Reading this article reminded me of my grandparents. In their time, people feared tuberculosis or stroke. Now, when I visit nursing homes, I hear more conversations about memory loss, knee pain, and insomnia.
Even my mother now often has trouble sleeping, which has become a daily annoyance in her life.
We have indeed made great progress. Many diseases that would have killed people in the past are now controllable and even less common. But at the same time, it seems that we have replaced a new batch of problems: Alzheimer's, loneliness, polypharmacy, insomnia.
We live longer, but are we really living better?