

The Men Who Live Forever - chaostheory
http://www.menshealth.com/men/fitness/motivation/longevity/article/3b4b1ca01e91c010VgnVCM10000013281eac

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mark_l_watson
Not a good article. I have been around the Tarahumara. The women are friendly
but very shy, the men are not to be seen when outsiders are around. My guide
told me that they have a 50% infant mortality.

However, their history is very cool: when the Spaniards were enslaving
everyone they could catch in northern Mexico for a short and harsh life in
silver mines, the Tarahumara did not like what they saw, and headed for remote
areas.

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bd
_"My guide told me that they have a 50% infant mortality."_

This would explain "the secret of longevity and perpetual health" - quite
literal _survivorship_ bias.

~~~
panic
From <http://www.lehigh.edu/~dmd1/art.html> (just somebody's term paper I
found on Google):

 _The Tarahumara are not very hygienic to even modern day indigenous
standards. They are not very cleanly and the washing of their clothes is
usually either an annual or semiannual tradition. The Tarahumara have no
regular sleeping habits and simply go to sleep whenever and wherever they are
tired and feel that they need rest. The practice of childbirth is also
distinct to the Tarahumara. When a woman feels that it is about time for her
to deliver the baby she will go off by herself into the wilderness, brace
herself between two small trees and attempts to have the baby safely. There is
a very high infant mortality rate among the Tarahumara. This fact is
counterbalanced by the fact that there is also a very high birth rate. The
average Tarahumara woman gives birth to about ten babies hoping that three or
four will survive into adulthood. Adulthood is usually short for the
Tarahumara with the average life expectancy being forty-five (Lutz 50). These
factors are believed to help the Tarahumara survive as a race._

Perhaps the reason they have low incidence of diabetes, cancer, and heart
disease is that these ailments often set in after the age of 45?

~~~
bd
It depends on how they computed average life expectancy. Due to high infant
mortality, life expectancy of survivors can be in fact much higher.

 _"Life expectancy is heavily dependent on the criteria used to select the
group. For example, in countries with high infant mortality rates, the life
expectancy at birth is highly sensitive to the rate of death in the first few
years of life. In these cases, another measure such as life expectancy at age
5 (e5) can be used to exclude the effects of infant mortality to provide a
simple measure of overall mortality rates other than in early childhood._ "

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy>

~~~
delackner
If you are correct then the previous quote saying a woman would give birth on
average 10 times, expecting 3 or 4 to survive, then wouldn't the e5 be around
90? That's far better than in almost all developed countries...

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siculars
The Tarahumara of Mexico have been getting a lot of play recently specifically
because of a book called Born to Run, by Christopher McDougall
([http://www.amazon.com/Born-Run-Hidden-Superathletes-
Greatest...](http://www.amazon.com/Born-Run-Hidden-Superathletes-
Greatest/dp/0307266303)).

The Tarahumara people have been known in the elite runner/super athlete
circles for a few decades yet but it seems that since the book came out
everyone has been searching for their own experience with them. They are also
somewhat responsible for the recent barefoot running phenomenon.

~~~
nod
This article IS that book -- I just finished reading it. This article is
ripped word-for-word from several sections of that book, with a little
stitching together. It's an entertaining book, if a bit rambling.

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cwb
A bit wordy I think. Summary: Run (with low-padding shoes). Eat better.

~~~
verisimilitude
I disagree -- and I'm troubled that people seem to assert that just because
you can say something quickly, means you should be compelled to pare down your
ideas into CliffsNotes. The readers lose out on the richness of the ideas
being conveyed.

Sometimes novels should've been essays. Why must essays always become tweets?

~~~
bh23ha
It's not that essays should be tweets, it's that I and a lot of other people
here prefer a particular style of writing. Think of "Surely You're Joking, Mr.
Feynman!", a fact heavy almost detail free style.

But most people prefer a longer story based style and I suspect most people on
HN today are of that type.

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bootload
_"... But none of that wisdom has prepared me for this. Eric warned me that
running low on water during a 12-hour run in 85° heat would be crucial, and
now, with my pee the color of convenience-store coffee, I know I'm too
dehydrated to finish. ..."_

Not very bright. Dehydration means approx. 10% loss of performance and
potential for damage. Isotonics work well in this situation. But 12 hours of
water. You cant carry it. It has to be a refill about every 2Hrs.

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gregwebs
Why does this article have that title and then give no discussion on that
point?

The whole concept is pretty ridiculous that they have discovered this healthy
people that must be healthy because they eat corn and run marathons. All
indigenous people were relatively free of diseases of civilization pre-contact
(which basically includes all of our medical problems) and would appear
remarkably healthy if they survived to old age. This is about the only culture
that runs marathons.

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joubert
In yesterday's NYT: Vigor Quest

[http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/17/magazine/17antiaging-t.htm...](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/17/magazine/17antiaging-t.html?ref=magazine)

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shin_lao
It's pretty obvious we are doing things backward. We eat crap and compensate
with synthetic vitamins. We exercise little and compensate with few hours per
week on a machine.

Since I've reduced - not suppressed - meat and sugar, walk one hour a day, and
spend time contemplating I've witnessed significant improvement of my well
being.

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vixen99
If you want some peer-reviewed background on why it's smart to cut out sugar
and the foods to which it's added by manufacturers, do take a look at
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM> This is one of the best
nutritional videos I've ever seen. There's a chunk of biochemistry in the
middle but it's worth watching to the end! Don't miss it and add years to your
life.

~~~
cwan
I'd also add this one by Gary Taubes doing a lecture at the Stevens Institute
of Technology "Big Fat Lies":
<http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4362041487661765149#>

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thisisnotmyname
Was that journalism or an ad for Nike shoes?

