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> If you have the physical health of a 25 year old indefinitely, your medical expenses per year would be far less. Yes, you'd still occasionally get sick and ev
by carbocation 16y ago
> If you have the physical health of a 25 year old indefinitely, your medical expenses per year would be far less. Yes, you'd still occasionally get sick and eventually die of something, but a greater percentage of your life would be healthy and productive.
Having the health of a 25-year-old indefinitely seems unlikely ever to be achieved. If we can achieve that, then we will have eliminated virtually all inherited causes of death, and I would agree that we would save money. It seems more likely to me that we will continue to expand the gains that we had in the 20th Century: people will live better, longer, but will still ultimately age and suffer the consequences (though perhaps at 150-200 years instead of 65-100). If the former is true, then we'll save tons of money because we'll have eliminated chronic disease and aging. If the latter is true (which would fit with past experience), then we'll truly just have delayed the costs by a few years. If people are willing to work longer since they live longer, this won't be a problem. But if people were so noble, then we'd already be delaying Social Security and Medicare benefits until age ~75, since the average lifespan has widened since the programs were conceived decades ago.
At any rate, I wholeheartedly agree it would be a huge net benefit; I suppose whether or not money gets saved is dependent on how society decides to partition out the costs and benefits.
- starkfist 16y agoJack LaLanne managed to have the health of an athletic 25 year old into his 50s. And the health of an athletic 50 year old until his 70s. I have a great uncle who followed LaLanne's advice and is 84 and looks like a 45 year old bodybuilder with a 65 year old face. In contrast his brothers are dead, except for my grandfather who is fat and has diabetes and mild alzheimer's and is basically confined to his retirement apartment. I would say we already know how to be a 25 year old for much longer than than expected - the key is to exercise a lot more and a lot differently than you would think, and eat a diet similar to that of a 7th day adventist. Unfortunately this lifestyle is in opposition to pretty much every cultural and marketing trend in every society on the globe today. Personally, I would prefer to have the health of a 25 year old until I'm 90 and then croak, rather than live like an 80 year old until I'm 150.
- carbocation 16y agoOutward appearances of health are poor indicators of internal physiological conditions; just ask anyone with hypertension or hypercholesterolemia. But I think it's great that you know people who do right by their bodies. There's no reason everyone shouldn't do that, if that's what they care about. There's also no reason that everyone should, if they don't.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- starkfist 16y agoI used to have hypertension and it went away after I lost 55 pounds. Most fat people are hypertensive.
- carbocation 16y agoI intended that to be interpreted in the context of your specific point about healthy-looking people. A healthy-looking exterior does not indicate a healthy interior. An unhealthy-looking exterior almost certainly does indicate an unhealthy interior. So my point is not that your obese self could have been healthy; there is almost no way it could have been. The pathophysiology behind obesity-induced hypertension is not that hard to imagine. In contrast, the fact that someone looks healthy doesn't mean that they don't have hypertension or hyperlipidemia. Many patients make the mistake of thinking that what cured them will cure others. Sure, losing all of your excess weight will cure many cases of diabetes and hypertension. But not all people with diabetes have it because of their obesity; not all people with hypertension are obese. You won't see me telling a 70kg 5'10" male to drop some weight to cure his hypertension. But there is basically no diagnostic dilemma when you see a 100kg 5'10" male with hypertension, and the cure is clear.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- starkfist 16y ago