[RD] curing aging

[caketastydelish]

I'm saying do you have proof of any individual who has stopped aging, regardless of who they are. You've brought up an athlete who is middle-aged. Proof would be someone like 200 or so. Thus far there has been a lifespan, the oldest person ever was like 125 or something. I want proof of someone who appears to have been in their twenties, that lived for like centuries until something happened to them unrelated to aging that killed them. There is no such person. The only argument you would have "in the past advances in science made that impossible and we have far more insight and such now compared to then." But that argument would only be a hypothesis because it's never actually happened yet.

 

[Hygro]

Brady is old and weak.

 

[Sommerswerd]

I'm saying do you have proof of any individual who has stopped aging, regardless of who they are. You've brought up an athlete who is middle-aged. Proof would be someone like 200 or so. Thus far there has been a lifespan, the oldest person ever was like 125 or something. I want proof of someone who appears to have been in their twenties, that lived for like centuries until something happened to them unrelated to aging that killed them. There is no such person. The only argument you would have "in the past advances in science made that impossible and we have far more insight and such now compared to then." But that argument would only be a hypothesis because it's never actually happened yet.

" And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died." Genesis 5:27.

There's your proof. Now cite me an article where Tom Brady said he believed that his body couldn't cut it after 45. Saying:

You've brought up an athlete who is middle-aged.

is a direct reference to Tom Brady, despite the fact that you didn't explicitly type his name, and you know it. As I've said... you can't let the Tom Brady thing go.

 

[caketastydelish]

This is an RD thread. No more Brady comments or I will report them to mods.

 

[caketastydelish]

" And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died." Genesis 5:27.

The Bible includes lots of things that the current scientific community doesn't accept at face value as the truth. I am going by their standards.

 

[Sommerswerd]

This is an RD thread. No more Brady comments or I will report them to mods.

Don't talk about it, be about it. You mention Brady. I mention Brady. Empty threats aren't going to save you cake.

 

[caketastydelish]

Then respond to what I said about the Bible being irrelevant to the scientific community.

 

[Sommerswerd]

The Bible includes lots of things that the current scientific community doesn't accept at face value as the truth. I am going by their standards.

You're going by "the current scientific community" but you don't accept the dietary changes that they've shown to be effective. You've been exposed and you don't like it. Its that simple.

Then respond to what I said about the Bible being irrelevant to the scientific community.

EDIT: X-posted - see above

 

[caketastydelish]

Define "effective".

 

[Sommerswerd]

Define "effective".

Webster's Dictionary is online... last I checked.

 

[caketastydelish]

I will put it plainly then: slow aging? completely freeze it? reverse it back to an optimal state and then freeze it?

 

[Kyriakos]

Can't you get in touch with El_Machinae? He will provide you with a list of organizations that will gladly take your money to fund their research into immortality ^_^

Fwiw, I see no reason why some future breakthrough cannot significantly help with the effects of aging. I am also a bit surprised that such research isn't well-funded already. Then again, it isn't that surprising, when atm death is certain, while surviving various illnesses has an open end.

 

[GenMarshall]

Unless there’s a way to extend or repair the telomeres at the end of our chromosomes. The cure for aging seems to be a far fetched idea. Though repairing and/or extending telomeres only extend the clock.

 

[Kyriakos]

We'll probably sooner have genetic modification tech to give you (say) three hands.

The future will be interesting, if humankind lasts that long. People with (deliberately bred/gen enhanced etc) IQ of 1000 will see current humans as apes. As usual, we live in the less interesting ages.

 

[Ferocitus]

I will put it plainly then: slow aging? completely freeze it? reverse it back to an optimal state and then freeze it?

The benefits of applying moisturiser might be the best you can ever hope for.

 

[El_Machinae]

As I said, there are a variety of things that someone can do that will very inefficiently 'buy time'. But the majority of interventions that we will need haven't been invented yet (you've already benefited from sanitation, vaccines, antibiotics, and access to food).

After we account for lifestyle, all of the spread (variance) in outcomes is genetic. We will be able to tweak around it later, but can't really yet. Lifestyle itself has a huge, but tapering, slope. Whether you smoke completely overwhelms whether you jog. Genetics dominates, so getting a genetic test of your long-term risks will let you play to your risks. But even that will only buy limited time. I guess one could one-two punch the science here and look on clinicaltrials.gov to see if there are any genetics/lifestyle studies in your region that you'd qualify for. These types of studies were what allowed us to (for example) determine whether coffee was essentially good or bad for you.

Psychologically, we have a weird time 'giving' money. I know health nuts who spend 5x what I do on food, because they're cautious about cardiovascular risk or Alzheimer's risk*. They'd never consider trimming that down to 2x what I spend and donating to the research institutions that literally work on their concern.

Seriously, if you want graduate students who've dreamed of helping people driving cabs, then party more. If you want them working at less than minimum wage utilizing the frontline of science ... pay them to be researchers. It's a hell of a deal.

*Approximately 1/6 in your mothers will have AD by the time they're 85, and that's factoring in the risk that they've died from something else. Synergy is our only solution.

 

[Sommerswerd]

Unless there’s a way to extend or repair the telomeres at the end of our chromosomes. The cure for aging seems to be a far fetched idea. Though repairing and/or extending telomeres only extend the clock.

That's my understanding as well... that the current indications are that telomeres are the key to the aging process.

I will put it plainly then: slow aging? completely freeze it? reverse it back to an optimal state and then freeze it?

In a philosophical sense, I guess you can't really "stop" aging anymore than you can stop time, because no matter what measures you take, time will continue to pass, so your cells will continue to technically get older in time, regardless of what changes they experience. So in that sense there is no way to stop "aging"... but I think what you are really talking about is not "aging" specifically, which as I've said happens unavoidably with the passage of time... what you are really talking about is the degradation effects that happen over the course of time... the "effects of aging".

Now with athletes, they obviously will often have healthier diets and more active lifestyles, which combats aging, but then they can also put exponentially more stress and strain on their bodies, so there is more "wear and tear". I can't quantify what the balance is as it obviously varies based on the person, activity etc., but it is a factor that can't be ignored. I'm reminded of a Harrison Ford quote in Raiders of the Lost Ark... "It's not the years honey... its the mileage".

So our bodies age in time, use, and degradation. Time is impossible to reverse, by its very nature. Use is within our control, to some extent as is degradation, probably to a lesser extent. One way I can see as a means to counteract both use and degradation simultaneously, is through cloning/transplants... but of course that raises all kinds of ethical concerns. The movie The Island, gives an extreme example of this.

 

[Kyriakos]

I wouldn't say that athletes typically look younger than they are.



Lebron is a number of years younger than me, but he certainly looks older. And I smoke and (obviously) don't train as he does. Now obviously I would be near death if I would play for 30 min in an NBA game, yet if one just goes by how things look he can be said to have aged faster than myself ^_^

 

[Sommerswerd]

Lebron is a number of years younger than me, but he certainly looks older.

That's debatable.

 

[Kyriakos]

That's debatable.

If you are blind