Average life expectancy by profession. Retirement syndrome: who can later be sent to a well-deserved retirement without harm to their health? Demographic state of modern Ukraine

09.11.2007 A profession for life, long or short...

The fact that everyone is equal before God is an indisputable fact. But how much is allotted to the office worker sitting at the computer and nervously drinking coffee, and the hard worker who digs ditches and lays pipes, warming up with vodka? What, in the end, is more important: fate, which, like that cuckoo, has crowed its crow once and for all, or working conditions, which so inexorably affect the state of health?

Trends in life expectancy

Life expectancy is influenced not only by biological and hereditary characteristics, but also by social conditions created by work, everyday life, rest, and nutrition. Humans live longer than most vertebrates, despite their lifestyle, ecology, drunk drivers on the road and an impressive number of deadly troubles. Some individuals live even more than a century and say with particular sadness the familiar phrase: “But in our time everything was different...”.

Yes, and indeed, in the Middle Ages the average life expectancy did not exceed 40 years. People worked hard, ate poorly and generally enjoyed their short lives little.

Nowadays, every month over a million earthlings cross the threshold of their 60th birthday. According to the UN, the proportion of people over 60 years of age worldwide will double in the next 50 years, rising from 10% today to 22% in 2050. Consequently, today every tenth inhabitant of our planet is over 60 years old. In Ukraine - every fifth.

One of the most striking trends of the second half of the 20th century was the increase in average life expectancy by 20 years, and it is believed that in the first half of the 21st century this figure will increase by another 10 years. I suggest being optimistic and treating pleasant statistics with confidence.

The second, no less striking, trend of the 21st century will obviously be the fact that today there are about 600 million people in the world over 60 years of age. And already in 2050 there will be about 2 billion. For the first time in human history, the number of elderly people over the age of 60 will exceed the number of children under the age of 14. (By the way, 150-200 years ago people over the age of 40 were considered old.)

It’s scary to think that the days will come when there will be two grandmothers for every schoolchild on public transport. And in 40 years, you and I will become these grandparents, a huge number of whom even the most talented science fiction writers could not have imagined 10 years ago.

Demographic state of modern Ukraine

The economic crisis of the 1990s was the main reason for the rapid decline in the average life expectancy of Ukrainians. For comparison, if according to official data, 600.6 thousand people died in 1989, then in 2004 - 761.3 thousand people. Using simple arithmetic calculations, we can conclude that over the course of 15 years, the mortality rate of the population of Ukraine has increased by more than 25%. If the mortality rate during 1989-2004 had remained at the level of 1989, the number of deaths during this period would have been 2.4 million less than the actual number. Considering that behind each figure there is someone's life, the statistics seem terrible. So, global indicators of increasing life expectancy have nothing to do with Ukraine.

In addition, another interesting trend can be identified. The dynamics of mortality for men during this period was 52.3%, while for women the changes in life expectancy were significantly smaller - 28.4%. Take care men...

Goskomstat will publish such official data regarding the mortality rate in Ukraine. In 2004, 761.3 thousand people died in the country; including 391.4 thousand men and 369.9 thousand women. In the total number of deaths, 184.1 thousand (24.2%) are the population of working age (women - 16-54 years old, men - 16-59 years old) and 570.0 thousand (74.9%) - people in age older than working age (women - 55 years and older, men - 60 years and older). That is, people of working age make up almost 25% of the total number of deaths. The average age of the deceased was 67.2 years: men - 61.8, and women - 72.9 years.

In addition, mortality has significant regional differentiation. The highest mortality rates in recent years have been recorded in the Chernihiv region (20.7 deaths per 1000 inhabitants in 2004), Sumy (18.7%), Poltava (18.4%), Zhytomyr and Kirovograd regions (18.3 each). %) regions, among the residents of which there is a high proportion of elderly people; the lowest - in Kiev (10.7%), and regions with a relatively young population: Transcarpathian (12.4%), Ivano-Frankivsk (12.9%), Lviv and Chernivtsi (13.1%) regions . On average, the mortality rate in Ukraine in 2004 was 16 deaths per 1000 population.

Reasons for the increase in mortality among the working population

• Level of health protection and quality of primary education.

