New Perspectives in Men's Health Medicine: Redefining Health Standards, the Laws of Human Aging, and the Challenges of an Aging Society [i]

Compared to what we don't yet know, what we've experienced and will experience seems insignificant. In ancient Greece, a person whose bodily organs were "silent" was considered healthy. According to the World Health Organization, health is defined as overall well-being. The definition of health is merely a wish, an assumption, indicating an ideal rather than a realistic state. We all know that a person is aware of whether they are healthy or ill, and can experience varying degrees of health or illness throughout their life. Therefore, we generally understand which practices are beneficial to health and which inevitably affect health and lead to disease. Medicine is constantly evolving, and health information is as plentiful as grains of sand on a beach. Medical scientists have employed various methods to find the causes of human aging and to try to slow down the aging process. Analysis of excavated bones reveals that in the Stone Age, human lifespan was only 25 years, Romans lived to 30, the average lifespan in the early 19th century was 40 years, 55 years in 1920, and 73 years in 1986. From this, one can infer that in economically developed countries, the average human lifespan increases by one year every 10 years. In EU countries, the average life expectancy for men born at the end of the last millennium was 74 years, and for women, it was 80.5 years. This shows that life expectancy has doubled in the past 100 years. This development is also reflected in the World Health Organization's definition of old age, which defines people as those 75 years and older as elderly. The stages of human aging are divided as follows: 51-60 years old are those beginning to age; 61-75 years old are older; 76-90 years old are elderly; 91-100 years old are very elderly; and 101 years old or older are very old. The maximum lifespan a person can reach under good living conditions is estimated to be 120 years. Although there is no obvious reason why people cannot live to 140 or 150 years old, scientists hypothesize that human lifespan is finite due to genetic factors. How long a person lives depends on their lifestyle, environment, and social influences. Scholars studying human aging (gerontology is the science that studies the causes and phenomena of human aging) attempt to explore the causes of aging and death. While a universally accepted theory of human aging has yet to be found in the search for the causes of physiological aging, a growing body of findings can explain what causes cell death and how this process begins. Today, the gradual aging of the human body is primarily viewed as a symptom, and secondarily as a natural physiological process. According to UN estimates, assuming a constant population growth rate, the proportion of people over 60 will, for the first time, exceed the proportion of children under 15. In 13 countries, people over 80 will account for more than 10% of the total population. On the other hand, people can exert increasing influence on the development of age-related diseases and even prevent their occurrence. Importantly, while extending lifespan, a model must be created that not only extends lifespan but also improves health. Statistically, one-quarter of a person's life is spent after age 65, and despite medical advancements, many still suffer from mobility issues, weakness, and illness in their later years. Eternal life and youth currently seem like a fantasy. Modern medicine has long been dedicated to conquering the barrier of death, but until that day arrives, people must still submit to the natural law of aging that begins from birth. We should understand today that we must lay the foundation for good health in old age during the first half of our lives. [i]