In the developed countries at least,the life expectancy of people has increased quite consisterably over recent decades.More and more people are living into their eighties and even their ninties and there are various reasons for this Medical advances have done much to prolong people’s lives.improved diagnostic techniques have made it possible for doctors to detect the sign of disease much earlier than before.This enables them to treat conditions at much earlier stage and early intervention,particularly in the case of some cancer,can do much to save lives Many countries have developed screening programmes to enable doctor to identify certain diseases.An early example of this was the introduction of mass screening by chest X-Ray for tuberculosis.More recently,In several countries,women over a certain age are asked to have a mammogram,an X-ray of the breasts taken every two years or so as a means of detecting breast cancer. Some governments have introduced health education programmes.This has been done to make people more aware of their bodies and of any changes which may occur.People are thus much better informed and are more likely to visit their doctors early enough to prevent diseases from becoming fatal. There have been major advances in medical treatment as well as in medical diagnosis in recent decades. More and more sophisticated drugs are used to treat cardiac disease,Hypertension and strokes, more technically known as cerebrovascular accidents.These drugs prevent people from dying of such conditions at any early age.Meanwhile,chemotherapy and imporved forms of radiotherapy are saving the lives of many cancer patients. Advances in surgical techniques also prevent many people from dying at relatively young age.One of the most major advances was the introduction of transplant surgery by Dr.Christian Barnard that has saved so many lives. There is no doubt that medical care has done much to keep people alive longer.However,it is not the only reason for increased lifespan.Better living conditions have also played a part.More peole in the developed world now live in warm,dry accommodation and are much healthier because of this.