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What does my 80 year old father do to stay healthy?

lifespanbook.com

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Re: What does my 80 year old father do to stay healthy?

#51

Post by yuan43 »

avgDev wrote: post #15

This is survivorship bias at its finest. What his father is experiencing is luck mixed with good genetics. Plus, additional support of good diet and exercise. Yes, we all can control our diets and exercise. However, we cannot control the medication that we take, which carry side effects. We cannot control what is in our food, we cannot control the air we breath, we cannot control cancer and hundreds other diseases. T…

> However, we cannot control the medication that we take, which carry side effects.

What makes you say that? The medications one takes are due in part to decisions made earlier in life, which result in conditions experience later for which the drugs are prescribed.

Also, drugs aren't the only solution to certain medical problems. For example, you can take weight loss pills, or you can actually cut your caloric intake.

Re: What does my 80 year old father do to stay healthy?

#52

Post by dugmartin »

neogodless wrote: post #25

If you work backwards from what kills people, you can theoretically work out what will improve your chances. In the elderly, heart disease and a rapid decline in health after a broken hip are high on the list of events that lead to death. So keeping the cardiovascular system healthy, and strengthening the muscles that support balance and reduce injuries make sense. Strength training and a sufficient, consistent amoun…

I would add general weight bearing exercises to your list to prevent osteoporosis:

https://www.bones.nih.gov/health-info/bone/bone-health/exerc...

Re: What does my 80 year old father do to stay healthy?

#53

Post by xwdv »

avgDev wrote: post #15

This is survivorship bias at its finest. What his father is experiencing is luck mixed with good genetics. Plus, additional support of good diet and exercise. Yes, we all can control our diets and exercise. However, we cannot control the medication that we take, which carry side effects. We cannot control what is in our food, we cannot control the air we breath, we cannot control cancer and hundreds other diseases. T…

“Genetics” is the ultimate excuse people love to use nowadays, and I say this as a person with somewhat eugenic views.

The fact is, genetics has a much smaller role than what people think it does. If you make good life choices and stay consistent with optimizing your health your genetics won’t have much relevance. Even if your bloodline is prone to cancers or other diseases you can mitigate dying to those conditions if you have awareness to catch problems early.

Re: What does my 80 year old father do to stay healthy?

#54

Post by BossingAround »

yuan43 wrote: post #51
avgDev wrote: post #15

This is survivorship bias at its finest. What his father is experiencing is luck mixed with good genetics. Plus, additional support of good diet and exercise. Yes, we all can control our diets and exercise. However, we cannot control the medication that we take, which carry side effects. We cannot control what is in our food, we cannot control the air we breath, we cannot control cancer and hundreds other diseases. T…

> However, we cannot control the medication that we take, which carry side effects. What makes you say that? The medications one takes are due in part to decisions made earlier in life, which result in conditions experience later for which the drugs are prescribed. Also, drugs aren't the only solution to certain medical problems. For example, you can take weight loss pills, or you can actually cut your caloric intake…

> The medications one takes are due in part to decisions made earlier in life, which result in conditions experience later for which the drugs are prescribed.

This seems like a naive take. While it is technically correct, you most likely cannot significantly influence a number of significant illnesses, such as mental illnesses (e.g. Alzheimers), cancers, blindness, etc. You might slow down the onset at best with some of those.

If one doesn't smoke, drink, and walks at least ±2h a week, what else is there to do that has significant benefits..?

> Also, drugs aren't the only solution to certain medical problems. For example, you can take weight loss pills, or you can actually cut your caloric intake.

Drugs and medical procedures tend to be the only feasible solution to a number of significant illnesses (such as cancer).

Re: What does my 80 year old father do to stay healthy?

#55

Post by BossingAround »

paulpauper wrote: post #47
avgDev wrote: post #15

This is survivorship bias at its finest. What his father is experiencing is luck mixed with good genetics. Plus, additional support of good diet and exercise. Yes, we all can control our diets and exercise. However, we cannot control the medication that we take, which carry side effects. We cannot control what is in our food, we cannot control the air we breath, we cannot control cancer and hundreds other diseases. T…

We cannot control what is in our food, Of all the things you listed, I think this is controllable. But I agree genes play a huge role. Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger do no exercise and have famously bad diets, yet both are fully productive and healthy at 91.

I'd say what's in your food is controllable if you live on a farm.

Outside of that, it gets very difficult without scanning barcodes, looking up specific items in a database, and periodically doing lab analyses.

There's the "control your food" as in "don't eat fast food" and there's the "control your food" as in "does this fish have high mercury in it?"

Re: What does my 80 year old father do to stay healthy?

