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Re:Biomolecular shifts occur in our 40s and 60s by admissionsguy on Friday June 27, 2025 @02:05AM (#44394074)
and yet none of that makes even a dent
Re:Biomolecular shifts occur in our 40s and 60s by irjustin on Friday June 27, 2025 @02:49AM (#44394295)
For you personally, maybe not, but statistically yes it does.

There are populations that consistently outlive and the only other thing I would add is stress removal in the form of relatively simple life styles.

Re:Biomolecular shifts occur in our 40s and 60s by TeMPOraL on Friday June 27, 2025 @04:06AM (#44394793)
At some point you have to wonder about the costs. Denying yourself everything that's nice and pleasant, and exercising constant, total active control over yourself sure might prolong your life, but what's the point?
Re:Biomolecular shifts occur in our 40s and 60s by bigfudge on Friday June 27, 2025 @04:29AM (#44394936)
The thing is, drinking to excess, smoking, eating ‘badly’ just aren’t pleasures at all if you don’t do them all the time. It’s hard to take the perspective, but there is more to life!
Re:Biomolecular shifts occur in our 40s and 60s by ZoomZoomZoom on Friday June 27, 2025 @08:10AM (#44396143)
Nice slip! Rock'n'Roll, baby!
Re:Biomolecular shifts occur in our 40s and 60s by TeMPOraL on Friday June 27, 2025 @04:56AM (#44395094)
Right, but that's the other extreme. Then there's everything in the middle, and most of that, unfortunately, do not form a kind of "healthy lifestyle" that has a chance to confer longevity benefits. So when people say, "just have a good diet and exercise regularly and sleep long enough and such" - it's a bit of a lie, because to do enough of these things to matter, you might be required to sacrifice the very things you value in life the most.

And I mean here both sacrifice the things you hold dear directly, or indirectly - which for us here is predominantly our careers and places of living.

Exaggerating a little bit to underscore the point: I could likely add years to my QALY lifespan if I moved to countryside, picked up more manual labor that required me to move my whole body, and went hiking in between going to the gym -- but, the things I value are found in cities, the work I like is white-collar, I hate hiking, and I also have people I love to support and lifespan-friendly labor generally doesn't pay enough.

Re:Biomolecular shifts occur in our 40s and 60s by CrossVR on Friday June 27, 2025 @05:44AM (#44395349)
Ultimately as much as we love individual responsibility, the truth is only the lucky few have the ability to freely choose their lifestyle. For the rest of us we have to conform to the unhealthy lifestyle that society demands of us.

To live a life that's even remotely healthy we have to dedicate a significant amount of the precious spare time we have just to undo some of that damage.

I do not believe we are predisposed to adopt sedentary lifestyles. As kids most of us are very active, but we are taught to be sedentary. Both academically and professionally we are most rewarded for sedentary activities: doing extra coursework, building your resume. Is it any surprise we develop a sedentary lifestyle when such a lifestyle is most rewarded?

Re:Biomolecular shifts occur in our 40s and 60s by samus on Friday June 27, 2025 @07:11AM (#44395813)
I think rural life is too romanticized though. It will avoid the diseases endemic to sedentary life, but there will be different health issues instead. Preindustrial agriculture and generally jobs with lots of physical labor are not easy on the body. Coronary heart disease and maybe diabetes and dementia will be replaced by work-related injuries and arthritis. There is a reason many countries allow such people to retire earlier.
Re:Biomolecular shifts occur in our 40s and 60s by bregma on Friday June 27, 2025 @05:57AM (#44395426)
If you want to live forever don't do any of the things that would make it worthwhile.
Re:Biomolecular shifts occur in our 40s and 60s by samus on Friday June 27, 2025 @06:52AM (#44395706)
I don't get the contradiction? A healthy body will make it possible to enjoy all these things in moderation, be the company of your loved ones, and generally enjoy life for far longer. Making life just about the things that damage the body the most will have quite predictable consequences, no surprise there.
Re:Biomolecular shifts occur in our 40s and 60s by TeMPOraL on Saturday June 28, 2025 @12:29PM (#44405951)
'bregma put the contradiction into words in a parallel comment:

