Health in the New Millennium
Dateline: January 4, 2000
Health in the new millennium promises a future that is looking longer and healthier: Gene therapy to grow new hearts, new bones, and increase memory are just a few of the ways we will live healthier, longer. The outlook for breast cancer is looking bright with new treatments and laser lumpectomy that removes only the cancer, without the disfigurement of traditional surgical techniques.
The goal of medical science in the next century will be to extend healthy, productive living until the age of one hundred or longer. The attainment of this goal can be seen in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association in which a physician offered a prediction of a female patient in the year 2150.
The most astounding revelation about this fictional woman, who was ultimately diagnosed with a urinary tract infection, as well as pan-resistant E. coli which could lead to sepsis if left untreated, was that she was born in the year 2000. I was fascinated to think that my first grandchild, expected in June, could face a future such as described in the medical history of the fictional patient.
Over the course of her life, her medical history included many of the diseases and conditions that we experience today: She encountered heart disease, leukemia with a bone-marrow transplant, insulin-dependent diabetes with renal failure, Alzheimer's disease, and cataracts. She was the mother of a 122-year old daughter who had survived breast cancer, a pancreas transplant for diabetes, and high blood pressure; and she was the mother of a 65-year old son who was in excellent health and previously was treated for heart disease using gene therapy. Her granddaughter was 98 and had Alzheimer's.
The woman's surgical history included coronary bypass grafting at the age of about 70, bilateral corneal transplant, a kidney-pancreas transplant at the age of about 85, bilateral knee replacements, hip surgery, and laser lumpectomy for breast cancer at the age of about 130.
Her parent's deaths had been caused by natural causes at the ages of 95 and 102. About.com Pregnancy Guide, Robin Weiss says the average age of new parents today is around 32, meaning that our fictional woman of the future's parents died about 2070-75.
Her last sexual contact occurred when she was 87 years old. She has lived in a nursing home 55 years. She smoked one pack of cigarettes a day until she was 80 years old, and still drinks one ounce of vodka daily. She never used intravenous drugs.
Current medications for this woman included two vitamins daily, yearly anti-transplant injections, and annual slow-cyclic-release estrogen implants.
The cost for treating this future woman? The length of hospital stay was estimated to be 2 days at a cost of $340,000 USEuros. And we thought hospital costs were outrageous these days...
The Next Ten Years in Women's Health -CNN
The Future of Birth Control- About.com Sexuality
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