According to these criteria (with the exception of the system of higher education and professional development), Ukraine noticeably lags behind developed countries with a rating position among 125 countries. In terms of health care and quality of primary education, Ukraine is 94th (Poland - 26th, Norway - 10th, Japan - first), higher education and professional development - 48th (Poland - 33rd, Norway - 9- oh, Finland - first).

Although history knows examples of how the inaccessibility of doctors caused a sharp decrease in mortality. When Israeli doctors walked out of their offices due to mass strikes in 1973, the number of hospitalizations dropped by 85% and the number of deaths by 50%. By the way, the recorded mortality rate was the lowest in the history of the country.

• Unsuitable working conditions, occupational diseases.

Occupational diseases are diseases that arise as a result of the action of unfavorable occupational factors on the body. This factor is undoubtedly the most significant, so it should be discussed separately.

Occupational diseases

Psychiatrists are similar to their patients, mine workers suffer from shortness of breath, teachers and singers have sore throats, writers become drunkards... No one doubts that the profession leaves an imprint on the person himself, his state of health and life expectancy . But, unfortunately, in Ukraine there are no official comparative statistics regarding the average life expectancy of representatives of different professions. Such statistics would quantitatively reveal the degree of relationship between occupational diseases and average life expectancy.

Occupational diseases have been well studied and classified, as well as their impact on human health. The most practical is to divide occupational diseases into acute and chronic. Acute diseases include those forms of diseases whose symptoms were detected suddenly, after a one-time action of certain harmful production factors. Chronic occupational diseases are considered to be those that arise as a result of prolonged exposure to harmful, hazardous and industrial factors. The Ministry of Health has approved the official list of diseases classified as occupational. After studying this list, you will be able to assess how harmful your work is.

Selective list of occupational diseases

Consequences of occupational diseases

According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), 2.2 million people die every year as a result of work-related injuries and diseases. Of the total number of deaths, 350 thousand are accidents, the rest are victims of occupational diseases. Jukka Takala, an employee of the Ministry of Defense, believes that according to these statistics, the number of deaths will increase annually by at least 10%.

In the occupational pathology clinic of the Ukrainian Research Institute of Industrial Medicine, over the past seven years, over 8.5 thousand cases of occupational diseases of various pathologies have been diagnosed among workers in the mining and metallurgical complex, coal industry, nuclear energy, metallurgical engineering and other sectors of the economy. It has been established that the incidence of occupational diseases at enterprises of the mining and metallurgical complex depends 70% on the circumstances at work, 10%, as is known, on the state of medical care, and the latter - on social conditions and environmental pollution, because workers in industrial regions of Ukraine are under the “double” influence of harmful factors in the workplace and environmental pollution.

It is absurd to believe that the risk of occupational diseases is relevant only for workers in heavy industry. Persons employed in agriculture, due to the uncontrolled use of toxic substances in the form of poison, pesticides or herbicides accumulating in soil, plants and water, suffer from various types of cancer no less often than representatives of other professions.

Office workers often suffer from diseases of the respiratory and nervous systems - air conditioning and numerous stresses for white-collar workers are not in vain.

“Unfortunately, today the majority of medical and sanitary units have been liquidated, and regular preventive examinations have ceased to be the norm. However, occupational diseases are not decreasing. Often diseases are detected in advanced stages, and doctors have to remove people from work with an open form of tuberculosis or cancer.” , - noted the doctor-occupational pathologist of the department of occupational diseases of hospital No. 5 in Kyiv Oksana Smirnova.

So it turns out that when choosing this or that profession, we choose more than a certain level of salary and social status. We choose our life, long or short...

Translation of the article
Irina Zhigalyuk,
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Each person has his own personal rating of professions, prestigious and not so, profitable or low-income, dangerous and safe. For some it is easy and organic to be a dentist, for others, patching holes in other people’s teeth is a complete nightmare, someone sleeps and sees themselves as an important boss in a large office, and someone dreams of a quiet and cozy place as a librarian. There is no friend for taste and color, as they say. But still, experts tried to generalize opinions about the most unpopular specialties for various reasons. The result was an anti-rating of professions.

Most unpopular

In the list of least attractive positions, the first place is that of a public transport driver. There are traditionally the largest number of such vacancies in employment services. The professions of a builder, a loader, a janitor, a seller of non-food products, a repairman, a plumber, a skilled machine operator, a policeman, a nurse are approximately equally unloved by workers...

Until recently, the profession of a school teacher was not among the favorites, but, apparently, in recent years the situation in this area is changing for the better, as more and more graduates of pedagogical universities and colleges connect their future with teaching.

