The past few weeks have been insightful on the topics of life and death for me. A couple of wakes, hospital visits, statistics on my social media feed, and a daughter talking about her dad pointed out the obvious — that time is a vital resource we should never undervalue.
I had to attend two wakes in a span of three weeks, which signals that I am of the age where a segment of my social network will begin to shrink as nodes get disconnected. In other words, friends, families and acquaintances have reached the age when disease and health factors are increasing the probability of death.
The two lives that were remembered at the wakes I attended ended because of health factors. Their deaths added to the statistics that tell us what health issues we need to be on the lookout for.
The top five causes of death in the Philippines are heart attack, cancer, stroke, pneumonia and diabetes. Most of these diseases are linked to lifestyle and genetics so the health risk can be managed with behavioral changes and regular monitoring.
We can extend our life expectancy with these changes and invest in better knowledge and technology. The Philippines has improved its life expectancy from 60.9 years when I was born to 69.8 years as of 2023.
In the 1970s, the Philippines had the third highest life expectancy in the original ASEAN. Today, it is dead last (pun intended) with our ASEAN neighbors having on average an additional five to six years of living.
We have had more luck in bringing down our fertility rate though. From nearly six births per female, we are now down to 1.75 as of 2025. This level is below what is considered a healthy rate of 2.1 births per female, which is the replacement rate. This is reasonable, however, given our desire to reach upper-income level status. But we need to be careful.
Recent articles that have entered my feed continue to reinforce the dangers of very low fertility rates. An example of this is Singapore, which had its fertility rate drop to 0.85 births per female in 2025. The government has launched several campaigns to boost births but has had to rely heavily on immigration to supplement its population.
But it is not just Singapore. South Korea and even China have similar issues with fertility rates of 0.72 and 1.00, respectively. Alarm over declining and/or aging populations in the US, Europe, and Asia appears to be growing.
To boost our life expectancy, we need to consider points raised by Dr. Eric Topol in his book, Super Agers: An Evidence-Based Approach to Longevity. Super agers are defined by Dr. Topol as those who are over 85, are free of major chronic diseases, and are cognitively sharp. Apart from lifestyle, his book talks about the advances in medicine, technology, and biology that could help us extend our lifespans.
But as US Gunnery Sgt. Dan Daly in 1918 (better remembered in the movie Starship Troopers 80 years later) challenged his troops, “C’mon you sons of *******, do you want to live forever?!”
Yes, who wants immortality? We should strive to live longer but if we want immortality, the only way to do that is to create an impact through ideas, investments, infrastructure, and teachings which over time compound and propagate. As Andy Warhol stressed, “The goal is not to live forever, but to create something that will.”