An excerpt from 21st Century Schizoid Health Care: Essays and Reflections to Keep You Sane on Your Medical Travels. Over a decade ago, a landmark ten-year study by the MacArthur Foundation shattered the stereotypes of aging as a process of slow, genetically determined decline. Researchers found that 70 percent of physical aging and about 50 percent of mental aging are determined by lifestyle and the choices we make every day. Additional research showed that people who live longer often experience shorter periods of decline before death, a phenomenon sometimes referred to as “compression of morbidity.” That means that if we optimize healthy lifestyles, we can “live longer and die shorter,” i.e., condense the decline period into the very end of a fulfilling, active old age.