What is not prestigious in the West? For example, in the UK the most disrespected professions are... traffic police inspector and participant in a television reality show. From the British point of view, football players, drivers, sales representatives, people working in the field of PR and politics cannot be proud of their profession either.

In the USA, the last thing, in terms of prestige, is to work as a security guard, butcher, store clerk, construction worker, taxi and truck driver, dancer, waiter. Due to the rapid development of home video and television, it is becoming increasingly difficult for projectionists to find work. This specialty is already considered endangered in the United States. These include the professions of an agricultural worker, a bank teller (they are being successfully replaced by computer programs), a typist and typist (they are being replaced by improved technologies for scanning, text and data entry), a seamstress-minder (sewing industries are disappearing in the USA, and the remaining factories are being automated or transferred abroad). Fewer and fewer workers are needed on assembly lines as they are being replaced by automatic machines. Hairdressers are not in demand in large cities.

The most harmful to health

All professions are harmful. Some specialists risk falling victim to killers, stress and force majeure. Others want to earn occupational diseases and a whole bunch of injuries before retirement. Some people are allergic to their boss. What unites “harmful” specialists?

First of all, high mortality. The record holders for this indicator are bankers, military personnel and pilots. On average, out of every thousand working bankers, four people die in criminal disputes. The number of injured military personnel is about three, pilots - two people per thousand.

A high level of injury is typical for athletes and construction workers (32 and 18.2 injuries per thousand people, respectively). The risk of occupational disease is present among nuclear physicists, chemists, military personnel, programmers - all of them are under the hood of radiation sickness. In pilots and astronauts, the body is destroyed by overloads and vibrations.

In terms of life expectancy, bankers are the least fortunate. They live to an average of 54 years of age. The average life expectancy of journalists, astronauts, as well as nuclear physicists, chemists and biochemists is one year longer. According to statistics, former hairdressers, cosmetologists, massage therapists and accountants most often celebrate their 70th anniversary.

Also in the first lines of the rating “in terms of harmfulness” are representatives of creative professions - these are actors, theater and film directors. Bohemians, as a rule, are ruined by alcohol, drugs, stress, a chaotic life, creative ups and downs - everything that causes an excessive release of adrenaline into the blood. And as a result - heart attacks and strokes.

Politicians and journalists, whose destiny is publicity, are in the middle of the ranking. An overabundance of communication absorbs that part of the energy that a normal person’s body spends on recuperation and relaxation.

The next lines of the ranking include athletes, drivers, florists, security guards, doctors (they are in seventh to twelfth places). The main indicators that influenced their rating were the high level of injuries and the possibility of occupational diseases.

Officials and accountants close the list of hazardous professions. For both of them, as a rule, their whole life is sorted into shelves; stress is just an unpleasant exception to the rule.

The most unpleasant

The most disgusting profession, according to the majority of respondents, was (if it can be called a profession) the profession of providing sexual services. Following this is the profession of pathologists, followed by sewer men, and the list of such professions is completed by workers of pre-trial detention centers, prisons and colonies.

American physicist William Weed surveyed more than a thousand scientists and, based on their opinions, compiled his own list of the most unpleasant specializations in the field of science. This list includes 13 specialties, including a laboratory assistant who analyzes the stool of patients with dysentery; laboratory technician analyzing animal sperm; microbiologist who studies pathogenic microorganisms; ichthyologist-accountant; mosquito researcher; skeleton cleaner; criminologist-sociologist; executioner of frogs. What these people do is easy to guess from the names of their specialties. But there are also some on this list whose names make it difficult to determine the specifics of their work. For example, a confined space tester. This specialty includes engineers and technicians who test spaceships for tightness, security, and comfort. To do this, they have to live in a spaceship capsule for weeks at a time and lead almost the same lifestyle that astronauts lead in orbit. By the way, scientists also recognized the profession of an astronaut as one of the most unpleasant.

The specialty of promoting the metric system exists only in the United States. It was there that the traditional British system of weights and measures was adopted, where miles, feet, pounds, pints are used, and not meters, kilometers, kilograms, liters... In 1975, in the USA, it was decided to gradually switch to the metric system generally accepted in the world, for why the corresponding division was created.

