After reporting that the tech billionaire trying to bio-hack his way to immortality had his lungs wrecked by covid, I did some research on longevity. What are the conditions that actually deliver a long life? You won’t be surprised to hear that it isn’t an abstemious existence consisting of a hundred different supplements daily, injecting yourself with child plasma and not eating after 11am.
I would also highlight your notes on moderate fish consumption and low meat consumption. Add to that likely lower use of grain oils. This strongly shifts the balance of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acid intake toward omega-3. And we have excellent indications that high omega-6 intake is lethal, leading as it does to high rates of cardiovascular disease. Conversely, when omega-3 is more thsn 75% of omega-3 and 6 intake, heart disease rates reduce to insignificance.
Similarly, with high background intake of magnesium, heart disease disappears.
Communities relying on natural produce and the diets these people have strongly favors increased magnesium intake.
Though not directly measured, being out of the mainstream also likely leads to much lower stress levels. That is hugely beneficial to health.
So too is the increased exposure to red and infrared light, which society is now working to eradicate with the shift to blue rich, and red absent LED light. Sunlight is rich in infrared which powers our mitochondria.
The UV light from the sun is a double edged sword. It is carcinogenic. But it also drives natural vitamin D production which is hugely beneficial for health.
And there are no doubt other unrecognized factors, e.g. the natural biome supporting probiotics in the soils, constantly replenishing and supporting their gut biomes.
Then too there is the statistical issue. In any system like world population health there will be outliers, entirely natural statistical anomalies. This does not appear to be the case with these groups, though it may play a role.
Ditto for genetic outliers and others. What does this mean? It is a caution against over-extrapolating from a small data set. Their unique conditions may not easily translate to other places and people. I.e. - be careful that magic pills aren't just snake oil medicine.
I agree it's valid to ask the question about viruses, but there are actually quite a number of isolated indigenous communities in the world (to this day) who don't see these longevity numbers. And they are also isolated from technology, modernity, viruses, etc... So I guess I'm just curious if you've considered that at all?
As you say, this hasn't been studied well regardless. But I just wanted to mention it and am curious about your thoughts on it.
My instinct is that it's about the best of both worlds, especially vaccines and antibiotics. And lack of rainforest/equatorial diseases like malaria and dengue
The influenza epidemic of 1918 probably is the cause for an out sized number of children born with deformities. It has been suggested that these unfortunate children were a motivation for Nazi rhetoric in Germany.
Allowing COVID to fester in our society is going to cause ceaseless misery. Are birth defects going to rise? What lurking disabilities are going to pounce on those previously infected at some point in their future? Are there any studies that can point to a potential for adverse epigenetic changes?
As for the article to which I am commenting: this is valuable commentary with a thesis that rings true. Our collective survival to my mind necessitates living locally. We don't tend to do a lot of damage when commuting on foot. We should all be employing regenerative agriculture on any land we own, and in lieu of that or in addition, get our local governing authorities to dedicate common areas for such activity.
Halle-frickin-lujah, brother! I was starting to wonder whether I might be the only man on earth willing to wrestle with the tricky viruses-as-agents-of-aging hypothesis:
Excellent all round!
I would also highlight your notes on moderate fish consumption and low meat consumption. Add to that likely lower use of grain oils. This strongly shifts the balance of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acid intake toward omega-3. And we have excellent indications that high omega-6 intake is lethal, leading as it does to high rates of cardiovascular disease. Conversely, when omega-3 is more thsn 75% of omega-3 and 6 intake, heart disease rates reduce to insignificance.
Similarly, with high background intake of magnesium, heart disease disappears.
Communities relying on natural produce and the diets these people have strongly favors increased magnesium intake.
Though not directly measured, being out of the mainstream also likely leads to much lower stress levels. That is hugely beneficial to health.
So too is the increased exposure to red and infrared light, which society is now working to eradicate with the shift to blue rich, and red absent LED light. Sunlight is rich in infrared which powers our mitochondria.
The UV light from the sun is a double edged sword. It is carcinogenic. But it also drives natural vitamin D production which is hugely beneficial for health.
And there are no doubt other unrecognized factors, e.g. the natural biome supporting probiotics in the soils, constantly replenishing and supporting their gut biomes.
Then too there is the statistical issue. In any system like world population health there will be outliers, entirely natural statistical anomalies. This does not appear to be the case with these groups, though it may play a role.
Ditto for genetic outliers and others. What does this mean? It is a caution against over-extrapolating from a small data set. Their unique conditions may not easily translate to other places and people. I.e. - be careful that magic pills aren't just snake oil medicine.
I agree it's valid to ask the question about viruses, but there are actually quite a number of isolated indigenous communities in the world (to this day) who don't see these longevity numbers. And they are also isolated from technology, modernity, viruses, etc... So I guess I'm just curious if you've considered that at all?
As you say, this hasn't been studied well regardless. But I just wanted to mention it and am curious about your thoughts on it.
My instinct is that it's about the best of both worlds, especially vaccines and antibiotics. And lack of rainforest/equatorial diseases like malaria and dengue
The influenza epidemic of 1918 probably is the cause for an out sized number of children born with deformities. It has been suggested that these unfortunate children were a motivation for Nazi rhetoric in Germany.
Allowing COVID to fester in our society is going to cause ceaseless misery. Are birth defects going to rise? What lurking disabilities are going to pounce on those previously infected at some point in their future? Are there any studies that can point to a potential for adverse epigenetic changes?
As for the article to which I am commenting: this is valuable commentary with a thesis that rings true. Our collective survival to my mind necessitates living locally. We don't tend to do a lot of damage when commuting on foot. We should all be employing regenerative agriculture on any land we own, and in lieu of that or in addition, get our local governing authorities to dedicate common areas for such activity.
Halle-frickin-lujah, brother! I was starting to wonder whether I might be the only man on earth willing to wrestle with the tricky viruses-as-agents-of-aging hypothesis:
https://open.substack.com/pub/cbuck/p/tv-review-live-to-100-secrets-of
A couple citations that didn't make it into my post:
•More doses of flu vaccine correlates with less risk of dementia
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35723106/
•Having high HDL levels correlates with resistance to viral infections
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38431503/
Maybe it's secretly the reason that having good HDL levels correlates with lower risk of heart disease?
Nice invented theory from invented facts...hogwash
Paddy is more skeptical ...
https://paddybarrett.substack.com/p/the-real-secret-of-why-blue-zones