Well, to be fair, if you eliminate the common causes of death, other, new, common causes will crop up. At the start of the babyboomer generation, small pox & polio were being wiped out, so it's natural that something else came in to take its place. Hell, cancer likely wasn't a great common killer even a century ago until people started living long enough to experience it.
I'm not trying to hand wave over anything, but it's hard to justify comparing cause of death stats from nearly 100 years ago to current era when we've made so many strides in combating some previously fatal diseases that are now routinely treatable or even preventable.
Alzheimer's sucks. Dementia sucks. I've worked for/with people with Alzheimer's and it's never pretty. I lost my own Grandfather to dementia last year. Neither is pretty, and the both do the same damage: typically the person suffering from the disease isn't even aware, but all family and close associates suffer instead. It's brutal to all involved.
I'm not trying to hand wave over anything, but it's hard to justify comparing cause of death stats from nearly 100 years ago to current era when we've made so many strides in combating some previously fatal diseases that are now routinely treatable or even preventable.
Alzheimer's sucks. Dementia sucks. I've worked for/with people with Alzheimer's and it's never pretty. I lost my own Grandfather to dementia last year. Neither is pretty, and the both do the same damage: typically the person suffering from the disease isn't even aware, but all family and close associates suffer instead. It's brutal to all involved.