“If you stay disability/disease free and your friends and loved ones also survived in similar condition, I wonder if the desire to live would decrease at all.”
That’s a big if. People now taking rapamycin are a very select group. A great many of your friends, relatives, and coworkers, that are your age or older will be dead as you get up into your 80s unless something amazing comes along in the future to save them.
I think as you get older you do accept your mortality. Certainly, my older relatives did.
Rapamycin is just a stopgap for now that slows aging. Unfortunately, it doesn’t reverse aging. If you could live to be 100+ with the body and mind you had as a 25 yr. old (that’s the age I consider my peak) it would be a different story.
When I started studying cellular health (in the sense of improving the health of cells in order to improve the health of the body) I did not know what might be possible. Hence to a great extent I was expecting a gradual deterioration in function.
In fact, however, in many ways I have (somewhat to my surprise) managed an improvement in function. Whether that would be deemed to be reverse aging is not that important to me. What matters to me is health and function (which are closely associated).
If when I play a gig I can lift the heavy speakers and put them on the PA stands without assistance then I am a happy bunny. I am not upset at the concept of mortality and even if healthspan is increased there will always be some mortality somewhere. If all I manage to do is to be a lot healthier as I get older I won’t be unhappy. I do think, however, that if people can live more functional lives with less pain as they get older they will be more enthusiastic about continuing that process.
(You can see part of the speakers on this video at the left of the stage in front of the singer)
I reduced my alcohol consumption by about 95% two years ago using the Sinclair method. By far the best thing I ever did in my life.
This led to me losing 40kg doing IF (OMAD) and low carb diet. Exercise and my wardrobe became my new joy in life. Feeling 40 years younger (I am 57) then led me to embark on the longevity quest. Too many years wasted feeling lousey from booze - I now feel better than I did, even as a kid.
Giving up all my addictions had surprising and unexpected effects. Not just about health but losing all the sneaky machinations addiction causes, where our cravings subconsciously take over how we organise our lives. My days are now based more on where I feel like hanging out and taking in the atmosphere rather than feeling driven towards unsatisfying goals. Joy is now in the air and slanted rays of the sun.
Naltrexone (Sinclair method) is an incredible drug. Invented the year I was born: 1966. You literally drink yourself sober. I now take LDN (low dose naltrexone) every night. One of many great side effects is making endurance exercise strangely euphoric.
Now I need a truly interesting quest that might make living to 150 worth the pain of seeing everyone I know now die. Hunting for lost treasure physical or intellectual? Something like Raiders of the Lost Ark perhaps.
Good to be here and read so many interesting and inspiring posts
Those article don’t really counsel against melatonin. They are quite tame actually. Here are two articles and a video by experts in the field that highly recommend melatonin for most people:
Seriously dude? one glass of prosecco per year? Yeah, you are killing yourself with alcohol man, stop it, and stop it right now. Well actually believe it or not alcohol in moderation only meaning not more than an OZ per day is generally good for you, despite what studies say. I know few people 3-4 that used to make homemade 100% natural brandy at home and they consumed it regularly. They both lived to 93-95. Their siblings, never touched alcohol, all died early 80’s. I’m not a drinker myself, it just doesn’t sit well with my stomach, but couple times per week i do get a drink but always in the morning. For whatever it is worth even that poster child of longevity the Johnson dude drinks one drink each morning. so yes alcohol is good but it you can control the intake. Anything over couple drinks daily just shortens your “longevity” considerably.
Many people on this forum like to use scientific studies to guide their behavior. It’s a good practice even if any single study is always imperfect. The alternative is much worse.
" ‘Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts’ argued Richard Feynman , one of the greatest scientists of the last fifty years. He wished to promote the idea that the best science respects no authority and is not a learnt set of facts, but a rigorous method of questioning in search of a better account."
I have a few beers a year because I like beer (2 so far this year). But I don’t like calories from beer, nor the negative impact on my sleep from drinking alcohol. I can get the social benefits on my health without alcohol, is my bet.
