On December 29, 1913 the Life Extension Instituted (LEI) is incorporated in the state of New York, a philanthropic organisation “proposes the lengthening of human life by the simple but scientific method used to keep ordinary machinery running – inspection and repair”. [1, 2] The organizational officers included many philanthropists such as former President William Howard Taft and Alexander Graham Bell etc. Taft was appointed Chairman of the board, which helped the private corporation appear credible.
The national agenda inquiring into “aging” began “as early as 1908 as part of President Theodore Roosevelt’s conservation agenda as formulated by the Committee of 100″ of which Irving Fisher was the head. [7]
Though it is stated the idea of the institute was proposed by Harald A. Ley a Massachusetts insurance actuary, he was appointed Treasurer. [6] The organisation began under the pretext of working closely with life insurance companies, but soon expanded to work with all and any organisation from schools, woman’s organisations to churches to promote physical examinations. A stating network of over 7,000 physicians were already appointed across America ready to receive a fee for assessing the healthy population.
They soon established the Hygiene Refrence Board led by Prof. Irving Fisher of Yale, and comprising of “100 leading experts on various health subjects”. [3]
The Institute gathered fees from insurance companies, “two-thirds of any profits beyond five percent on the capital” went to extending the institutes public usefulness.
In February 1915 the LEI reported that the life expectancy of middle-aged American was less than it was in 1880, but this was unique to American, where as “it has decreased during the same period in England and Wales, Sweden, Prussia, Denmark, France and other countries” They institue blamed this premature death on lack hygeine, and the “new mode of living and the general tendency to physical inactivity that now prevail in America” which has “produced the high nervous tension characteristic in a certain class of Americans…” and thus contributed to the death rate. No consideration was given to the fact that compulsory vaccination existed in America, and drug advertising was extensive and common in their media.
They declared that “deaths could have been prevented by teaching personal hygience and by including the practice of periodic health examinations”, where their physicain buddies would be assured of a regular income, from healthy patrons.
By October 1915 the organisation’s Fisk and Fisher had published the book How to Live, Rules for Healthful Living Based on Modern Science – where vaccination, eugenics and sterilization are promoted and “quacks and quackery” outlawed.
This was all at a time when hospitals numbers were dramatically on the increase, and the promotion of “life-span” was attributed promoted as being directly to modern “medical science”. They coined the term “social medicine” in their 1919 report.
In 1918 the LEI began publishing their “How to Live” monthly magazine they called “A monthly journal of health and hygeine“, following the 1916 book of the same name.
LEI still exist today, though has changed ownership several time and is now known as “Engaging Healthy Employees” (EHE Health). This private company deems themselves “an authority on preventive medicine”, and they mandated the experimental, emergency use COVID-19 vaccine to all their employees. [4, 5]