Definitely you have heard it on televisions newspapers documentaries and so on, “modern medicine have expend your life expectancy to an average of 72 years” and to make it sounds more persuasive, a comparison of time before their modern discovery of drugs emphasize that life expectancy was limited to 45 years old. A great step of accomplishment for human life to live longer.
Well sorry for telling you that, it is not the case, people used to live longer and you don’t have to look faraway in time, look back at the Victorian era official documents and you will discover the prove of otherwise. With 90% less degenerative diseases and life expectancy of 75 years.
“Analysis of the mid-Victorian period in the U.K. reveals that life expectancy at age 5 was as good or better than exists today, and the incidence of degenerative disease was 10% of ours. Their levels of physical activity and hence calorific intakes were approximately twice ours. They had relatively little access to alcohol and tobacco; and due to their correspondingly high intake of fruits, whole grains, oily fish and vegetables, they consumed levels of micro- and phytonutrients at approximately ten times the levels considered normal today. This paper relates the nutritional status of the mid-Victorians to their freedom from degenerative disease; and extrapolates recommendations for the cost-effective improvement of public health today.”
“Victorian contemporary sources reveal that life expectancy for adults in the mid-Victorian period was almost exactly what it is today. At 65, men could expect another ten years of life; and women another eight [24,32,33] (the lower figure for women reflects the high danger of death in childbirth, mainly from causes unrelated to malnutrition). This compares surprisingly favourably with today’s figures: life expectancy at birth (reflecting our improved standards of neo-natal care) averages 75.9 years (men) and 81.3 years (women); though recent work has suggested that for working class men and women this is lower, at around 72 for men and 76 for women [34].”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2672390/
https://openi.nlm.nih.gov/detailedresult.php?img=PMC2672390_ijerph-06-01235f2&req=4