Preventive Medicine and Healthy Longevity: Basis for Sustainable Anti-Aging Strategies

In the last century, both human life expectancy and maximum life span potential increased [1]. The analysis of North European mortality curves suggests that a relevant role for this phenomenon was played by the reduction of lifetime pathogen burden [2]. Whatever was the real cause, at the end of 1900, the improved hygienic conditions, the proper diet, the better health condition, and the decreased infant mortality elevated life expectation up to 80 years, with a consequent raise in elderly population of industrialized countries. In the society, the public perception of advanced aging involves the inability to survive alone due to chronic diseases and the combined loss of mobility, sensory f…