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Comment by staticassertion | Hacker News Reader

Diet and exercise have considerably higher costs than pills. Seems like that should be apparent.

I don't see it as lunacy. Some chemicals we put into our bodies kill us, some cure our illnesses, some keep us awake or put us to sleep. It's lunacy to believe that some can benefit our health?

Regardless, this isn't zero-sum. I don't think people are advocating for a pill to replace diet and exercise, but it seems obviously worthwhile to pursue other avenues of living a healthy life.

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There's a cost to exercise? Walking, running, and jumping jacks are free.

It still costs time.

You make time.

There's a cost not just in time, but also in willpower. There is some disagreement as to whether willpower is a finite resource or not, but if there is even a partial limitation, then coming up with that willpower needs to be taken into consideration.

Also, saying "you make time" is true in such a way that is of little value, as there are a multitude of things you can make time for, such as connecting with your friends and family, learning new skills, educating your children, and any of those can take up as much time as you have. Life is a balance of things where you try to minimize your regret, since there is just not enough time to do everything you want to do.

Exercise is very important. I wouldn't recommend looking at it as something that is optional. It's funny you mention willpower, as there is a book called "The Willpower Instinct" and the author claims that willpower is indeed finite and exercise is one of the best things that can lead to a greater amount of willpower over time. So exercise may be a short term willpower cost but if this author is correct, exercise would lead to a net gain in willpower over the long term.

Exactly. We all have the same 24 hours, how we we choose to prioritize is up to us. But I’m not interested in excuses of “I don’t have the time.” You MAKE the time when it comes to your health.

If you want to lose weight, spending hours in the gym is a waste of time if you change nothing about a bad diet high in carbs and sugar. I think the same goes with vitamins or supplments...if you change nothing about your lifestyle and are at risk of developing a cardiovascular disease taking a vitamin probably won't do anything. If you make significant lifestyle changes that are already proven, or at least more proven, to reverse symptoms of cardiovascular disease and then take certain vitamins as part of that change then the vitamins might have the impact of slightly speeding up the recovery time and/or slightly reducing the chance you'll be diagnosed in the first place.

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