a shave/haircut,The Barber also pulled teeth & was often called upon to do the Doctoring!Yup! Medical science sure hasn't changed much nor contributed to Life longevity.Where's that mdinana when you need em'?What's that you say,he's in the Sandbox?Well,I'll just have to visit my Barber then,He know's everything about medical science & Then some!:)

The treatment of infectious diseases has added materially to longer lives - TB used to be an extremely common disease, knocking off our ancestors before they had a chance to develop cancers. Also yellow fever, influenze, smallpox - the list goes on and on.

Barring antibiotics and vaccines, I'd tend to agree with you.

Majority of advances are probably related to public health measures. But w/o the above 2, lots more folks would be dead of "trivial" diseases.

Speaking of which, anyone else notice the outbreak of measles in Europe due to decreasing vaccination numbers?