> If you want to live forever don't do any of the things that would make it worthwhile.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44395426

Re:Biomolecular shifts occur in our 40s and 60s by samus on Saturday June 28, 2025 @09:04PM (#44409519)
I still don't get it - do people think live is about smoking, drinking, taking drugs, burning in the sun, eating unhealthy, and sitting in a chair the whole day?
Re:Biomolecular shifts occur in our 40s and 60s by TeMPOraL on Sunday June 29, 2025 @04:02AM (#44411156)
No, but it's also not the opposite - spending most time doing physical labor, hitting a gym, doing sports, running or hiking, while eating only the healthy, natural food - i.e. most bland and worst tasting food available, sleeping 8+ hours a day, and staying away from most technology.

(Oh, and walking covered in sunscreen all the time - except not, because that's technology and chemicals; though surely there's some perfectly natural, organic, non-GMO ointment known from ancient times that works even better...)

That's how the other extreme looks like - but unlike the "bad habits" extreme, this one is actually what's needed to make a noticeable improvement your QALY lifespan. It's also a kind of life I wouldn't personally find rewarding - hence the question, what's the point of living longer if you have to live like this[0]?

Between this and the fact that approximately no one can afford living like that today, I say the whole idea of living longer by "just" living healthier is a lie.

--

[0] - This lifestyle is basically the Edo people[1] from the infamous Star Trek: TNG episode "Justice"[2]. Chilling out in a paradise, keeping fit bodies, and basically running around all day in between of making art and having sex with others, sure sounds like an alluring lifestyle to us (and to the protagonists on the show). Still, this episode lets the viewer ask themselves - would they rather be with the Edo, or on the Enterprise? I'd take the latter, thank you - pretty sure I'd go bored shitless after a year in that place. And while United Federation of Planets isn't an available option, even the regular life in the real world seems much more interesting and rewarding to me, if you look past the immediate appeal[3].

[1] - https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Edo

[2] - https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Justice_(episode)

[3] - See also: heaven in Christianity, which if you think more about it, is basically a place of infinite boredom - but it does look alluring to sustenance farmers of the middle ages, as it offered reprieve from the endless toil and oppressive lords.

Re:Biomolecular shifts occur in our 40s and 60s by samus on Sunday June 29, 2025 @05:08AM (#44411472)
Spending most of the day together with people whose company I value, sounds wonderful to me! There are plenty of sports out there and most people should be able to find something that they would both enjoy pursuing and strive to carve out time for it.

You can very well argue that a typical 40h work week leaves too little time to do enough of the good things. But most people would still most likely keep kicking back and using their time inefficiently even if we had to work much less than now.

Remaining too much time sitting in static positions is bad, sure. But people doing physical work are also exposed to massive health risks as usually the load is repetitive and uneven. Both populations need corrective action, but for the physical worker it is more tricky to add a workout routine because their bodies are already overtaxed.

Healthy food being bland and bad tasting is simply a sign of not being able to cook well. Learn stir frying and add some herbs, spices, and sauces. (Yes, sauces often contain sugar, but IMHO it's well worth giving up candy for better tasting real food!)

I hope you are aware that many societies displayed in Star Trek (and similar SF) are for storytelling purposes almost necessarily either oversimplified, have weird traits, or are caricatures reflecting something out-of-universe? For most of them we know very little about how daily life is actually like for a civilian. Of course it doesn't seem compelling to be part of any of these societies. And it is unconvincing to argue that a healthy lifestyle is necessarily one where we won't be able to have fun.

Anyway the point of that episode was to highlight the extreme cost of maintaining such a society, not the lifestyle itself. And of course it would be quite appealing to explore the universe in the comfort of a five star hotel, which living and working on the Enterprise-D surely must feel like.

