Life Expectancy Calculators

When I retired from the USAF in 1992 (age 38) I took several surveys from various life insurance companies (maybe 7 or 8 surveys). With my lifestyle as it was, they ALL indicated that I would most likely pass away between ages 60 to 65.

The positive thing that probably kept me going after retirement was that I taught karate classes 2 or 3 times a day, 5 or 6 times a week. But after the last class that day, I just wasted myself...

Without going into detail, I can say that my lifestyle consisted of drinking parties, poor sleeping habits, high stress, eating convenient fast-foods like fried chicken, pizza, burgers, etc., overindulgence in sweets, etc. I was single living overseas, so I had no family responsibilities or obligations.

Fortunately, I neither indulged in drug use nor smoked since my late teens (trying to look older and wiser by smoking a pipe for a couple of years).

In 1998 (age 45) I took up a new lifestyle philosophy and personal training routine, and underwent drastic changes in my living habits. No, I did not join a cult or any group of fanatics, I just made a choice to control things that previously controlled me. I stopped drinking alcohol “cold-turkey” but never felt a desire to drink since (I feared that since my father and grandfather were alcoholics, I would experience withdrawal, but it didn’t happen). I ate healthier foods, and ate out less often. I withdrew from the large group of “friends” who conditional friendship involved all my previous carousing indulgences.

In 1999 my lifestyle had changed so much that I married.

In 2002 (age 49) I took up steady employment teaching English at a local Okinawan middle school. Good recommendations each year have kept me going since then.

In 2005 I became a vegetarian. I eat mostly local produce (foods from the environment in which I live and am a part, like the local Okinawan centenarians).

In 2009 I reduced my sugar intake by about 75%.

In 2014 I reduced wheat gluten intake by about 90%.

Early this year (2018, age 64) I retook the insurance surveys (now on the Internet, and mostly the same companies), and was told I would likely reach age 91 (varied between 88 and 93).

For the new Japanese school year which began in April 2018, I had a complete medical exam (first complete exam since 1992). This is now mandatory because my employment status just changed from “local hire” to full government of Japan Employee Status. Med exam is required every year I am employed now (almost free). The doctor expressed surprise as he relayed the information he got from the tests and the x-ray -- everything normal, I had the test results he would expect to see from a man below age 30. He asked me what I did for work -- I told him I was an English teacher...

When I came home, I retook the insurance surveys, adding up-to-date info like blood pressure, cholesterol, etc. that I didn’t have at the beginning of the year. Barring accidents and such, my life expectancy is now calculated at 99 years. My wife's surveys indicated over 110...

Curiosity got to me, and I retook one of the more detailed surveys (not connected with an insurance company) and entered the old parameters from my carousing days. Using my old discarded lifestyle of stress, drinking, fast-food, etc. and my present age of 64, it gave me 15 more years of steadily declining health.

Statistics... Can't trust 'em, eh?