LONGECITY

I've compiled a very general list of actions one can do to decrease risk of permanent death so that I (and others, if they want) can research each topic individually. Please tell me any action I'm missing or any corrections to the current list.

Actions to decrease risk of permanent death:

·  Optimize nutrition (including supplementation).

·  Optimize exercise.

·  Optimize sleep.

·  Minimize stress.

·  Minimize exposure to poisons (including carcinogens and respiratory irritants).

·  Minimize risk of infectious causes of death.

·  Minimize risk of external causes of death.

·  Maximize quality of medical care and checkups.

 

·  Maximize chance of being successfully cryopreserved and brought back to live.

You might want to add 

• Minimize the quantity of medical care

The reason is that medical mistakes are a significant cause of early death in the western world.  Mistakes on prescriptions and other medical errors are something like the 6th leading cause of death in the US. This affects mostly older patients with multiple medication, but can take younger folks in the prime of life too. (eg. Bruce Lee)  Also hospitals are where people with infectious disease go, so you can also pick up some nasty problems there that can be serious.

·  Minimize exposure to poisons (including carcinogens and respiratory irritants).

·

·  Minimize risk of external causes of death.

 

 

I agree that toxin consumption is not a good thing, but I'd focus on the toxins you are likely to encounter in amounts great enough to make a difference.  This might include things that some people consider "food".  I often see an excessive concern about substances of questionable toxicity that are encountered in exceedingly small quantity, and I suspect that in a lot of cases, the stress about the "toxin" is worse for you than whatever it is you're worried about.   The Internet may be the greatest tool ever for stoking fears about various substances that are very unlikely to hurt you.  Watch out for particulates.  Be sure you use a quality mask if you are doing anything that creates dust, like sanding, sawing, grinding etc.

 

IMHO, we don't spend enough time on external causes of death, primarily accidents, suicide, and homicide.  There are actions you can take to reduce the odds of dying of each of these, like learning how to drive properly, driving a modern car, no cell phone use while driving, no driving when drunk, high, angry or tired.  No stupid high-danger sports, don't hang out in high crime areas, learn situational awareness and how not to be a victim.  Don't have any guns in your home; you're far more likely to use a gun on yourself or someone you know than an intruder.

 

Avoiding excess medical care is good, but you can take that to extremes.  Be sure that you know when to go to the doctor or ER.  Some smart people have ended up dead because they thought they could treat themselves and didn't seek medical care when they could have been saved.

You might want to add 

• Minimize the quantity of medical care

 

 

I'll agree with that one. Medical care today is not that much advanced over witchcraft, and I know several people who have nearly been killed by it. I myself was poisoned by unnecessary prescriptions for drugs that have been foisted on the American public purely for profit.

· Minimize stress.

I'm skeptical about the impact of stress on mortality. Admittedly I haven't studied the topic much, but my initial impression is that the evidence is weak, and that stress may even be beneficial.

First of all, it seems that the idea that stress is bad for lifespan is often just accepted as a given, as if it were just common sense and scientfic verification isn't required; this is just plain weak reasoning.

Second, teasing out the direction of causality would seem diffcult - is it poor health and associated mortality risks that cause stress, or is it stress that causes poor health and mortality risk, or is it some complicated interactive relationship between the two?

Third, the term "stress" is a very broad loosely-defined concept that often has a strong subjective psychological element to it, making it difficult to objectively scientifically measure and characterise.

Fourth, the so-called "hormetic" effect, whereby stress actually has health-promoting effect may be responsible for the benefits of some of the most promising current options: exercise, calorie restriction, minimally processed whole plant foods.

Taking a statistics-based approach to causes of death may be useful, and allow one to best prioritize one's efforts against particular mortality risks. First, get a hold of statistical data on causes of death, then filter the data to personalise it for the individual in question, e.g. country of residence, age, gender, race, family mortality history, genotype, vital statistics etc.

