Does that mean that the life expectancy of Americans will plateau or even fall?
Yes. I think it’s likely that it will plateau and plausible that it will decline. That’s precisely the topic of our paper. Q: Big news! Is that mainly because of obesity? A: Yes, and infectious diseases. Q: Which infectious diseases? A: Actually, I’m not going to talk about that [before the article is published]. I’ll just say that in general we’re setting ourselves up for a rise in infectious diseases. I mean the ones we already know about, such as the influenza virus that occurs every year, [and] new infectious diseases that are taking over subgroups of the population. For instance, West Nile virus, which is mosquito-borne, is something we never had in the U.S. until a few years ago. AIDS is another example. Q: So do you think the life expectancy in industrialized nations and even worldwide might plateau for the same reasons? A: Yes. Q: Why do Asians — people in places such as in Japan and Singapore –live longer than other people? A: First of all, the Japanese tend to be much more
