Causes of Aging and Death
Causes of Aging and Death
By Ron La Fournie – SeniorsFitnesswithRon.com
Most people don’t like talking about death. I understand that. But avoiding the topic doesn’t change the reality. One day, every one of us will face our final chapter—so the real question is: How much influence do we have over how that part of our life unfolds?
More than most people think.
When I wrote ‘Fitness Saved My Life’, I talked a lot about personal responsibility—how small daily decisions can change the entire trajectory of your health, what I called, ‘Raising My Aging Curve’. That message matters even more when we look at what actually ends our lives. Not to scare anyone, but to empower you. When you understand the causes of death, you also understand the causes of life—longer life, better life, and stronger life.
The Big Four
Across Canada, the United States, and most of the developed world, four categories account for the majority of deaths:
- Heart Disease
Still the number one cause of death.
This includes heart attacks, congestive heart failure, arrhythmias, and clogged arteries. The tragic part? Most of these conditions are strongly linked to lifestyle factors—nutrition, movement, stress, sleep, and smoking. Genetics plays a role, but it doesn’t determine your outcome the way people think it does. You are not just a passenger in this car. You are the driver, and there is much you can do to ‘Raise Your Aging Curve’.
- Cancer
Cancer is a complex family of diseases, not one single thing. But many of the most common cancers—colon, breast, lung, prostate—are influenced by inflammation, toxins, weight, inactivity, and long-term nutritional habits.
Cancer is not always preventable, but every evidence-based guideline agrees: fitness and nutrition create a stronger internal environment that improves your odds dramatically.
- Respiratory Diseases
This includes COPD, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and pneumonia. Smoking historically caused the majority of these deaths, but inactivity, poor lung capacity, and chronic inflammation all contribute.
Your lungs behave like muscles: ignore them, and they shrink. Train them, and they strengthen. Use it, or lose it folks.
- Metabolic Diseases (Diabetes & Related Disorders)
This is the silent global tsunami we are in today.
Type 2 diabetes, fatty liver, high triglycerides, high blood pressure, obesity, and insulin resistance all travel together. You’ll often hear these conditions lumped into metabolic disease, and once you’re in that group, your risk of heart attack, stroke, kidney disease, and nerve damage skyrockets.
The good news? These conditions respond better to lifestyle change than almost anything else in medicine.
The Medical Approach—Old vs. New
For decades, the medical system treated disease like a fire department: wait for the fire, then rush to put it out.
That meant pills, procedures, and surgeries—all valuable, all sometimes necessary, but none aimed at the root cause.
Today, things are shifting.
Doctors are finally talking more about preventing disease rather than waiting for it.
- Early detection
- Lifestyle changes
- Nutrition
- Exercise prescriptions
- Weight management
- Stress reduction
- Avoiding ultra-processed foods
- Improving sleep
Some clinics now have “exercise physiologists” and “health coaches” on staff—something that didn’t exist when I was younger. Medicine is waking up to something we’ve known all along: most chronic diseases are lifestyle diseases.
But here’s the challenge: the medical system is overwhelmed, doctors are stretched thin, and the old model of “take a pill and hope for the best” still dominates. Which means the responsibility comes back to you and me.
What You Can Control
You cannot control genetics.
You cannot control aging.
You cannot control accidents, viruses, or pure bad luck.
But you can control how strong, flexible, mobile, nourished, and resilient your body becomes as you age.
Here’s the truth no one wants to say out loud:
Most people die earlier than they should because their lifestyle aged faster than their body needed to.
The body thrives when you:
- Move daily
- Maintain muscle
- Improve balance and mobility
- Eat real food
- Reduce sugars and processed carbs
- Maintain a healthy weight
- Support your heart, lungs, and circulation
- Manage stress
- Sleep well
None of these require perfection. They require consistency, not intensity.
Exercise and Nutrition: The Two Parts of Fitness
In all my 79 years, I’ve seen the same pattern:
When people commit to regular movement and better nutrition, everything shifts.
- Blood pressure drops
- Blood sugar stabilizes
- Cholesterol and triglycerides improve
- Weight comes down
- Inflammation reduces
- Strength and balance improve
- Sleep deepens
- Energy returns
Exercise is not just something you do. It’s medicine. It’s life insurance.
Nutrition is not just “fuel.” It’s chemistry.
Together, they influence almost every major cause of death—and nearly every cause of life.
Final Thoughts
We can’t avoid death. But we can delay it, and we can improve the years we have before it arrives.
Every walk, every stretch, every workout, every whole-food meal is a statement:
“I’m not giving up my health without a fight.”
That is the message behind Seniors Fitness with Ron.
That is the message of Fitness Saved My Life.
And it is the message I hope you take from this article:
Your choices today shape your tomorrow. Choose well.
For more scientific detail, check out Dr. Peter Attia and his book,
'Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity'