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> I concluded to improve quality of life, no matter how finite, is a better endeavour than to prolong it. Seems like a false dichotomy. Aside from life suppor

> I concluded to improve quality of life, no matter how finite, is a better endeavour than to prolong it. Seems like a false dichotomy. Aside from life support in one's final days, most practical medical interventions for prolonging life also result in significant improvements in quality of life. For example, healthy diet and exercise contribute to extended lifespan, but they also improve quality of life significantly during all stages of life.

rscho 4y ago
> Aside from life support in one's final days, most practical medical interventions for prolonging life also result in significant improvements in quality of life. I can assure you that you'd never ever hold that opinion if you were a healthcare worker. A big part of our job is to maintain alive people with a horrible quality of life who should be long dead, oftentimes without even being able to know if they'd in fact prefer dying...
willnonya 4y ago
There is a lot of subjectivity in your conclusion. Healthy diet for example is not a singularly defined term and depending on specifics can be argued to lower quality of life even if they improve health.
afpx 4y ago
Are you over 50? A year over 50 feels as satisfying as one month being 18. I’d rather enjoy what I have left.
- dmitryminkovsky 4y ago
  Can you paraphrase this? Having trouble understanding what you mean and I want to know.
  - cldellow 4y ago
    I'm not afpx, but I understood them to be saying "you have fewer good days when you're 50 than when you're 18." That is, health wise, it's better to be 18 than to be 50. :) A related concept is the quality-adjusted life year (QALY), which is used when weighing the cost/benefits of certain interventions. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality-adjusted_life_year https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality-adjusted_life_year
    - dmitryminkovsky 4y ago
      Oh so when you’re 18 you extract as much pleasure/utility/etc from a month of life as you do from a year at 50? Maybe my late teens were lame because those times were not that awesome lol. Nor any other time I can think of. It’s all mostly been the same, except, say, when I was 4-8, when time just dragged on and on so slowly everything felt like eternity all the time. Then that ended and everything has been more or less the same from a psycho-emotional perspective. Health-wise yeah it’s great to be young :)
wruza 4y ago
How does one start to see a healthy diet as a “quality of life”? QoL is when you eat a chunk of anything you feel like, down it with soda and feel nothing bad next hour or day. I could do that, lie on a couch watching mtv or go fall from a tree when I was young. That was quality of life. Everything after 30 is just a life support. You improve life support by a diet or a (careful) walk.

rscho 4y ago

> Aside from life support in one's final days, most practical medical interventions for prolonging life also result in significant improvements in quality of life. I can assure you that you'd never ever hold that opinion if you were a healthcare worker. A big part of our job is to maintain alive people with a horrible quality of life who should be long dead, oftentimes without even being able to know if they'd in fact prefer dying...

willnonya 4y ago

There is a lot of subjectivity in your conclusion. Healthy diet for example is not a singularly defined term and depending on specifics can be argued to lower quality of life even if they improve health.

afpx 4y ago

Are you over 50? A year over 50 feels as satisfying as one month being 18. I’d rather enjoy what I have left.

dmitryminkovsky 4y ago
Can you paraphrase this? Having trouble understanding what you mean and I want to know.
- cldellow 4y ago
  I'm not afpx, but I understood them to be saying "you have fewer good days when you're 50 than when you're 18." That is, health wise, it's better to be 18 than to be 50. :) A related concept is the quality-adjusted life year (QALY), which is used when weighing the cost/benefits of certain interventions. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality-adjusted_life_year https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality-adjusted_life_year
  - dmitryminkovsky 4y ago
    Oh so when you’re 18 you extract as much pleasure/utility/etc from a month of life as you do from a year at 50? Maybe my late teens were lame because those times were not that awesome lol. Nor any other time I can think of. It’s all mostly been the same, except, say, when I was 4-8, when time just dragged on and on so slowly everything felt like eternity all the time. Then that ended and everything has been more or less the same from a psycho-emotional perspective. Health-wise yeah it’s great to be young :)

wruza 4y ago

How does one start to see a healthy diet as a “quality of life”? QoL is when you eat a chunk of anything you feel like, down it with soda and feel nothing bad next hour or day. I could do that, lie on a couch watching mtv or go fall from a tree when I was young. That was quality of life. Everything after 30 is just a life support. You improve life support by a diet or a (careful) walk.