Comment by drzaiusapelord | Hacker News Reader

Comment by drzaiusapelord | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

This paper seems to be a hodgepodge of anything that might have potential to extend life, but mostly calorie restriction. My take is that I'd rather not eat only 1,000 calories a day for the hope of living 2-5 years longer. Its just not worth it to me, especially when you understand the typical quality of life during those last couple years.

Interesting how there's so little discussion nowadays about dying with dignity, but tons of spilled ink about living longer. Quality of life is often dismissed totally or just seen is irrelevant to the research.

I find the teen and twenty-something crowd being big on this, but the 40 and over crowd being pretty lukewarm toward life extension. I imagine the latter crowd have seen their own parents and other close relatives reach end of life and pass away, and want nothing to do with extending those last few years.

It seems that dietary restriction can also improve quality of the final years. From the paper: '[Dietary restriction] can produce substantial benefits with, for instance, 30% of DR animals dying at old ages without gross pathological lesions, compared with only 6% of ad-libitum-fed controls'

Lesions are one thing but cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, bone loss, hip replacements, limited mobility, limited cognition, limited memory, limited hearing/sight, chronic pain, etc are whole other things.

Lesion means any tissue damage at any scale in this context.

Intermittent fasting isn't necessarily the same as calorie restriction. It's pretty tolerable if you eat a normal amount of calories, but contained within a 4-6 hour window at night.

I think 'life extension' is not the right way to view it, since living longer is not worth it if you aren't healthy and happy while doing so.

So very, very, very true. And those last years, 80+, let's say, there is the physical state that often has doubtful dignity.. Also the social state, elderly are often isolated and alone and see hopefully their kids once a week, if they're lucky.

I'm bookmarking your comment for later reference.

I'd personally like to avoid the extreme surgeries (e.g., bypass, joint replacement), the terrible cancers, diabetes, etc. I'm certainly willing to modify my diet and exercise to help avoid such things.

An extra few years, lying in bed, unable to interact w/ the world? Not so interesting.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com