ABSTRACT
As any health professional should know, approximately 75% of the more than 6,000
people in the United States who die on an average day are 65 years old or older. The
deaths of these people are not caused by old age per se; that is, no genetically
programmed clock within them automatically stops because their allotted time on earth
has expired. Approximately two-thirds of those who die do so because of heart disease,
cancer, or stroke-the three leading causes of death in older Americans. Many others die
accidentally or violently, but the great majority die of one or more illnesses.