The life of the employees of this division is extremely difficult - they spend most of their time in unpleasant conversations with representatives of corporations and officials, convincing them of the advantages of the metric system. In fact, they are engaged in advertising or trade, and science is in oblivion. It got to the point that at one of the press conferences the head of this department could not tell his weight in kilograms.

Among other things, this list also includes the specialty of a developer of new types of fuel. This process is extremely long and painstaking. For example, the Livermore National Laboratory has been researching nuclear fuel for 50 years, which could theoretically be used to create car engines. Scientists assume that their research will need to continue for at least another 20 years. They compare themselves with the builders of medieval cathedrals, when the walls of the cathedral were erected by several generations of masons.

Cryptozoologists and scent tasters round out the list. Cryptozoologists are engaged in catching endangered animals. Some rare species of birds and small animals can now be considered extinct. But zoologists don’t dare cross them off the list of the living. Therefore, for example, in Hawaii there is a special unit of ornithologists who are trying to catch rare birds that have not been seen for at least two decades. They go out in search of birds every day and return every day with empty cages.

People who evaluate the quality of a product's smell work in perfume, pharmaceutical and food companies and are proudly called "smell tasters." Sometimes they are forced to make sacrifices - not to wash for weeks to check how a new sample of cologne or deodorant fights off an unpleasant odor.

The stupidest

As a result of the surveys, politicians took first place in the ranking of the most “stupid” professions: 20 percent of the total number of survey participants voted for them. In second place, oddly enough, were journalists: they had 18 percent of the votes. Rounding out the top three are police officers, with 15 percent. It is interesting that clowns, for whom fooling around is a direct professional duty, were only in fourth place on the list. They have only 10.4 percent. Officials, military personnel and fashion models are far ahead of the group of leaders. Only 2.5 percent considered the unemployed fools. The researchers did not find any fool businessmen at all.

Official statistics state: the life expectancy of doctors is on average fifteen years shorter than that of patients. It would seem that people armed with the most modern knowledge on how to preserve their health should live longer than others, but in reality everything turned out to be exactly the opposite. Is there an explanation for this paradox?

The Rostov State Medical University conducted a study that included three thousand respondents from 26 to 83 years old from among practicing physicians. More than two thousand specialists from city hospitals, 400 rural physicians and 500 clinicians from a medical university responded to the anonymous questionnaire. The doctors were asked questions that patients usually answer: do they exercise, how do they eat, do they follow a sleep and rest schedule, do they allow themselves to smoke a cigarette or have a drink or two?

The results were disappointing. It turned out that those who should convey the idea of ​​a healthy lifestyle to the masses do not adhere to this strategy themselves. They push self-care into the background.

We started by analyzing the number of publications in which the problem of doctors’ health is raised,” says Vladimir Terentyev, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Vice-President of the Russian Scientific Medical Society of Therapists. - And it turned out that even in the 30-50s of the last century much more attention was paid to this issue than now. It was especially actively discussed in the 50-70s, when more than 2,500 articles on this topic were published. After 2000, their number decreased five hundred times! But this is the most important indicator of the attitude of doctors towards their own health.

The life expectancy of doctors, according to WHO, is on average 54 years. The riskiest contingent are surgeons, resuscitators and anesthesiologists. However, a study by Rostov scientists showed that not only those who stand at the operating table or care for a patient in the intensive care unit work at the limit of mental stress. 63 percent of doctors of various specializations admitted that they experience burnout syndrome.

Until now, stress was considered the main reason for the low life expectancy of doctors. However, a deeper analysis showed: it is not only mental stress that reduces the years of medical workers.

We expected that at least 80 percent of doctors adhere to a healthy lifestyle. The reality turned out to be much sadder, says Terentyev. - Only 41 percent of doctors take care of themselves. 6 percent of rural doctors, 20 percent of urban doctors, and a quarter of university clinicians are involved in physical education. 20 percent of rural doctors observe normal sleep and rest patterns. Among city residents, this figure does not reach 29 percent; 39 percent of medical university employees said that everything was fine with their vacation. Agree, the indicators are not rosy.

The situation in the medical environment and with nutrition is extremely unfavorable. Excess weight is observed in 74 percent of rural doctors. Moreover, this is not just a tendency to be overweight, but practically obesity. 48 percent of city doctors and 46 percent of university employees are guilty of this. Weight loss is accompanied by arterial hypertension. However, people who have a pressure measuring device at hand around the clock do not bother to record their readings, although they are well aware of the consequences.

