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With greater longevity, the quest to avoid infirmities of aging is more urgent

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71–80 of 245 posts

Re: With greater longevity, the quest to avoid infirmities of aging is more urgent

#71

Anyone interested in the idea of living longer (without the detrimental effects of aging) should check out any Aubrey De Grey talk/video/interview.

I'm extremely interested in the topic (as I get older but happen to like living). However some people seem to think De Grey is a bit of a crackpot?

His research agenda and goal is outrageously challenging and controversial and he might be a too overconfident. There is good reason to be skeptical, but he is not a crackpot. Attempting to do something that may turn out to be impossible or wrong approach is not crackpottery.

His work of identifying reasons of aging seems really reasonable. Trying to reverse every one of those is incredible challenge. It's the biggest moonshot ever attempted.

Re: With greater longevity, the quest to avoid infirmities of aging is more urgent

#72

By living longer you are merely stealing resources from those that follow you. You can have immortality or reproduction - choose.

That doesn't make sense on several levels including mathematically. Two sterile immortals would use less resources than a stable progression of two child average couples in a generation. There would exist therefore a middling equivalent or lesser resource using immortal reproduction k per t or n additional projection than say N per generation mortals.

Not to mention the theft framework is nonsensical - while it is a good thing to have sustainable systems and resources how can one steal from that which does not exist and may not ever even?

Under that framework I could accuse anyone of wrongfully occupying the space of an entity which may only exist at the end of time after all intelligent life is dead - which is more absurd than the invisible pink unicorn arguements.

Re: With greater longevity, the quest to avoid infirmities of aging is more urgent

#73

By living longer you are merely stealing resources from those that follow you. You can have immortality or reproduction - choose.

I'm fed up with business meetings already. The thought of having to endure them for all of eternity sounds horrible!

Reproduction, thanks! Wouldn't mind spending the last 10 years in good health though.

Re: With greater longevity, the quest to avoid infirmities of aging is more urgent

#74

By living longer you are merely stealing resources from those that follow you. You can have immortality or reproduction - choose.

> By living longer you are merely stealing resources from those that follow you

Have you carefully examined the logical outcome of such a line of thinking? Carousel, anyone? Is your life clock blinking?

Re: With greater longevity, the quest to avoid infirmities of aging is more urgent

#75
post #7

Yes we can. Calorie restriction is well known slowing biological aging process. Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calorie_restriction

This has to do with mitochondrial metabolic processes being the most efficient to break down smaller quantities of sugar. There are mitochondrial mechanisms to break down a lot at once that are turned on in the presence of more sugar but they just aren’t as finely tuned and thus generate free radicals which can cause cellular problems. There really wasn’t a point throughout evolutionary history where there was a prol…

Interesting to know about free radical creation when mitochondria are overwhelmed. I’m sure there’s a lot more factors involved in aging however, not the least of which would be senescent cells. Telomeres only allow cells to divide ~50 times before they’re unable to replicate further.

Re: With greater longevity, the quest to avoid infirmities of aging is more urgent

#76

The most intriguing thing I found in the article, is that, If you design & sell items specifically to elderly, they wont buy it. Because they don't want the product to remind that they are old. So the solution is to design a product which suits to the elderly but seems like its designed for young generation.

>The most intriguing thing I found in the article, is that, If you design & sell items specifically to elderly, they wont buy it. Because they don't want the product to remind that they are old

In the modern society, that is.

In previous eras/societies, it was a badge of honor to be among the elderly, and there were products/lifestyles associated to that that did fine.

Re: With greater longevity, the quest to avoid infirmities of aging is more urgent

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing is for sure, the average Western diet has so many calories than most people could probably do with a little restriction. (Not even to do anything special, just to return to a healthy state.)

At the same time, many young men in the West struggle to put on weight and are underweight.

Depends how define many. 34.8% of men between 20-39 are obese in the US:

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db288.pdf

That's far more a concern than whether men need to bulk up or not. Which naturally happens as men age and their metabolism slows anyway.

Re: With greater longevity, the quest to avoid infirmities of aging is more urgent

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing is for sure, the average Western diet has so many calories than most people could probably do with a little restriction. (Not even to do anything special, just to return to a healthy state.)

At the same time, many young men in the West struggle to put on weight and are underweight.

For a small number of "many".

[...] according to 2010 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, these are the measurements of the average American man:

Height: 5 feet 9 inches (69.3 inches) Weight: 195.5 pounds Waist circumference: 39.7 inches

Re: With greater longevity, the quest to avoid infirmities of aging is more urgent

#79
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't decide if this is sarcastic/tongue-in-cheek or serious. If serious - would love to see source(s) for that statistic....

Serious. Don't have the statistics, but look up "gomad" for "gallon of full fat milk a day" - it is a thing for a reason.

Everything is a "thing for a reason".

The reason could be a tiny outlier minority.

You used the term "many".

Re: With greater longevity, the quest to avoid infirmities of aging is more urgent

#80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has to do with mitochondrial metabolic processes being the most efficient to break down smaller quantities of sugar. There are mitochondrial mechanisms to break down a lot at once that are turned on in the presence of more sugar but they just aren’t as finely tuned and thus generate free radicals which can cause cellular problems. There really wasn’t a point throughout evolutionary history where there was a prol…

Interesting to know about free radical creation when mitochondria are overwhelmed. I’m sure there’s a lot more factors involved in aging however, not the least of which would be senescent cells. Telomeres only allow cells to divide ~50 times before they’re unable to replicate further.

Unable or won't?
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