What strategies actually work to fight dying?

For most of human history, death has been a blunt fact of life. People died because they were eaten, had an accident or developed an infection. In 1950 global life expectancy was 46.5 years. But now that the world is richer and healthier, it is almost 72. Living longer exposes more people to the wear and tear of ageing. Unlike their ancestors, they spend little time dodging predators and worry instead about succumbing to dementia or simply to frailty.