Today, doctors speak with alarm about the epidemic of chronic non-communicable diseases - obesity, diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart and brain disease. However, one in four doctors do not know their cholesterol and blood glucose levels. Another thing is alarming: half of the city’s doctors admitted that they relieve stress with a glass. And almost a third are not averse to smoking a cigarette. Among rural doctors, these figures are slightly lower - 36 and 34 percent, respectively.

At various symposia, I noticed that a European doctor is strikingly different from the average Russian doctor,” says Terentyev. - It is impossible to imagine that during a break between reports, employees of Western clinics will stand in a circle and smoke cigarettes in unison. This indicates unprofessionalism. We have this all the time.

Satisfaction with their work among domestic doctors is two times lower than among foreign colleagues. Most of our doctors work part-time to bring their salaries to a decent level. High workload, inadequate working conditions, a paper roll... And here we have a man in a white coat who not only eats poorly, sleeps poorly and moves little, but often does not even know what he is sick with.

There is no exact data on the health of doctors yet. The majority self-medicate, receive treatment from colleagues, escaping statistical reporting. Or they do their best to hide the presence of pathologies, not wanting to make them public for fear of losing their job. It would seem that medical examination should solve the problem. But this mechanism, as doctors themselves admit, does not work effectively enough. Firstly, in none of the surveyed groups did clinical examination reach 100 percent. And secondly, more than half of the doctors noted the formal nature of the event and did not expect positive results from it.

The average life expectancy of doctors in Russia is fifteen years shorter than that of patients, why does this happen and is there a way out of this situation? The Rostov State Medical University conducted a study that included three thousand respondents from 26 to 83 years old from among practicing physicians.

We got some interesting statistics:

Only 41 percent of doctors take care of themselves. 6 percent of rural doctors, 20 percent of urban doctors, and a quarter of university clinicians are involved in physical education. 20 percent of rural doctors observe normal sleep and rest patterns. Among city residents, this figure does not reach 29 percent; 39 percent of medical university employees said that everything was fine with their vacation. (“Rossiyskaya Gazeta” - Federal issue No. 5505 (129) dated June 17, 2011)

Official statistics state: the life expectancy of doctors is on average fifteen years shorter than that of patients, that is, 25.8% less than the average life expectancy.

Marginalized people live 18% less than average life expectancy.

These facts are regrettable, but they exist and there is no escape from them.

Scientists claim that high mortality among marginalized masses is associated with low education and poor lifestyle (smoking, drinking, drugs, etc.). Life expectancy in Russia is at the level of developing countries. But this is in general. And the same number of people live in elite Russian groups as their colleagues in Switzerland, the USA or the Congo. The significant difference in life expectancy in different social groups is also evidenced by the fact that a Moscow man now lives to 67.3 years, while the average life expectancy for men in Russia is only 60.5 years. But the real aksakals in Russia live in the Central Administrative District of Moscow. The average life expectancy for men here is 70.4 years, and for women – 78.8 years. Demographers explain this fact by the fact that the Central Administrative District of Moscow is home to people with a high level of education and income, who have more opportunities to take care of their health.

The fact that people with a high level of education, for the most part, along with the methods of traditional medicine, actively use methods of maintaining a healthy lifestyle, is confirmed by the statements of the distributors of the TUI breathing simulator from the “Superhealth” complex. The consumers of their products are 96% people with higher education who care about their health.

Sociologists, based on these observations, even derived a formula: mortality in Russia decreases for men by 9%, for women - by 7% for each additional year of study.

This allows us to assert that the increase in Russian mortality is the result of an increase in mortality in the less educated segments of the population, among people engaged in manual labor. In fact, the main culprit behind the excess mortality in Russia is the monstrous marginalization of the population. But why are highly educated doctors included in these statistics among the marginalized, and not among the intellectuals?

