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The BBC reports that life expectancy is on the rise in the UK–despite all those pies, chips and beer.

It cites a paper by David Leon of the London School of hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the International Journal of Epidemiology, Trends in European life expectancy: a salutary view (open access: 10.1093/ije/dyr061).

While I’m not going to comment on the review as such, I would like to direct your attention to Leon’s point that National trends do not of course reveal what is happening to mortality within countries. He continues,

Interestingly, recent analyses have found that life expectancy at the age of 50 years among members of the Russian Academy of Sciences has been increasing steadily over the past 60 years, almost in parallel and only just below that of the fellows of the Royal Society in the UK. Russian Academicians have apparently managed to isolate themselves from the massive fluctuations in mortality experienced by the bulk of the Russian population. This striking observation calls into question the contention that the health of even the advantaged suffer in societies that are inequitable.

(my emphases)

The message is clear. For a long and happy life, become a scientist.

Have a great weekend.