4 ms·

For me it always comes back to: what are people's long, long term goals. Overall? Is it a longer life? Do you want to live an extra five years? I personally don

For me it always comes back to: what are people's long, long term goals. Overall? Is it a longer life? Do you want to live an extra five years? I personally don't think that's a good goal. I'd much rather be in good shape, mobile, healthy and relatively pain free for my 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s and as far into my 70s as I can manage than to increase my lifespan from 85-90. It's way less about eking out a few more years of keeping death at bay and way more about feeling good while I'm a mobile, mentally healthy adult.

glibgil 12y ago
Yes, I want an extra five years. I'm working on a difficult project that I might not finish before I die. Five more years would really help me.
- RankingMember 12y ago
  "Duke Nukem Forever: Part Deux" developer spotted.
nostromo 12y ago
Young people say this a lot, but I don't hear people in their 80s say it. When my grandpa was dying in his mid-80s, it really hit home for me how scary it is. Even if you've had a fulfilling, long life, dying still sucks. For young people, another year of life for an 80 year old doesn't seem like much, but to an 80 year old it means the world.
- dspillett 12y ago
  > Young people say this a lot, but I don't hear people in their 80s say it. When you are young those five years don't look that attractive: you are older, slower, half your friends and family are gone, you might not have any money to support the life you want depending how the economy goes, and so forth - so having a bit more fun now seems like a good compromise. Once you get older then you realise that any time is worth having as there are still more things you want to do and more time you want to spend with people than you might have time for left. Of course having too much "fun" now means that your old decrepit years come sooner because your body will fall apart faster, so that really isn't the good compromise is might seem to some - you start paying in good years as well as the later ones you might be dreading at this point in your life. To be far far more flippant about it, my reasoning up to a few years ago was: "My main worry is being able to afford to live a content life beyond a certain point so my current pension plan is to not live long enough to need a good pension. Hence my drinking habit: I'm investing heavily in cirrhosis futures!" Having started to see some of my older friends in bad conditions, various people in my life having less serious but still significant health scares, I changed my mind about that quite a bit. Had I not decided to shape up back then, an old friend my own age (mid 30s) shuffle off to the crematorium rather prematurely recently might have made me do it. I might not care about those last few years in my 80s now, but I certainly care about hanging around for a good few years yet. I've got places to see and people to do!
- mapt 12y ago
  Ahh, but do the people committed to dying young generally live to their 80s? Beware selection effects in all things.
paulsutter 12y ago
What part of the article gave you the impression that an exercise related reduced chance of death in a given year would cause a person to be in worse shape or less mobile/healthy/pain free? Your conclusion is counterintuitive, so I can only assume you have an interesting basis for your position. I ask because a naive reader might assume that you're just making a dismissive middlebrow comment. Which would fall into the category of gratuitous negatively, and I can't imagine you'd be doing that.
- djrtwo 12y ago
  He is not drawing that conclusion. He is just questioning people's insentives for staying in shape. You get longevity, but actually the great part is you feel better day to day. It's like telling a smoker to quit because he'll feel better day to day breathing and being able to walk longer without catching their breath rather than telling him to quit because he'll die of cancer.
pcurve 12y ago
Having a goal to live longer isn't too different than having a goal to live healthier. Living healthier and living longer go together, and you can't generally cherry pick. Of course, if you want to reduce probability of premature death or permanent disability by staying away from dangerous activities and places, then that's a different conversation.
msabalau 12y ago
The trend overall in society has been that people are both living longer lives, and also have shorter periods of morbidity at the end of life. Moderate exercise would seem to be helpful for both length and quality of life. Have your cake and eat it too!
- abecedarius 12y ago
  "Shorter periods of morbidity" surprises me -- where'd you get that from? (I would've guessed the opposite, from the stories of people kept alive in hospitals unpleasantly long, but I don't have data.)
benatkin 12y ago
Fortunately this study seems to say you can have your cake and eat it too. Whether running or weight training, high intensity exercise is much more fun that moderate intensity exercise. I started going to a personal trainer to build strength and pushing myself when running, and not only is it more effective, it's a lot more fun. If you're walking 6 miles or biking 15 miles a day to commute, maybe that's not such a great idea. It isn't that much fun, isn't really much better for the environment, and it might actually shave a couple of years off your life. That sort of constant exercise isn't going to be very intense.
JoshTriplett 12y ago
Five more years of life is five more years for the current state of the art to work on giving you another five years after that.

glibgil 12y ago

Yes, I want an extra five years. I'm working on a difficult project that I might not finish before I die. Five more years would really help me.

