Some People Want a Personal Pan Pizza, Others Want Personalized Medicine.

1. The 51%.

Cancer has long been one of the leading causes of death among Americans, but advances in treatment, early detection, and public health initiatives such as those against smoking have, according to a new report from the American Cancer Society, modestly reduced the overall incidence in cancer over time, and substantially increased the 5-year survivability rates among cancer sufferers.?

That’s the good news. The bad news is that rates for women have increased steadily over the last 50 years and now are almost equal to the rates for men.? Most alarmingly, cancer incidences have shown their most marked increase in women in early and mid-life. One of the troubling aspects of this trend is the growth in new cases of cervical cancer — a disease widely viewed as preventable in the United States — among women 30 to 44.?

Overall, the rate of cervical cancer has fallen since the mid-1970s, when Pap smear screening to detect precancerous changes became widely available. But the rebound in cancer rates closely tracks recent surveys that found many women are postponing visits to their gynecologists.?

Shameless Self Promotion #1.

It may seem tasteless, even for us, to do a self-promotion off a story about rising cancer rates for women, but the individual and systemic challenges that women face in health care is the precise topic of Season 7 of the Century Lives podcast, from the Stanford Center on Longevity, which debuts today. This season, entitled “The 51%”, explores the women’s health disadvantage and the large disparities in our health system and in society writ large that leave women leaving longer in poor health.?Episode 1 drops today and you can listen here.? We hope you will stick around through episode 6, when we will report on, among other things, a breakthrough innovation that will allow, pending FDA approval, or testing for cervical cancer without going to the doctor.??

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2. Some People Want a Personal Pan Pizza, Others Want Personalized Medicine.

We’re nothing if not schizophrenic about health care here in the US. On the one hand, we have a hard time delivering basic health care to millions of people. According to the Kaiser Foundation, one in four Americans have put off necessary care in the last 12 months due to costs and affordability.???

But at the same time, we are fascinated with the new (read costly) opportunities of personalized medicine to improve healthy aging and increase the odds of longer, healthier life. According to a new survey from the Harris Poll, 65% of Americans are interested in epigenetic blood tests to evaluate age pacing and disease risks, 63% in genetic testing to understand individual predispositions and tailored interventions, and 49% are interested in AI health coaches to make personal recommendations.?Truthfully, we’re not sure what to think of AI health coaches though we are pretty confident that we prefer them to ChatGBT sex partners. All of this suggests that even as we struggle to provide basic health care to all, an expansion of personalized medicine for some is coming fast.?

Shameless Self Promotion #2.

50% of respondents told the Harris Poll that they would be interested in exoskeletons to improve mobility and strength.?We don’t need a poll for that. We’ve interviewed the inventor of the Muscle Suit and tested out his exoskeleton. You can listen in as I lift huge weights and fight off supervillains (at least that’s how I remember it) in Season 6 of the Century Lives podcast from the Stanford Center on Longevity.?

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3. Say Goodbye to Your ChatGPT Trainer and Say Hello to Mr. Guinness.

If you have made it this far in the newsletter, thanks for sticking with us. It’s been a particularly grim newsletter issue, what will all the reporting on cancers and the endless self-promotion. And as a reward, meet Kathleen Hennings, of Cheltenham, UK, who turned 105 late last year. Hennings advice on healthy longevity: “drink Guinness and never marry.”?

Look, we know that the research is not favorable on beer consumption and that marriage is positively correlated with life expectancy: any AI trainer can tell you that. But research, such as the impact of marriage on life expectancy, cannot account for the vast variety of human experiences. What may work for one person, simply may not work for another. One thing we do know is that happiness correlates with healthy longevity, so if an occasional Guinness and the single life really rings your bell, then that is worth more than any personalized supplement regimen.??

Shameless Self Promotion #3 (A New Unofficial Record For Self-Promotion).

And speaking of the many ways to age healthfully and happily, check out the latest episode of GrandPeople, featuring some very happy older women in Australia who delight audiences as the Crones in Cabaret. It’s not to be missed.?