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Ask HN: Longevity for your parents, what to do?

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Re: Ask HN: Longevity for your parents, what to do?

#91

Post by voldacar »

copperx wrote: post #78
voldacar wrote: post #34

Rapamycin will probably be more effective than any of those. Also, resveratrol has very low bioavailability ( Also, get them to a healthy body fat % (as measured by dexa) which is like 15% or less imo, and have them doing regular cardio.

Rapamycin sounds exciting and really dangerous. I don't think it's a net win.

I think it is a net win. It's one of the only longevity drugs that has an actual significant effect. I don't think the immunosuppression is really a huge danger, there are plenty of people out there taking it and they aren't dying of weird diseases left and right

Re: Ask HN: Longevity for your parents, what to do?

#92

Post by ETH_start »

minhmeoke wrote: post #71
rsync wrote: post #35

Encourage them to walk as much as possible - hopefully daily. Encourage them to shorten their feeding window. Perhaps as small as 4-6 hours but even 8 hours would be a big step up from a (typical) 12 hour feeding window. If you wanted to be more ambitious, any kind of resistance training would be fantastic but not at the expense of the walking. ... I notice you employing a familiar heuristic: "things doctors don't wa…

Another thing people have been consuming for millennia are fermented foods (eg: yoghurt/kefir, kombucha, sauerkraut, kimchi without preservatives). Perhaps a healthy gut biome is the secret to avoiding obesity by increasing gut microbiome diversity and reducing inflammation: https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2021/07/fermented-foo...

The secret to a healthy biome seems to be higher fiber intake, as fiber is consumed by probiotics in the gut.

Re: Ask HN: Longevity for your parents, what to do?

#94

Post by braingenious »

blep_ wrote: post #90
braingenious wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s an interesting perspective. I would still love to hear from somebody that is an actual longevity enthusiast rather than speculate as to their motives. As I’ve said, my previous actual conversations with longevity enthusiasts have been quite unsatisfying because I don’t buy “better telomeres for a higher number of years” as an actual pure human motivation. I would buy “a crippling fear of death” or “I want to s…

I kind of did answer your original question, but to do so more directly: I enjoy making stuff. More time to make stuff would mean more enjoyment. Recently, I've been experiencing burnout that interferes with my ability to do this. It will pass, with time. But it's easier to think about that the longer my life will be, because I would have lost a smaller proportion of my limited time to it. Repeat for any other thing…

Ah I didn’t realize that you considered yourself to be a longevity enthusiast. When you said: > Maybe some of these people actually have a passion for pushing the envelope.

That sounded to me like you were speculating about a group rather than stating your personal stance.

Yes, my last paragraph is a distinct wording of the exact same question, though it is meant to cut more to the core of what I’m asking about.

Are you aware that during an average lifetime, you’ll see quite a few people around you die, and the longer you live the more that will happen?

I’ve done end-of-life care for quite a few cancer patients in their late eighties to around 100. Even the ones in relatively good shape often like to talk about the people they’ve lost, it’s a natural part of aging that can’t be abated by metformin or intermittent fasting. Ignoring it doesn’t abate it either. The older they are, the more people they’ve lost.

Living to 130 sounds honestly terrible to me unless you don’t have anybody you care about losing, or you’ve got people you look forward to losing. The point of living to 130 is not “living long”, it’s “living longer than [everybody/average people/some specific group].”

Re: Ask HN: Longevity for your parents, what to do?

#96

Post by agent008t »

DiabloD3 wrote: post #18
dhsysusbsjsi wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m interested to know more about how NMN/Metformin/Resveritrol didn’t pan out in humans as all the mice studies seemed quite promising.

Metformin did pan out, but the research seems to indicate One Meal A Day would have to be employed with it, as Metformin seems to interfere with autophagy. Lack of autophagy seems to be the biggest cause of the effects of old age, as the Western Diet pounds 3 meals a day, which means our insulin levels never drop to the autophagy activation level. If you want that "one weird trick that doctors hate", OMAD alone is al…

Is OMAD also a good idea if you struggle to maintain/gain weight even with 3 meals a day? Is it consistent with making progress in sports, i.e. getting stronger/faster/increasing endurance? Is it consistent with outdoor activities like walking/hiking ~25km/day?

