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Comment by potato3732842 | Hacker News Reader

Kinda funny that after everything he did Parkinsons was what got him.

What’s amazing is that 75.8 is the life expectancy of men in the US and he managed to cross it with the lifestyle he had.

Well it's 78.8 in the UK

Well but he spent a good time living in the US so it kinda averages out

Life expectancy of men *at birth*. Once you've made it to ten years old, those statistics don't apply any more.

In other words, the average lifespan of a 10-year old boy is not 65.8 additional years.

So don't hold the suspense - how much is it then and how does it stack with rest of developed world?

Even then, you’d be surprised that his lifestyle didn’t impact his lifespan more negatively.

But you’ll have chain smokers who live into their nineties.

His alcohol consumption levels usually result in death in one's 50s, maybe 60s, maybe 40s.

It is astonishing, isn't it? I'm reading Sirens of Titan right now and luck is such a big theme in it. You can always increase your odds by healthy living, but nothing is guaranteed. It really comes down to dumb luck.

Keith Richards is alive. Hard to think of a more improbable thing.

I always assumed it was the drugs keeping him going, but in reality I think he quit them a long time ago.

Please implore your children and children’s children to leave a better world for Keith Richards.

Did you mean a better world than Keith?

Presumably Keith will outlast your children.

/whoosh/

yup

Keith Richards actually died sometime in 1983, but the doctors forgot to tell him.

Occasionally he spends a year dead for tax purposes.

I once saw him described as an animate assemblage of drugs.

I always liked the bill hicks bit about him finding another ledge.

> It really comes down to dumb luck

Let's not forget Ozzy's immense wealth that allowed him the best medical care and health/fitness programs in his later years. He stopped living "hard" by the 2000s, at least by his 1980s standards.

Had he kept living hard he wouldn't have made it.

Drug use is a risk factor for Parkinson's. A lot of drugs affect dopamine production or reuptake, and that seems to be able to cause a reduction in dopamine production later in life.

Some of the symptoms (like tremors) of withdrawal after long term stimulant/cocaine/amphetamine use are similar to parkinsons too since both cause a shortage of dopamine in the brain. I kinda wonder if one could accidentally mask early symptoms of parkinsons.

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