Longevity

Key Insight

● Longevity - in the early chapters I mentioned that there is a possibility to live 200 years. It sounds shocking, but currently people with exceptionally healthy lifestyles gain about 0.75 years of life for each year of life on average. What does that mean? If they are now 50, and the average life expectancy is 80, they would statistically live about 100 years. If they are now 30 the expected life expectancy is currently about 115 years. How do we reach 200 years? The rate at which science discovers new ways to extend life is accelerating, and over time the number of years of life expectancy per additional year increases. A century ago it was 0.1, now it is 0.75; in the future it is a question of how high it will be, but one thing is certain: it will keep rising. First to 0.8, then 0.9, then 0.95, and at some point it will cross 1. When it crosses 1 it practically means infinite life.

○ Another way to view this is to calculate the probability that the main causes of death will be cured before the expected end of life. Someone who is currently 70 has low chances for such an outcome. Someone who is currently 50 has good chances. Someone who is currently 30 has very high chances.

● How can we easily increase our chances for longevity (besides the methods already mentioned)? ○ Reducing fluctuations of blood sugar - The availability and appeal of calories in the modern world is high. Evolution did not prepare our bodies to process calories so often and in such quantities, especially concentrated sugars found in nearly every product. Intake of concentrated sugars should be minimal (ideally 0). ○ Caloric and time restrictions in diet - popularly called autophagy. Countless scientific papers praise autophagy and its benefits for psychophysiological health and improving mental abilities. How does autophagy work? It imitates what our bodies evolutionarily expected: food is not always available, and not in unlimited quantities. Autophagy is so important it has its own entire section in the chapter on nutrition. ○ Blueprint - American entrepreneur Brian Johnson started Blueprint and the movement “Don’t Die” with the aim of postponing death as long as possible. A lot of content and recommendations, all based on science. It may sound a little extreme at first, but like everywhere you don’t have to take 100% of everything. Start with 10% and gradually increase. I applied about 50% with almost no difficulty (reduced meat intake to one meal a day, and I’m considering meat every other day). ○ Education - Countless books, articles, newsletters and podcasts have been produced in recent years regarding longevity and “healthspan” – increasing the number of healthy and happy years. ○ Prevention - It is much easier to prevent damage from bad lifestyle habits than to fix the situation after the damage has occurred. The earlier you start really taking care of your health the better. ○ Reducing exposure to radioactive radiation - And while radioactive radiation is not deadly in small and medium amounts (in fact it is much less deadly than the media brainwashing would have you believe), it negatively affects health and longevity, so it should be avoided if possible (I personally feel bad during and after flying, and avoid planes as much as possible). The main sources of radiation in modern times are actually airport and hospital scanners, as well as air travel. The amounts of radiation are not large (nor dangerous) but should generally be avoided if possible (I personally feel bad during and after flying, and avoid planes as much as possible). ○ People in modern times very rarely feel hungry, cold (shivering), heat (sweating), physical fatigue and exhaustion, struggle for breath (hard cardio training)... All of this happened to our ancestors on almost a daily basis, and our body evolved for those conditions. Since this has been the case for hundreds of thousands of years (in the Homo Sapiens form, and for millions before that) our body is extraordinarily well adapted to those conditions, to the extent that today it needs those conditions to function properly. Both mental and physical mechanisms demand those conditions. Modern life has given us comfortable living, but to some extent too comfortable, because too much comfort makes our psychophysiological health suffer. ○ People under 25–30 will find many of the above methods unnecessary, because at that age the body can withstand many unhealthy habits and still function well, but after around 30 the situation changes dramatically, and significant effort and energy must be devoted to long-term health.