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Does the human lifespan have a limit?

nature.com

221–227 of 227 posts

Re: Does the human lifespan have a limit?

#221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is incorrect or at least incorrectly stated with respect to the word "you". I didn't start running regularly until my late 40's and I loathed nearly every step for the first year but my fitness and enjoyment levels slowly improved especially after discovering trail running. I started participating in ultra trail races after a couple years and found a wonderful community of people enjoying an activity all around…

If you had followed the exact same fitness regimen when you were 25, you would have seen better results: higher speeds, more endurance, shorter recovery times, etc. That’s why I mentioned sports: even people who have worked out their whole lives, at the top of their sports, see declines in physical performance as they age. Congrats on getting in shape. Relative improvements in physical fitness are beneficial and poss…

Speed and recovery? 100%. Endurance, not so much.

Recovery times are shortest in children - and become very significantly longer even at ages where maintaining muscle mass isn't too much of an issue. Maximum speed peaks with strength in your mid/late 20s & declines from there. Endurance seems to carry on increasing in to the late 30s & declines very slowly, plenty of ultrarunners, Audax cyclists and triathletes in their 40s/50s.

Re: Does the human lifespan have a limit?

#222
post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is essentially a religious belief with no scientific basis.

No, it's not. We are machines, we can be fixed. Just a matter of when, not if.

The laws of physics don't owe you a solution to any problem you wish to solve, including eternal life.

And even if the problem can be solved, evolution doesn't owe you sufficient intelligence for our species to solve it.

Re: Does the human lifespan have a limit?

#223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's not. We are machines, we can be fixed. Just a matter of when, not if.

The laws of physics don't owe you a solution to any problem you wish to solve, including eternal life. And even if the problem can be solved, evolution doesn't owe you sufficient intelligence for our species to solve it.

Any within the bounds of physical laws and resources available.

Re: Does the human lifespan have a limit?

#224
post #109
post #105

My grandparents are now 95 and 96 (just shy of their 75th wedding anniversary). They are wonderful people, but it is clear that life is hard for them now. They have chronic pain and nothing can really be done about it. They have very limited opportunities for enjoyment or activity. Watching them, and also my mother struggle with health issues at 73, has really changed my perspective on aging. I am very focused on enj…

I was surprised at the step down in quality at 59. Definitely worried about other lower qualities of life and thinking about how long it could last. Yeah, I'd rather money be put into quality rather than quantity of life.

There's no reason you can't have both.

Re: Does the human lifespan have a limit?

#225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to save you some money. What really works well and better than taking NMN orally( ), eat a natural clean whole food diet (no pufa's or processed food), no alcohol or smoking and walk or do some sort of light exercise for about 30-60 minutes a day. I am willing to bet it will do more for you than taking NMN. Peter Attia has discussed this with folks who know a lot more than Sinclair and they have concluded t…

but what if I do all of the above?

You would get healthy and waste money on NMN.

Re: Does the human lifespan have a limit?

#226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a gut feeling that as physical medicine has advanced faster than neuro or psychiatric medicine, people will live long enough to want to die, and euthanasia (self or pre arranged) will become acceptable, even normal. I would choose to give my children financial benefits instead of years of late life medicine, even if I could afford to live over 100.

I would love for quality of life to improve so you could enjoy until, say 100, and then euthanize. The two problems i see are: - Retirement age will likely be pushed until 80-85, to avoid long pensions. - Young people will find it harder to get a job, even harder to get a well-paid one.

That would be waste to remain healthy enough to live to 100, then kill yourself. Mental health is a part of living that long in the first place. Anybody who has the mentality that they'll just kill themselves once they reach that age, probably won't live that long anyway.

Re: Does the human lifespan have a limit?

#227

Doesn't DNA have a halflife of like 512 years? I imagine if every cell in the body affected by that there isn't a way to prevent it all from destabilizing by that point.

DNA is continually regenerated.

Doesn't that mechanism degenerate in seemingly an innumerable number of ways
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