I get your point, and like the quote from Feynman. I am a bit different from most because of an auto immune problem and for whatever reason alcohol doesn’t sit well with me. But every once in a while, it is literally that I crave (again i never drink alcohol so no I’m not addicted to it) that I must have a glass of Brandy (can’t stand any of the other hard spirits). And this is going to sound rough but I don’t care any scientist in the world says because I know 1million % that it is doing something good. There was a study just couple months ago that it says scientists discovered that 2-4 drink per week (could have actually been 5 drinks, but I’m not good a remembering specifics) is actually good per health and longevity. so now should I listen to you scientists or mine hahha or I should listen to my body and go grab a glass of my favorite brandy ST. Remy right now (have had it, in couple weeks since i didn’t see the need), because it is one of those days that my body is screaming please give me my brandy. Rest assured that I’m biased toward believing my body, before others and cheers because i just took the first sip (and it is heaven) lol,
You know I’ve discovered that for me, the whole ritual is one of biggest reasons I enjoy alcohol. So two or three nights a week, I’ll pour just enough bourbon or rye to cover the bottom of the glass, and that gives something to hold, something to nose and pick notes out of, and then I get two or three good sips, and that’s usually all I want. It lets me get most of the enjoyment out of it while drinking probably fewer than three drinks a week.
Because I measure so many things it is quite easy to see the effects of drinking. Also my MCV has been high for some time mainly because I am quite a heavy drinker. More recently, therefore, I have targeted reducing drinking days (and I like to get quite drunk) to 1 day a week apart from parties. If there is a party then I will drink.
Because there was a party on Wednesday last week I started drinking during the day and unusually had drink a couple of pints of beer before my blood test (because I do weekly blood tests I don’t fast for them unless I am fasting for other reasons). That was quite interesting.
I have decided to do a future test when drunk to see what happens to the biomarkers. I got some really good results on Cystatin-C and creatinine, but that may because I had been processing a lot of water.
I do think, however, that it is worth coming completely off alcohol for a sequence of days. I find that on the first day quite a bit of my cardiovascular system calms down and then it settles down further on the second day. However, at times I drink every day and quite heavily although I (normally) take Pantethene and DHM which reduces the negative effects.
I could not read the NYTimes article, but Pantethene is a bit of a magic antidote (Pantethene, DHM and Melatonin - at different times - have quite a substantial effect. Bae is also quite good.).
The book also touches on broader lifestyle advice. Recently, research from the Lancet’s commission on dementia suggested up to 40%of Alzheimer’s cases could be prevented or delayed – much like heart disease and many cancers – by limiting 12 risk factors, from smoking to obesity and heavy drinking.
Restak advises his patients to quit alcohol by 70 at the latest. Over 65, he writes, you typically have fewer brain neurons than when you were younger, so why risk them? “Alcohol is a very, very weak neurotoxin – it’s not good for nerve cells.”
He’s also an advocate of the short afternoon nap, since getting enough sleep helps brain function (which may help explain why sleep-deprived new mothers, and menopausal women suffering from night sweats and insomnia, often complain of brain fog).
More unexpectedly, he recommends tackling hearing or vision problems promptly, because they make it harder to engage in conversations and hobbies that keep the cogs turning. “You have to have a certain level of vision to read comfortably, and if that’s missing then you are going to read less. As a result of that, you’re going to learn less and be a less interesting person to other people. All of these things really come down to socialisation, which is the most important part of keeping away Alzheimer’s and dementia, and keeping your memory.”
The Book: The Complete Guide to Memory: The Science of Strengthening Your Mind
or mine hahha or I should listen to my body and go grab a glass of my favorite brandy ST. Remy right now (have had it, in couple weeks since i didn’t see the need), because it is one of those days that my body is screaming please give me my brandy. Rest assured that I’m biased toward believing my body, before others 
