5 ms·

Everyone gets cancer if they live long enough. And cancer is subject to evolution in your own body as well as it personalizes itself to evade your immune system

Everyone gets cancer if they live long enough. And cancer is subject to evolution in your own body as well as it personalizes itself to evade your immune system. It's why you can extend your lifespan but you will ultimately be foiled unless you solve the problem holistically.

hinkley 5y ago
It seems to me than 'longevity treatments' are likely to be a quality of life situation over a quantity of life cure, changing the curve more than the intercept. A higher quality middle age has quality of life benefits that probably stand on their own, but remaining active also does increase life expectancy dramatically. So the cause-effect curve may be treatment->healthy lifestyle->life expectancy, instead of treatment->life expectancy. I could get the jab, continue to be a couch potato, and leave a prettier corpse.
- varelse 5y ago
  I'm intensely active and my body is great for now. But it's not going to be great forever. And I could probably afford longevity treatments to add a decade or two. But I'm disinclined to do so right now if things keep proceeding downward. Yet I will never be a couch potato. I watch less than 4 or so hours of TV weekly in an age when most watch 8 hours daily.
  - hinkley 5y ago
    > Yet I will never be a couch potato. Chronic injuries make liars of us all. Take care of what you've got, while you've got it.
    - varelse 5y ago
      2 time survivor of exactly that. Pencil in 12-18 months to recover when they happen. Anything less and you'll make the chronic injury permanent IMO.
staticassertion 5y ago
> Everyone gets cancer if they live long enough. Every human. Not all mammals get cancer though. Whales live a very, very long time, and to my knowledge there's no incidence of cancer. In general (and somewhat paradoxically) the larger the animal the less likely they are to get cancer.
JamesBarney 5y ago
One of the biggest risk factors for cancer is age. If you can slow down aging you can reduce cancer risks considerably. Your body produces cancerous cells all the time, but most of the time the immune system finds them. But when your immune system gets old and sluggish it doesn't find and kill them as well increasing risks of cancer. So if we can figure out how to keep your immune system young we could reduce risks of cancer by 20-100x.

hinkley 5y ago

It seems to me than 'longevity treatments' are likely to be a quality of life situation over a quantity of life cure, changing the curve more than the intercept. A higher quality middle age has quality of life benefits that probably stand on their own, but remaining active also does increase life expectancy dramatically. So the cause-effect curve may be treatment->healthy lifestyle->life expectancy, instead of treatment->life expectancy. I could get the jab, continue to be a couch potato, and leave a prettier corpse.

varelse 5y ago
I'm intensely active and my body is great for now. But it's not going to be great forever. And I could probably afford longevity treatments to add a decade or two. But I'm disinclined to do so right now if things keep proceeding downward. Yet I will never be a couch potato. I watch less than 4 or so hours of TV weekly in an age when most watch 8 hours daily.
- hinkley 5y ago
  > Yet I will never be a couch potato. Chronic injuries make liars of us all. Take care of what you've got, while you've got it.
  - varelse 5y ago
    2 time survivor of exactly that. Pencil in 12-18 months to recover when they happen. Anything less and you'll make the chronic injury permanent IMO.

staticassertion 5y ago

> Everyone gets cancer if they live long enough. Every human. Not all mammals get cancer though. Whales live a very, very long time, and to my knowledge there's no incidence of cancer. In general (and somewhat paradoxically) the larger the animal the less likely they are to get cancer.

JamesBarney 5y ago

One of the biggest risk factors for cancer is age. If you can slow down aging you can reduce cancer risks considerably. Your body produces cancerous cells all the time, but most of the time the immune system finds them. But when your immune system gets old and sluggish it doesn't find and kill them as well increasing risks of cancer. So if we can figure out how to keep your immune system young we could reduce risks of cancer by 20-100x.