RankingMember 12y ago
"Duke Nukem Forever: Part Deux" developer spotted.

nostromo 12y ago

Young people say this a lot, but I don't hear people in their 80s say it. When my grandpa was dying in his mid-80s, it really hit home for me how scary it is. Even if you've had a fulfilling, long life, dying still sucks. For young people, another year of life for an 80 year old doesn't seem like much, but to an 80 year old it means the world.

dspillett 12y ago
> Young people say this a lot, but I don't hear people in their 80s say it. When you are young those five years don't look that attractive: you are older, slower, half your friends and family are gone, you might not have any money to support the life you want depending how the economy goes, and so forth - so having a bit more fun now seems like a good compromise. Once you get older then you realise that any time is worth having as there are still more things you want to do and more time you want to spend with people than you might have time for left. Of course having too much "fun" now means that your old decrepit years come sooner because your body will fall apart faster, so that really isn't the good compromise is might seem to some - you start paying in good years as well as the later ones you might be dreading at this point in your life. To be far far more flippant about it, my reasoning up to a few years ago was: "My main worry is being able to afford to live a content life beyond a certain point so my current pension plan is to not live long enough to need a good pension. Hence my drinking habit: I'm investing heavily in cirrhosis futures!" Having started to see some of my older friends in bad conditions, various people in my life having less serious but still significant health scares, I changed my mind about that quite a bit. Had I not decided to shape up back then, an old friend my own age (mid 30s) shuffle off to the crematorium rather prematurely recently might have made me do it. I might not care about those last few years in my 80s now, but I certainly care about hanging around for a good few years yet. I've got places to see and people to do!
mapt 12y ago
Ahh, but do the people committed to dying young generally live to their 80s? Beware selection effects in all things.

paulsutter 12y ago

What part of the article gave you the impression that an exercise related reduced chance of death in a given year would cause a person to be in worse shape or less mobile/healthy/pain free? Your conclusion is counterintuitive, so I can only assume you have an interesting basis for your position. I ask because a naive reader might assume that you're just making a dismissive middlebrow comment. Which would fall into the category of gratuitous negatively, and I can't imagine you'd be doing that.

djrtwo 12y ago
He is not drawing that conclusion. He is just questioning people's insentives for staying in shape. You get longevity, but actually the great part is you feel better day to day. It's like telling a smoker to quit because he'll feel better day to day breathing and being able to walk longer without catching their breath rather than telling him to quit because he'll die of cancer.

pcurve 12y ago

Having a goal to live longer isn't too different than having a goal to live healthier. Living healthier and living longer go together, and you can't generally cherry pick. Of course, if you want to reduce probability of premature death or permanent disability by staying away from dangerous activities and places, then that's a different conversation.

msabalau 12y ago

The trend overall in society has been that people are both living longer lives, and also have shorter periods of morbidity at the end of life. Moderate exercise would seem to be helpful for both length and quality of life. Have your cake and eat it too!

abecedarius 12y ago
"Shorter periods of morbidity" surprises me -- where'd you get that from? (I would've guessed the opposite, from the stories of people kept alive in hospitals unpleasantly long, but I don't have data.)

benatkin 12y ago

Fortunately this study seems to say you can have your cake and eat it too. Whether running or weight training, high intensity exercise is much more fun that moderate intensity exercise. I started going to a personal trainer to build strength and pushing myself when running, and not only is it more effective, it's a lot more fun. If you're walking 6 miles or biking 15 miles a day to commute, maybe that's not such a great idea. It isn't that much fun, isn't really much better for the environment, and it might actually shave a couple of years off your life. That sort of constant exercise isn't going to be very intense.

JoshTriplett 12y ago

Five more years of life is five more years for the current state of the art to work on giving you another five years after that.