

Can the power of thought stop you ageing? - RiderOfGiraffes
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8498233.stm

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reasonattlm
No.

But people are willing to believe the wildest nonsense in order to avoid
confronting the fact that work is required to achieve a desired end.

\---

Addendum 1: If you want to stop aging, fund SENS research to the tune of a
billion dollars over ten years. <http://www.sens.org>. Full stop, end of
story.

Addendum 2: stress is known to accelerate the erosion of telomeres (or
accelerate whatever process of aging is associated with shorter telomeres), so
in that sense patterns of thought that translate into physiological changes do
seem to accelerate aging to some degree. Like all such metabolic issues, it
isn't any worse/better than what you can do to yourself with diet and
exercise.

~~~
orangecat
_Addendum 1: If you want to stop aging, fund SENS research to the tune of a
billion dollars over ten years.<http://www.sens.org>. Full stop, end of
story._

I'm baffled that this never comes up when we're discussing spiraling health
care costs. The vast majority of health care dollars are spent trying (and
ultimately failing) to treat conditions that are the direct result of aging.
Even a billion dollars a year on research like what SENS is doing is cheap if
there's any possibility of success. And that's not even accounting for the
massively increased quality of life that would result, or the economic benefit
of people remaining productive their entire lives.

FWIW, I've joined the cause to donate $100 to SENS once 10,000 people sign up:
<http://apps.facebook.com/causes/297361>.

~~~
ximeng
You might have to deal with euthanasia, stopping people having kids, or
sharing wealth more widely if people live longer though.

~~~
jodrellblank
And?

(I think we should deal with euthanasia and suicide anyway as a matter of
fairness, and population growth if it becomes a serious issue).

~~~
ximeng
And these topics are not cleanly dealt with by society at the moment. I agree
that we should deal with these areas better. If we as a society can't agree
that terminally ill people should be allowed to die in peace, then I don't
think there's any cause for orangecat to be baffled that we don't fund anti-
aging research as much as we should. You don't get a billion dollars unless
you can have a sensible discussion about the necessary consequences of the
research.

[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/7166200/...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/7166200/Pope-
Benedict-XVI-criticises-tide-of-secularism-in-UK-and-support-for-
euthanasia.html)

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10ren
The experimental group also exercised more, by not relying on walking sticks
etc.

It's been shown that the deterioration of bone density in the elderly can be
reversed by simple strength training: inactivity is partly the cause of
infirmity.

[http://www.naturalnews.com/010528_strength_training_bone_den...](http://www.naturalnews.com/010528_strength_training_bone_density_weight_training.html)

~~~
eldenbishop
This is really very key here. A study in China trying to figure out why two
identical towns, right next to each other seemed to have radically different
health profiles on their elderly eventually came to the conclusion that it was
because one of the towns had a a modern road while the other was still paved
with cobblestones. The difficulty of walking on the cobblestones kept the
population substantially healthier. There are even some experimental
retirement homes in Japan designed around this idea. Instead of trying to make
everything easier, and allowing the population to grow weaker in response. The
entire home is designed to challenging. Things like short door frames so
people have to duck.

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mortenjorck
Nothing can stop you from aging.

Eating right, getting out more, and generally taking care of yourself can put
a <1.0 coefficient on a lot of it though.

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rbanffy
If this becomes mainstream thinking, fashion will show the weirdest side
effects...

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tybris
A placebo should do the trick.

~~~
rbanffy
Probably more than most people imagine ;-)

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1010011010
Not even if you're Deepak.