Re:Biomolecular shifts occur in our 40s and 60s by dzhiurgis on Friday June 27, 2025 @07:15AM (#44395838)
Amazing times we live in where addiction is woke and abstinence must be fascism?
Re:Biomolecular shifts occur in our 40s and 60s by dustincoates on Friday June 27, 2025 @07:54AM (#44396051)
If the populations that you're talking about are the famed "blue zones," then the most likely reason for it is poor record keeping: https://jheor.org/post/2682-ig-nobel-prize-winning-research-...
Re:Biomolecular shifts occur in our 40s and 60s by MOARDONGZPLZ on Friday June 27, 2025 @08:12AM (#44396160)
I think the population they were referring to were active individuals who work out a little, eat well, and don’t drink alcohol. I didn’t see any mention of geographic area.
Re:Biomolecular shifts occur in our 40s and 60s by admissionsguy on Friday June 27, 2025 @08:22AM (#44396240)
and how do the effects of these interventions compare with normal variability of the lifespan in normal people?
Re:Biomolecular shifts occur in our 40s and 60s by bboygravity on Friday June 27, 2025 @02:18AM (#44394135)
It does. Look up Brian Johnson
Re:Biomolecular shifts occur in our 40s and 60s by RivieraKid on Friday June 27, 2025 @04:03AM (#44394772)
He looks older than he actually is.
Re:Biomolecular shifts occur in our 40s and 60s by moralestapia on Saturday June 28, 2025 @09:36PM (#44409673)
Hijacking this comment since there's no "messaging" on HN, lol.

Check this thing out, just launched a couple days ago https://virtualcellchallenge.org/

Re:Biomolecular shifts occur in our 40s and 60s by RivieraKid on Sunday June 29, 2025 @03:27PM (#44415629)
Hah, I like this hack. I'll check it out, thanks.

I've been exploring the current status of atom-level simulation of biological systems and it seems to be an even greater challenge than I expected. Apparently even MD is not as useful as I assumed because it doesn't model some important mechanisms such as bond formation and breaking.

Re:Biomolecular shifts occur in our 40s and 60s by BennyH26 on Friday June 27, 2025 @03:36AM (#44394576)
Bryan Johnson. Brian Johnson is the “Liver King”
Re:Biomolecular shifts occur in our 40s and 60s by 4gotunameagain on Friday June 27, 2025 @03:40AM (#44394606)
Both dudes are equally cringe.
Re:Biomolecular shifts occur in our 40s and 60s by dzhiurgis on Friday June 27, 2025 @07:11AM (#44395816)
You should actually watch Bryan's videos, he's pretty funny and down to earth techie.

Are his therapies are over the top and lacking a bit of experimental rigor? Probably. Does he look healthy af? Definitely.

Re:Biomolecular shifts occur in our 40s and 60s by 4gotunameagain on Friday June 27, 2025 @08:17AM (#44396204)
I actually have. Dude did a "family blood transfusion" with his dad and son. Ew gtfo.

And to me he doesn't look healthy af. His skin is good, sure.

Re:Biomolecular shifts occur in our 40s and 60s by dzhiurgis on Friday June 27, 2025 @08:27PM (#44401477)
Well, some time ago eating potatoes was freaky too.
Re:Biomolecular shifts occur in our 40s and 60s by 4gotunameagain on Saturday June 28, 2025 @01:37AM (#44402489)
This is the most idiotic argument I've ever encountered, bravo.
Re:Biomolecular shifts occur in our 40s and 60s by dzhiurgis on Tuesday July 01, 2025 @06:25PM (#44438507)
Your argument was "ew" so there's that.
Re:Biomolecular shifts occur in our 40s and 60s by lm28469 on Friday June 27, 2025 @03:05AM (#44394382)
What are you talking about? Doing these things is the only way to increase your quality of life and healthy lifespan, no amount money nor medicine will make up for abusing your body for decades.

These things are quite literally the leading causes of death and impairments in the west...