Oh Goodie! A Longer Life Might Mean a More Painful Death

Scientists have recently discovered that living to a ripe old age may not be all it’s cracked up to be. In fact, according to their research, true longevity may be more like a bowl of rotten cherries. More specifically, an increased life expectancy could lead to a longer and more painful death. 

The findings come from one of the first studies to look at the last year of people’s lives, using data from the Swedish registry to analyze the deaths of anyone over 70 between 2018 and 2020. Researchers identified six different types of death trajectories, and unfortunately, the winter of our lives prove to be quite unpleasant. “Our results show that most people over 70 in Sweden are in long-term care during the last year of life,” study co-author Marcus Ebeling explained. “Our results indicate the hypothesis that rising life expectancy, especially at older ages, is partly due to a prolonged death process.”

Ebeling also noted that this bleak death trajectory is incredibly expensive for the health-care system.

Of course, Ebeling isn’t suggesting that your grandparents start smoking, binging on bacon or do anything else to compromise their health. But philosophically speaking, the study does challenge the idea of what it means to have a “good” death. For instance, is a good death the act of passing on when you’re still of sound mind and have some control over your faculties? Or is it all about getting numbers on the board, no matter how painful the end is?

Because if this study is any indication, the twilight of your life will definitely bring the pain.