Here are some starting points:
http://en.wikipedia....f_death_by_rate
http://www.who.int/m...heets/fs310/en/

You might want to add 

• Minimize the quantity of medical care

The reason is that medical mistakes are a significant cause of early death in the western world.  Mistakes on prescriptions and other medical errors are something like the 6th leading cause of death in the US. This affects mostly older patients with multiple medication, but can take younger folks in the prime of life too. (eg. Bruce Lee)  Also hospitals are where people with infectious disease go, so you can also pick up some nasty problems there that can be serious.

 

Good idea, I'll add it.

 

· Minimize stress.

I'm skeptical about the impact of stress on mortality. Admittedly I haven't studied the topic much, but my initial impression is that the evidence is weak, and that stress may even be beneficial.

First of all, it seems that the idea that stress is bad for lifespan is often just accepted as a given, as if it were just common sense and scientfic verification isn't required; this is just plain weak reasoning.

Second, teasing out the direction of causality would seem diffcult - is it poor health and associated mortality risks that cause stress, or is it stress that causes poor health and mortality risk, or is it some complicated interactive relationship between the two?

Third, the term "stress" is a very broad loosely-defined concept that often has a strong subjective psychological element to it, making it difficult to objectively scientifically measure and characterise.

Fourth, the so-called "hormetic" effect, whereby stress actually has health-promoting effect may be responsible for the benefits of some of the most promising current options: exercise, calorie restriction, minimally processed whole plant foods.

 

 

I'll need to look into the literature about stress, although since some stress may be beneficial, I suppose I should of instead said "optimize stress." Do you know how to edit topics? I can't seem to find the edit button.

Taking a statistics-based approach to causes of death may be useful, and allow one to best prioritize one's efforts against particular mortality risks. First, get a hold of statistical data on causes of death, then filter the data to personalise it for the individual in question, e.g. country of residence, age, gender, race, family mortality history, genotype, vital statistics etc.

Here are some starting points:
http://en.wikipedia....f_death_by_rate
http://www.who.int/m...heets/fs310/en/

 

CDCWONDER actually has a much more comprehensive list than this. The problem with CDCWONDER and the links you gave is that they don't list the actual actions one can do to prevent death, which makes researching the individual causes list on the aforementioned websites inefficient. For example, many internal causes of death are prevented by exercising, so one would hear to exercise many times when researching, even though it is unlikely to help after the first time. With my list, this is less likely to happen.

 

Edit: Also, I am taking a loosely statistics-based approach, as I am basing much of my list for this, this, and this. However, some of my post is more speculative, as the linked literature doesn't mention some items such as cryopreservation or external causes of death.

Edited by Y13N1, 09 August 2014 - 02:01 PM.

Do you know how to edit topics? I can't seem to find the edit button.

I believe the edit button disappears once another, subsequent, post is made in the thread. Send a private message to one of the forum moderators, they may be able to help.

There are quite a number of studies investigation associations between multiple behaviour/lifestyle variables and mortality risk. Here're some examples:
http://www.ncbi.nlm....les/PMC3222361/
http://www.biomedcen...1741-7015/11/47
http://www.ncdsemina...v-Med-2012).pdf
Edited by Brett Black, 10 August 2014 - 02:57 AM.

Members can edit posts only for a limited time period.  It used to be two hours- I'm not sure what it is now.  It might be an hour, or maybe it's still two.

Have you been thinking about learning - getting a higher education in a science, that can make us immortal? E.g. becomming an expert and starting to do a real science? As an addition to all the thigs, that you have added?

Have you been thinking about learning - getting a higher education in a science, that can make us immortal? E.g. becomming an expert and starting to do a real science? As an addition to all the thigs, that you have added?

 

I presume you mean supporting anti-aging research or doing it oneself. If so, then although I question if it would have a significant impact, but I suppose its still worth adding to the list.

Not only anti - aging research (actually it depends what do you mean by anti-aging research). There are many sciences, that have the potential to stop/treat/prevent the aging. You may choose one, develop your knowlege in it, and start doing a real research.