Girls born in Japan today are likely to live until 2095, some with a good chance of seeing the dawn of the next century thanks to having the world's longest life expectancy, the World Health Organization reported from Geneva on Thursday.
The tiny nation of San Marino boasts the longest average life span for men,
at 81 years. The United States lags behind the top nations, with an average life expectancy of 78 for the two sexes combined.
Men in Sierra Leone fare the worst worldwide, living on average just 39 years.

Here are the nations at the top and bottom of the list of life expectancies for the two sexes combined as of 2007, according to WHO:

Longest life expectancies

Japan: 83
Australia: 82
Iceland: 82
Italy: 82
San Marino: 82
Switzerland: 82
Andorra: 81
Canada: 81
France: 81
Israel: 81
Monaco: 81
New Zealand: 81
Norway: 81
Singapore: 81
Spain: 81
Sweden: 81

Shortest life expectancies

Sierra Leone: 41
Afghanistan: 42
Zimbabwe: 45
Lesotho: 45
Zambia: 46
Chad: 46
Uganda: 48
Swaziland: 48
Mozambique: 48
Guinea-Bissau: 48
Central African Republic: 48

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"We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." ~Immanual Kant~

Isn't that interesting about Japan. With all the wild radiation over there from being hit by two nuclear bombs, they are still the longest lived.

USA is on neither list. Well I guess not being on the shortest lived list is good news of a sort.

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I guess since we were mentioned in the first paragraph, we can see that we're at the bottom of the longest...not worth a second mention on the list, LOL!

My first thought is the high iodine content in the Japonese diet; which is why it is believed that the women don't have fibrocystic breast disease as anywhere else in the world. It is estimated that their diet consists of about 12.5MG iodine per day. This is due to a large ocean based diet.

The list starts with those nations surrounded by seas or populations that really enjoy the oceans. ...but then, it gets to inland nations. My theory breaks down quickly.

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- Jim

"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving." - Albert Einstein

The Japanese are large consumers of whale meat and the largest consumers of tuna in the world which are the worst of fish species for mercury contamination. Consequently over 30% of women of child bearing age have very high levels of mercury. Despite this the population and the government seem to have a 'head in the sand' attitude to mercury contamination in fish.

https://www.chinapost.com.tw/art/food...apan-sushi.htm

If the Japanese could be persuaded to start consuming some of Arrowind's Cilantro Pesto paste the average life expectancy would probably be 90.

It may help the Japanese that their diet contains so much iodine. Iodine is an oxidant and oxidizes mercury.

That is why kelp is OK to eat. It too contains mercury and possibly other harmful metals.

Iodine also chelates fluorine, which is another competing halogen. The Japanese probably drink a lot of tea (I'm guessing). Tea contains a lot of fluorine. The iodine would render it harmless; and instead they would benefit from all the good things of tea.

Just speculating.