The conclusion suggests itself: for the most part, doctors, despite particularly harmful working conditions, ignore a healthy lifestyle. It seems that people who treat other people know about the need for good nutrition, the benefits of physical education, hardening and other elements of a healthy lifestyle. But alas, most of them are unable to apply this knowledge in practice, for themselves.
In the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries there was a powerful breakthrough in the development of humanity. Scientific and technological progress has led people to new living conditions: sanitary measures, disinfection of water, human waste; the emergence of penicillin and antibiotics. All this helped people get rid of most infectious diseases, which led to a sharp increase in life expectancy. If before the Renaissance the average life expectancy was within 30 years, now it ranges from 58 to 80 years. Age-related diseases have come to the fore, which people simply did not live to see before the Renaissance. These diseases depend on factors such as diet, bad habits, physical activity, and a negative attitude towards life. Medicine, which has won a huge victory over infectious diseases, by inertia is trying to treat these diseases (illnesses of an unhealthy lifestyle) using old methods using artificially created pharmaceuticals. But, alas, medications are powerless in the fight against these diseases: has anyone seen a person who has completely recovered from chronic diseases with the help of medications? Personally, I have never met such people.
Dear reader, each of you will be able to draw objective conclusions about the current state of medicine by reflecting on such facts. “Statistics show that as soon as doctors go on strike somewhere, mortality in that region decreases markedly. In 1976, during the days of mass doctors’ strikes, mortality in the Colombian capital Bogota fell by 35%, and in Los Angeles by 18%. In Israel in 1973, during the strike, the mortality rate was reduced by half. Such a low mortality rate was observed in Israel only once, twenty years earlier, and also during the doctors' strike, the mortality rate returned to its previous level." http://www.nexusrus.com/index.php?option=com_content=view=34=47#note38

I will list the main factors of most modern diseases.

1. Lack of certain substances necessary for the normal functioning of the body in consumed foods.

2. Disturbed gas composition of arterial blood. CO2 concentration is below normal (6 – 6.5%). The source of this phenomenon is lack of movement, addiction to overeating, consumption of fast food, excessive alcohol consumption, smoking, etc.

3. Detraining of the body to cold and other environmental influences.

4. Stress is mainly associated with an incorrect, negative attitude towards life.

5. Bad environment. The result: weakened immunity, metabolic disorders.

Against the background of all this, diseases such as hypertension, chronic bronchitis, bronchial asthma, ischemia, angina pectoris, arrhythmia, heart attack, cerebrovascular accidents, memory impairment, stroke, vegetative-vascular dystonia, type 2 diabetes mellitus, atherosclerosis, cholecystitis, pancreatitis, develop. rhinitis, neuroses, gastric and duodenal ulcers, gastritis, constipation, arthrosis, osteochondrosis, obesity, impotence, decreased performance, headaches, weakness, fatigue, chronic fatigue syndrome, etc. There are about two hundred and fifty diseases in total.

Symptomatic treatment with pharmaceuticals. drugs provide only temporary relief, and in some cases aggravate the situation in the form of side effects leading to disruption of the body's systems.

Over the course of 6 years of study at medical school, a strong belief in drug therapy is developed, reinforced by scientific evidence and clinical trials. The future physician is given the false impression that in case of loss of health, it can be restored with the help of pills. Hence the subconscious confidence that you can ignore a healthy lifestyle and live to the fullest (drink, smoke, lead a chaotic lifestyle), and if you get sick, take a pill and you’re healthy. These arguments at first glance seem primitive, but according to the laws of psychology, many repeated statements are more firmly established at the subconscious level than less repeated statements, although they are more correct. In medical school, most of the time is devoted to studying drug therapy, and there are occasional preventive methods of maintaining health.

Example: the film “Interns”, almost all doctors smoke and drink. In general, the picture is unsightly. Of course, the above does not apply to all medical workers. Some representatives of this profession understand the harmfulness of the dogma about the omnipotence of drugs. They know about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle not only from theory, but also from practical application. Many doctors, finding themselves face to face with medically incurable diseases, changed their lifestyle to a healthy one, introduced their own elements into the art of healing and emerged victorious from this fight. After which they continued to work in the field of improving people’s health, promoting these methods, living to a ripe old age. Many of them are still in health and well-being. Here is a small list of these people: Amosov N.M., Buteyko K.P., Semyonova N.A, Dr. Shelton, Sytin G.N., Louise Hay, Dr. Semenov, Dr. Sinelnikov, V.V., Shatalova G.S. ., Strelnikova A. N., Paul Brag.