Re: Ask HN: Longevity for your parents, what to do?

#97

Post by agent008t »

braingenious wrote: post #94
blep_ wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I kind of did answer your original question, but to do so more directly: I enjoy making stuff. More time to make stuff would mean more enjoyment. Recently, I've been experiencing burnout that interferes with my ability to do this. It will pass, with time. But it's easier to think about that the longer my life will be, because I would have lost a smaller proportion of my limited time to it. Repeat for any other thing…

Ah I didn’t realize that you considered yourself to be a longevity enthusiast. When you said: > Maybe some of these people actually have a passion for pushing the envelope. That sounded to me like you were speculating about a group rather than stating your personal stance. Yes, my last paragraph is a distinct wording of the exact same question, though it is meant to cut more to the core of what I’m asking about. Are…

But 'living to 130' is an option, not an obligation. You can always leave sooner if you want.

Re: Ask HN: Longevity for your parents, what to do?

#98

Post by paulcole »

johntash wrote: post #65
braingenious wrote: post #63

I have a sincere question for people that are into longevity: Why? Staving off mental decline makes perfect sense, that’s not what I’m referring to. There are some people that seem excited to simply push the envelope as to how long they can live for through diet and pharmaceuticals, and I personally don’t really understand that. What is the particular appeal of e.g. living to be 130 years old?

> What is the particular appeal of e.g. living to be 130 years old? Assuming you can stay mentally and physically healthy during that time, what is the downside? Why would someone _not_ want to live as long as they can? There is so much that has happened in the last 130 years, it'd be great to see what happens in the next 130 years.

> Assuming you can stay mentally and physically healthy during that time, what is the downside

First, this is a comically huge assumption. Second, it’s expensive to live. Third, it might be boring and sad to see friends/family die. Fourth, depending on age now, climate change might exacerbate the cost and misery of existing within the next 100 years.

Re: Ask HN: Longevity for your parents, what to do?

#99

Post by blep_ »

braingenious wrote: post #94
blep_ wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I kind of did answer your original question, but to do so more directly: I enjoy making stuff. More time to make stuff would mean more enjoyment. Recently, I've been experiencing burnout that interferes with my ability to do this. It will pass, with time. But it's easier to think about that the longer my life will be, because I would have lost a smaller proportion of my limited time to it. Repeat for any other thing…

Ah I didn’t realize that you considered yourself to be a longevity enthusiast. When you said: > Maybe some of these people actually have a passion for pushing the envelope. That sounded to me like you were speculating about a group rather than stating your personal stance. Yes, my last paragraph is a distinct wording of the exact same question, though it is meant to cut more to the core of what I’m asking about. Are…

(You're talking to two different people and that quote wasn't from me. I would not go so far as to call myself an enthusiast, but I plan to use whatever life-extending things become available. IMO, nothing that currently exists is proven enough to bother with.)

I am aware that people die, and that over a longer time span more people will die.

I think the real philosophical difference here might be that there are no completely irreplaceable people in my life. There are people I like very much and will be very sad when they die. But there is nobody in the "life is literally not worth living without them around" category for me, and I don't expect there ever will be. I'll grieve, and then I'll continue. It has happened before, and it will happen many more times even within a normal human lifespan.

I do not expect this applies to everyone. My sense of meaning, to the extent I have one, is probably somewhat less dependent on interpersonal relationships than most people's.

Re: Ask HN: Longevity for your parents, what to do?

#100

Post by thorin »

braingenious wrote: post #63

I have a sincere question for people that are into longevity: Why? Staving off mental decline makes perfect sense, that’s not what I’m referring to. There are some people that seem excited to simply push the envelope as to how long they can live for through diet and pharmaceuticals, and I personally don’t really understand that. What is the particular appeal of e.g. living to be 130 years old?

This is covered in the new The Sandman series which was just released (and I assume in the graphic novel). It starts off seeming pretty good, but there are a few ups and downs...
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