But consider this: though smoking increases the risk of getting cancer fivefold, being 50 years old increases your cancer risk a hundredfold. By the age of 70, it is a thousandfold.21 Such exponentially increasing odds also apply to heart disease. And diabetes. And dementia. The list goes on and on. Yet there is not a country in the world that has committed any significant resources to help its citizens combat aging. In a world in which we seem to agree on very little, the feeling that “it’s just the way it goes” is almost universal.