What should medical workers do to increase their own life expectancy? There is not much choice.
The only thing they can do is to promote and maintain a healthy lifestyle. To do this you need:

1. Eat a nutritious diet. Now there is a large selection of vitamin and mineral complexes and dietary supplements. Personally, after lengthy experiments, I chose the domestically produced vitamin and mineral complex “Selmevit”. For Russians, this is the most optimal product in terms of price and quality, helping to saturate the body with missing microelements. You need to eat as many vegetables and fruits as possible. Exclude from the menu stuffed with food additives, taste enhancers for this reason, very tasty, fast food (fast food).

2. Maintain the concentration of CO2 in arterial blood at the proper level (6 – 6.5%). You can do this either by jogging for an hour every day or by breathing exercises. Statistics say that only 3–4% of all beginners are capable of this. Now it is possible to solve this problem with the help of a simple device - a breathing simulator. Of the breathing simulators on the market such as Samozdrav, the Frolov breathing simulator, the TUI breathing simulator from the “Superhealth” complex, the most effective and easy to learn is the TUI breathing simulator from the “Superhealth” complex. This is what people who have used these different models say. Now you don’t have to run for an hour, strain yourself, and do breathing exercises. It is enough once a day, sitting at the computer or lying on the sofa near the TV, to breathe for 20 minutes using natural breathing through the TUI.

Such a simple procedure solves such an important (and for 96% of the population insoluble) problem as normalizing the blood gas composition. Agree, this is a miracle and salvation from the possibility of being a half-corpse, stuffed with pills after 45-50 years of age.

3. And of course, hardening, gymnastics, and meditative practices that form a positive attitude towards life are welcome.

I recently had a cardiogram and it turned out to be too good for my age. This surprised the doctor. The question arose: “How do you do this?” My answer: “I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I breathe into the TUI breathing simulator from the “Superhealth” complex, I drink purified water, I take vitamin-mineral complexes, I don’t eat any crap from the Supermarket stuffed with nutritional supplements.” It caused her surprise and regret, she issued a sacramental phrase (which explains this situation with doctors): “Why is such a life needed?”

Therefore, it is necessary to drive smokers and drinkers out of medical institutes, and to promote a Healthy Lifestyle among students.

Officials say that the process of raising the working age limit is inevitable. What do doctors think about the physical readiness of Belarusians to work longer? Why is it easy to increase the life expectancy of rats with the help of medications, but not yet possible for humans, and will those whose retirement age be delayed by several years be more ill? - Associate Professor of the Department of Gerontology and Geriatrics of the Belarusian Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education answers questions about the third age. Candidate of Medical Sciences.

Should Belarusians earn more to live longer?

— I’ll say right away: you cannot separate physical and economic readiness. In the USA, it has been calculated that a person’s life increases by one year if his income level increases by 10 thousand dollars annually. If we assume that all of humanity has begun to live longer (this trend is also typical for Belarus), then we will gradually come to the point that people will remain youthful and active longer.

According to WHO experts, the average life expectancy of those born in the 21st century will be 100 years. This means that, most likely, the retirement age in all countries of the world will gradually increase. This will also affect Belarusians. But it is impossible to reform the pension system only by increasing the retirement age.

— That is, before increasing the retirement age, you need to wait for an increase in life expectancy?

- Yes. But it turns out that if women live longer, then the retirement age should be increased primarily for them. In many countries, both men and women retire at the same time: for example, in Lithuania - at 65 years old. At the same time, life expectancy in this country is on average 78 years.

In addition, we practically do not pay attention to the fact that there is a difference in the life expectancy of representatives of different professions. Why are there no separate displays? The life expectancy of miners will be significantly less than that of those sitting in an office. So for now the overall figure is just an empty phrase. It is worth determining the average life expectancy by profession and certain social groups. Although this may cause tension in society.

— For now, only military personnel and representatives of law enforcement agencies can retire earlier than others in our country...

“A soldier in the active army is one thing, but the one who sits in the office today is completely different.” Is the worker who stands at the machine less loaded? Here the retirement age needs to be equalized. I believe that after 45, military personnel can work for another ten years.

— Is it possible to increase life expectancy artificially, using, for example, some medications?

— Huge amounts of money are being invested in gerontology. Geroprotectors are being developed all over the world. But what is the problem with creating them? Firstly, they are created on the basis of different theories and using completely dissimilar substances. Secondly, they should not be taken in old age, when pronounced degenerative changes have already occurred, but in young or middle age. And thirdly, who will monitor their effects on the body if the subject and the tester live the same number of years? How many centuries will it take before it becomes clear that these drugs produce results and are safe? These are all great ideas, but it will take more than a decade for them to be realized.

