Healthy Childhood, Healthy Elderhood?

From the Bizarre Connections department: FuturePundit and Aetiology discuss a New York Times article that shows evidence that reducing infectious disease in early childhood may reduce chronic disease in old age.

The biggest surprise emerging from the new studies is that many chronic ailments like heart disease, lung disease and arthritis are occurring an average of 10 to 25 years later than they used to. There is also less disability among older people today, according to a federal study that directly measures it. And that is not just because medical treatments like cataract surgery keep people functioning. Human bodies are simply not breaking down the way they did before.