What I am doing to delay ageing: an introduction to my new series
Ageing, characterised by the slow and often painful deterioration of our bodily and mental functioning, is undoubtedly one of life's greatest tragedies. Indeed, I fear ageing more than death itself! My family slowly watching me descend into mental retardation with dementia, or held prisoner in my home due to the unbearable pain of cancer - take your pick.
Age is by far the greatest risk factor for most fatal diseases, and there is an increasing body of scientific literature suggesting that ageing itself is an endogenous variable, dependant to a large extent on our lifestyle choices, as opposed to some exogenous force that just happens. Unless we can generate AI clones or Hanson's brain simulations to upload onto a robot, or cloning advances, or cryogenics works out, death will probably still be one of the two immutable facts of life (alongside taxes!); if only via accidents. Yet it is far from clear whether ageing is inevitable. Increasingly, it looks like you can delay (and possibly, in the future, reverse) ageing. Hence, I will be starting a blog series where I summarise key ageing mechanisms and what I will be doing to delay ageing in myself.
Of course, the skeptical reader may conclude that I am making incredulously speculative and outlandish claims here. Or perhaps will arrive at the cynical position that I am gearing towards a grift. You need not worry about the latter - all of my claims in this anti-ageing series will be free of charge, and even if I wanted to grift, the market for such is already pretty damn saturated. All of my arguments will revolve around the empirical literature. I also suggest augmenting your reading of these blogs with an LLM, to fill in any gaps in interpretation of the scientific literature that I have not sufficiently addressed. As for the former, we have genetic mutations associated with an up to tenfold increase in the lifespan of some roundworms, and to a lesser degree in fruit flies and mice. Of course, the results of laboratory experiments in rodents and insects may not translate into equivalent results for mankind, yet there is no reason in principle that many of the mechanisms identified cannot be applicable to us.
Another arena for pushback may be that our lifespans are essentially a function of winning the genetic lottery, and of course the influence of genes themselves may not be causal, strictly speaking. Yet twin studies suggest that longevity is around 25% heritable, and as I have argued previously, we know that twin studies could possibly inflate heritability estimates somewhat. This means that how long we live is mostly determined via our own lifestyle choices.
Throughout this journey, I will catalogue the key ageing pathways identified in “hallmarks of aging”, and how I will target these mechanisms directly via my own lifestyle choices. In particular, I will focus on diet, to demystify the often conflicting claims you may have encountered: does a glass of red wine each day keep the doctor away? Is coffee harmful, or a vital nootropic for cognitive flourishing? Should we go vegan? I will not focus on the famous blue zones, as they seem to be an artifact of poor data (and statistical interpretation) more than anything.
This chronicle should be understood to be a work in progress too: a diary to document my personal journey of vitality and wellbeing just as much as advice for the reader. As such, there will be no definite endpoint. Ultimately, by sharing what I have read and how I intend to act based on that, the motivation necessary for a healthy lifestyle will be maintained, via that outside accountability. Stay tuned…