”If I knew I’d live this long, I’d have taken better care of myself,” is attributed to jazz musician Eubie Blake whose meals often consisted of donuts and soda. But, frankly, it’s prophetic. After years of perusing studies, statistics, credible websites and interviewing expert researchers and medical school professors, when I look at the statistics of chronic disease, illness, longevity and mortality, I’ve concluded that the number one threat to health in America is:

Living past 50.

Yep. Evolution has seen to it that our bodies have an expiration date. But because of medical science, technology and public health policy, we’re living more than nearly 50 percent longer on average because the things that used to kill us, don’t any more.

“Even at the beginning of the 20th Century,  half of Americans were dead by 47. Those who made it beyond 50 had chronic disease and were sick and miserable and  were dead by 65,” says Dr. John Morley, chief of geriatrics at St. Louis University School of Medicine. “That’s because they had lousy hygiene,  disease, malnutrition, no money … We’ve come a huge way in 108 years.”

That 50-year life span has been the same for much of the last 50,000 years of human history. And the big improvement had nothing to do with adaptation of our species. In the middle of the 20th century America was besieged by vaccines, antibiotics, clean water, sewage disposal, education, mass production of food, improved food storage, shortened working hours due to labor contracts which meant more money, less stress and more leisure time for the average person. Today, life expectancy on average is above 75 years old and pushing 80. Even sick people are living longer. Bad hearts, lungs and kidneys are being replaced, cancer victims are living decades longer, stroke victims are walking out of the hospital after a stay of less than two days, doctors do surgery on children before they’re born. That’s sobering: We can neglect ourselves and still live long.

So the odds are  you’re going to be alive for a long time. The question is how are you going to feel when you’re doing it: enjoying the second half of a long life, or being sick and tired of being sick and tired.

Studies from all over the place consistently say the same thing: exercise, eat a minimum of five servings (about a half cup per serving) of fruits and vegetables every day, don’t smoke, get your health screenings on time, take your blood pressure medicine, have one drink of alcohol a day, and do what your doctor tells you to do.

That’s something to consider, because life isn’t short.