Wear a “happy man’s shirt”

— Meanwhile, the population of Belarus is aging...

— This is a trend in all European countries. Today, 2.6 million Belarusians are elderly. The reason for the rapid aging of the population is that the birth rate has been reduced. For the population of Belarus to reach the level of 20 years ago, it is necessary that there be 2.2 or 2.3 children for every woman. So far this figure is only 1.6−1.7.

But there will be a trend in life expectancy. Look how reproductive age has changed. And reproductive age is very related to life expectancy. Nowadays, no one will be surprised if a woman gives birth at 50 years old. And that's okay. According to the new age classification of the World Health Organization, from 25 to 44 years is young, 44 to 60 years is middle age, 60 to 75 years is elderly, and 75 to 90 years is old age. Maybe in connection with this, a lot will change in Belarus. After all, if a 55-year-old woman understands that she is entering the gradation of youth, perhaps her body will follow this idea...

— What is the average life expectancy in Belarus today?

— In general, life expectancy in our country is about 70 years. Men live on average 65-66 years. Women - 76−78. The gap in this indicator between men and women is all over the world: about 8-10 years.

— How far do we lag behind European countries in this indicator?

— Life expectancy in European countries averages 85−87 years. I think the problem is that Belarusians lack life satisfaction and social security. In Japan, the standard of living is high. The Japanese have a good sense of being needed: there a person can work as much as he wants. Companies do not fire their employees when they reach a certain age, but give them the opportunity to retrain and work again. The importance factor and respect for older people in society is very important. In our country, when a person retires, he is practically thrown behind the level of poverty. What life expectancy can we talk about?

The financial aspect is important, but on the other hand, you cannot make someone happy against their will. There is an old parable about how one padishah was unhappy. The sage told him: “When you find the ‘happy man’s shirt’, you will become happy.” The padishah traveled around the country for a long time and did not see happy people anywhere. One day, while driving past a field, he heard a man laughing joyfully, singing a song. The padishah asked him: “Are you happy?” And he answered: “Yes.” The padishah began to ask: “Sell me your shirt.” To which the man said: “I don’t have it.” Everyone has their own concept of inner joy. You just need to understand that life is beautiful.

— What else needs to be done in order to live happily ever after?

— When the parameters of centenarians (people over 90 years old) are studied, trying to determine the factors that promote or hinder longevity, only 50% is allocated to genetics in this process. Everything else is a social superstructure. Man is not just a biological being. It is very easy to increase the lifespan of a rat, mouse, or even a primate by 25-40% using genetic engineering or the action of certain substances. But when it comes to humans, it turns out that those biological laws that can be used to influence animals do not work at all. So often the social factor turns out to be more powerful than the biological structure of a person. And even such bad habits as smoking, alcohol, poor nutrition are relegated to the background. And what helps you live longer is inner satisfaction with your family, profession, yourself and life itself. All this is confirmed by numerous observations, surveys, and studies.

Go to work and be healthy?

— What diseases are more common for people of retirement age?

— In the first place are cardiovascular pathologies: coronary heart disease, arterial hypertension, heart failure. In some countries, this trend is declining as prevention is carried out and a focus on a healthy lifestyle is taking place. In Belarus, cardiovascular pathology is also provided with care at a fairly high level.

But we have not yet learned how to cope with oncology successfully. Just like with Alzheimer's disease. A third of people over 80 years of age in European countries receive a similar diagnosis. Prevention against this disease can be constant brain training and acquisition of new knowledge.

— If a decision is made to increase the retirement age, won’t this lead to an increase in health problems among the population of Belarus?

— Those who work in hazardous industries will most likely have problems. But if this mostly affects women and representatives of professions that are not associated with harm, then the level of diseases is unlikely to increase. On the other hand, for many, the need to go to work will become an incentive to be healthy.

— Let’s summarize: what, in your opinion, are the pros and cons of increasing the retirement age?

— As I already said, for some, pushing back the retirement age will certainly be a benefit. Socially, some people will retain a sense of their own need. The advantage, of course, is that for some time those who work will receive a certain economic security. But a person will no longer be able to work and receive a pension at the same time as before. And this is a minus. Of course, increasing the retirement age will be a problem for those who are sick. It is possible to raise the retirement age, but first the size of pensions must be significantly increased.