In time for Thanksgiving: Human health continues to improve

Here in the United States, we’re getting ready to celebrate the beginning of what’s regarded as the “holiday season” with Thanksgiving, a time to reflect on the things we’re thankful for. I don’t think I’m alone when I say I spend a lot of time looking forward to scientific advances yet to come, which sometimes causes me to forget about how good things are in the present. Less than a century ago, before the discovery of penicillin, an infected scratch could kill you. Around fifty years ago, polio paralyzed hundreds of thousands of Americans. A couple of decades ago, AIDS was an imminent death sentence.

I could go on for hours naming the incredible medical developments that have enabled humans to live longer, healthier lives, but what’s really important is how these technologies have helped us. The Wall Street Journal runs down twenty health statistics for which all humans can be thankful, which include:

• 40 percent of adults have never had a permanent tooth extracted
• Hip fractures are down 30 percent in the U.S. and Canada since 1985 (Why? We don’t know, exactly, but it’s still good news)
• In 2008, fewer Americans died in traffic accidents than in any year since 1961
• Life expectancy in the U.S. has reached an all-time high of nearly 78 years
• Around the world, 27 percent fewer children died before their fifth birthday than in 1990 due to access to clean water, medicines, sanitation, and low-tech items like insecticide-treated mosquito nets

Let’s also be thankful that medical technology continues to progress at a rapid pace, and gene therapy and nanotechnology continue to show practical promise that may revolutionize medicine as antibiotics once did.

Happy Thanksgiving, friends!