CovOps
Location : Ether-Sphere Job/hobbies : Irrationality Exterminator Humor : Über Serious
| Subject: Listen up, Anarcho-Capitalists: Is It Possible to Live Forever? How to Live a Long, Healthy Life Thu May 22, 2014 2:12 am | |
| So is it possible to live forever?
Imagining living that long almost makes your head hurt.
This lady met Vincent Van Gogh. In person. For real. And was around to see the internet too.
Imagine your retirement age and middle age being the same thing.
She was still riding her bicycle everywhere until 100. Lived on her own until 110.
And there’s pretty much no way you’re gonna live that long. Drink wheatgrass shots and do yoga until you’re a human pretzel, but nope.
People who live past 95 don’t have healthier habits than you or I do – in fact, Clement smoked until she was 117. These people just have amazing genes:
"People who live to 95 or older are no more virtuous than the rest of us in terms of their diet, exercise routine or smoking and drinking habits, according to researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University…“This study suggests that centenarians may possess additional longevity genes that help to buffer them against the harmful effects of an unhealthy lifestyle.”
After getting genetic testing done by 23andme, I found out I have two genesassociated with longevity. Hooray for me. But will they get me past 125?
Looks like a big “No.” Though the average human lifespan keeps going up, the latest research says the limit doesn’t seem to budge at all.
Matt Ridley, author of The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature, notes recent findings that human lifespan may have a hard stop around 125:
"The lack of any increase in people living past 110 is surprising. Demographers are so used to rising average longevity that they might expect to see more of us pushing the boundaries of extreme old age as well. Instead there is an enormous increase in 100-year-olds and not much change in 110-year-olds. The smidgin of good news for the pension industry, therefore, is that it seems that human lifespan comes with some sort of a sell-by date. "
We might have genetic limits… But what if we can change our genetics?
Mean Genes
By manipulating the genes of a worm, Cynthia Kenyon was able to increase its lifespan — by ten times.
And she didn’t just add more crappy years at the end. She extended the young, healthy years.
More: http://time.com/108249/is-it-possible-to-live-forever-how-to-live-a-long-healthy-life/ |
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RR Phantom
Location : Wasted Space Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
| Subject: Re: Listen up, Anarcho-Capitalists: Is It Possible to Live Forever? How to Live a Long, Healthy Life Thu May 22, 2014 2:39 am | |
| So is it possible to live forever?
No! |
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