#56

Post by WalterBright »

avgDev wrote: post #29
mandeepj wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> However, we cannot control the medication that we take, which carry side effects. >We cannot control what is in our food, we cannot control the air we breath, we cannot control cancer and hundreds other diseases. Seriously? The answer to all of the above - Yes, we can!

You can control the side effects you may get from a medication you take? If you get an infection you are taking meds. If you get kidney stones, you are very likely getting meds, if you injure yourself and need surgery you are getting meds. These carry risks, therefore, every time your chances of "perfect health" are decreasing. I get that most people on HN, can control the air they breath as they have the means to de…

Many cancers are lifestyle affected. For example, smoking and lung cancer. Excessive sun exposure and skin cancer. Alcohol consumption and throat cancer.

Re: What does my 80 year old father do to stay healthy?

#57

Post by VLM »

Generally life extension runs up against three non-technical problems:

Addicts will fight VERY hard in support of their addiction. Try telling a life long sugar addict to fix their T2 diabetes by eating fewer carbs; they'll completely explode at you. People who die from smoking were usually told about a million times to quit smoking before their diagnosis, LOL.

Innumerate people seem to actively oppose statistics. There is only it works or it doesn't and they'll have a complete meltdown at the concept that maybe 80% of lung cancer is caused by smoking and 20% for other causes therefore there is nothing they can do to alter their pre-determined destiny. Arguably belief in predestination and/or innumeracy could be considered a mental illness (see below) but I'm specifically referencing the stubborn desire to beat the odds by ignoring the odds. (edited to emphasize, the type of thing I'm referring to is the aggressive proselytization of the idea that finding one counterexample or anecdote disproves the entire corpus of all theoretical and applied statistical mathematics)

Most people decline and die younger for some kind of psychological reason. They're depressed so they can't do anything so they can't exercise so they get fat and die of a heart attack, they did in a certain technical sense die because they were fat, but they got fat because they were depressed. Or they have an addiction problem. Or they follow quacks because they think if martyrdom is religiously superior then punishing themselves is superior even if it shortens their life, or they follow medical advice based mostly upon making money off prescriptions, or they follow medical advice that was proven obsolete via research last century, or they are so into collectivism and "fitting in" that they would literally rather die than think for themselves or read a book, whatever the TV (or social media) says is not just good enough, but should be forced on people, even if it kills them.

Re: What does my 80 year old father do to stay healthy?

#58

Post by outworlder »

BossingAround wrote: post #55
paulpauper wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We cannot control what is in our food, Of all the things you listed, I think this is controllable. But I agree genes play a huge role. Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger do no exercise and have famously bad diets, yet both are fully productive and healthy at 91.

I'd say what's in your food is controllable if you live on a farm. Outside of that, it gets very difficult without scanning barcodes, looking up specific items in a database, and periodically doing lab analyses. There's the "control your food" as in "don't eat fast food" and there's the "control your food" as in "does this fish have high mercury in it?"

Sure, some food may have contaminants. Fish is a good example. You might have to choose, for instance, farmed salmon instead of wild. Pesticides may be a factor. Microplastics are going to make this a more annoying problem.

But far more important is to control _what_ you eat. A tomato is a tomato. But ketchup is not a tomato. You may get health issues from contaminants, maybe. But you _will_ have health issues due to bad diet.

Re: What does my 80 year old father do to stay healthy?

#59

Post by outworlder »

brianwawok wrote: post #16

> His resting heart rate is just below 60 beats per minute. The steps pushed it up to 155 beats per minute. (His maximum heart rate should be 220 minus his age, 80. That’s only 140 beats per minute — far below what he is capable of!) Sorry, that's not how this works. 220 - age is a very crude and not very good guess at the heart rate for a population. It is not YOUR max heart rate, and your max heart rate being highe…

> On the other hand, resting heart rate of under 60 is good. Under 50 is likely better.

At which point does that becomes bradycardia and a sign of a health problem? My understanding is that, unless you are an athlete, your resting heart rate won't be that low (as in, < 50)

Re: What does my 80 year old father do to stay healthy?

#60

Post by ericmcer »

avgDev wrote: post #20
methehack wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nonsense. No one is trying to establish a causal link here. Still, a concrete example of what's possible is useful and inspirational. If you do this, will you get this outcome? Probably not. Does it help me imagine a possible path? Yes, definitely.

So, if the article mentioned {insert product name}, doing mushrooms, drinking and smoking, should I look at it as a possible path for me to achieve great health? Even though all it is, is just some survivorship bias? Should I think about doing those things? Am I wrong for not doing those things?

Yeah it’s anecdotal but there are statistics backing up most of what is said here. We know diet and exercise play a positive role, we know drinking and smoking play a negative one and we know there are outliers. It’s probably best to assume you aren’t one.
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