Step one of healthy life extension as envisaged at the Longevity Meme is to stop damaging your health - cut out the obvious sources of accumulated age-related cellular damage, and stop making lifestyle choices associated with age-related disease. You certainly can't do a perfect job - in the absence of perfect information, no-one can - but a healthier, and thus longer, later life is certainly within the bounds of possibility:

It's a truism that healthy aging begins long before you hit old age. Now a large study has confirmed that and suggested a new approach for those hoping to live a long and healthy life: Aim to reach age 50 with as few risk factors for heart disease and stroke as possible.

Not smoking, maintaining a healthy weight and warding off diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol may drastically reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease and add 10 years to your life, the study reports.

Basic good health is not rocket science; talk to your physician if you're unsure about any of it. Most people are well aware of the trade-offs they make in terms of present bad habits versus future health consequences - but too few realize that what looks like a 10 year reduction in life span under the healthcare available today might mean they'll miss the boat on the introduction of working anti-aging medicine. Missing the boat means possibly missing out on centuries or more of healthy life if medical science moves forward at a fast enough pace.

Why take that chance? If you like life, take care of your health and support medical research into the technologies of healthy life extension - you might just wind up seeing a whole lot more of the future than was ever deemed possible.

Technorati tags: health, life extension

Posted by Reason at February 21, 2006 9:28 PM | TrackBack (0)