by Peacedog on Wed Apr 01, 2020 10:50 am
I'd say the reality is very little can be done to move the needle to the right in terms of longevity. Even historically, I'd be hard pressed to find verifiable examples of people living much longer than 100 years of age independently in a manner that most people would find enjoyable. The only examples I'm aware of anyone living past 120 years of age essentially involved entering a state of suspended animation for long periods of time punctuated by short periods of activity. Not an optimal situation.
Engineering is beginning to find some compounds, all of which have side effects, that could potentially change this, but none of them are ready for primetime so to speak. I say engineering as these are all off label uses of existing compounds. Science hasn't done jack until very recently involving direct interventions for aging.
A better way to look at it is that many things exist that move the needle to the left (i.e. shorten lifespan). Some only require avoidance and others need an active intervention. Avoidance based issues include: smoking, obesity, drug use, sleep deprivation, prolonged excess stress and high risk activities. Active interventions include: sloth, a lack of stress (i.e. eustress), exercise, life long learning and doing something productive with your time.
I've seen many people die within a few years of retirement due to lacking a reason to live. Nothing was wrong with them physically. They just gave up.
Likewise, I've seen a number of people survive really bad lifestyle decisions into their 90's by sheer force of will.
I've never met ANYONE over 103 years of age that was living independently and having a good time. Ever. I did hear of one man, that I could verify, who was 108 years old when he was run over by a drunk driver in Brooklyn walking home from the gym. FYI, he came from a family of people who all lived into their 90s and early 100's. He was also a strongman in the 1930's, always stayed in shape and never had any bad habits.
Also keep in mind that if the median age of people at the time of death is X where you live that half of them die before that.
Aside from avoiding bad habits, having decent genetics and staying active, I'm not sure what can really be done. And if you have bad genetics, I doubt real longevity is in the cards regardless of what you do. For example, as of today roughly 0.0173% of Americans live to be 100.
But staying active and having a reason to be here, no matter how frivolous, is super important to avoid dying early.