Never take health tips from oldest people, say scientists

https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/aug/24/never-take-health-tips-from-worlds-oldest-people-say-scientists

by howard941 • 2 years ago

23 29 2 years ago

throw_pm23• 2 years ago

yeah, take tips from scientists instead.

Branyas believed her longevity stemmed from “order, tranquility, good connection with family and friends, contact with nature, emotional stability, no worries, no regrets, lots of positivity and staying away from toxic people”

Sounds like solid advice to me.

[scientist] Sinclair said [..] improvements in vaccines for flu and shingles, statins, and other medications would help increase life expectancy among older people. [...] he said governments also needed to take action to help individuals to make healthier choices.

Sorry, I think I prefer the advice from the old person.

jraph9• 2 years ago

What is wrong with the sentence about the medication? This is not advice by the way.

You can't take advice from old people on how to live old because they don't know themselves how they managed it. And there's the survivor bias. And that would be anecdotal.

Only the scientific method and solid studies can give us insight on what makes us live longer.

Advice you quoted seems harmless, and is seducing, but we don't know if this is what allowed this long life. Her advice tends towards avoiding stress and we know that stress is to be avoided, so that might (and probably is) good advice, but we know that from scientific studies and you will need to adapt the advice to you, taking in account what stresses you and what relaxes you.

Some old people have been drinking a glass of wine a day or smoking a lot and that somehow didn't kill them, they might even believe that it helped them stay alive longer, and there's probably even some truth in this because they might have enjoyed it and we also know that being happier helps you live longer, but that might still be terrible advice that has all the chances to harm you. It might have even harmed them, maybe they would live even longer without the smoking and the drinking.

Everybody is different and some good advice for one person might not apply to another. An old person might know what's good for them, but that may not apply to you. Only solid scientific studies will help us know what tends to work for many/most people.

givemeethekeys• 2 years ago

they don't know themselves how they managed it

I disagree. You can definitely look at oldest people and ask them how they're different from their peers who died younger. You will get examples of choices that they made which lead to their longevity. Maybe they ate better, exercised better, slept more, didn't sweat the small stuff... or maybe they chose to get every single available vaccine to ensure against illness. Of course, they may also have "better" genes.

there's the survivor bias

Well, yeah. Many people want to live "longer" - as in out survive everyone else.

david-gpu3• 2 years ago

And there's the survivor bias

Isn't that precisely the reason why you would want to ask old people, because the survivor bias has eliminated people with habits that were not conducive to a long life?

genocidicbunny2• 2 years ago

Sounds like solid advice to me.

Sounds like pretty generic advice that I've heard from older people...basically all my life. Maybe there's some underlying truth that creates the commonality, but for the most part this is about on par with "Don't do stuff that will kill you" which is vapid and useless.

strken2• 2 years ago

Chronic stress is bad for you[0]. Yeah, you can call advice to avoid chronic stress vapid and useless if you want, but so many people still willingly expose themselves to it that a reminder is probably helpful.

[0] See e.g. https://academic.oup.com/biomedgerontology/article/69/Suppl_... for a bit of an overview

readthenotes1• 2 years ago

Trust the Scientist, not your own lieing eyes :)

2cynykyl• 2 years ago

Maybe the point is that taking advice from ANY single person is a bad idea since thay are making conclusions from a sample size of 1, while a "scientist" is telling you things that are statistically more likely to help you?

jraph9• 2 years ago

Exactly, that's the whole point.

It's quite unintuitive but us mere mortals are not experts in our own health/longevity.

We know our own bodies better than anybody else experimentally speaking, but we don't know shit about how it works for the most part and we know even less how others work.

Unless it's your area of expertise of course, but then I hope you'll avoid spreading unproven advice.

sillyfluke3• 2 years ago

The guy quoted in the article, Faragher, seems completely unaware of his biogeronologist collegue Valter Longo at the USC Davis School of Geronology and Longevity Institute, whose recommendations have picked up mainstream adoption by the public. Of course, he is probably aware of Longo but he is probably unaware that his statements as quoted in the article, contradict Longo's own first hand research and other additional research on centenarian studies.

In fact, the unhealthy habits that Farragher says are common among most old people are in fact not common lifelong habits of centenarians, according to Longo.

If Faragher is aware of the contradiction then he should state on what evidence and research he is disputing Longo's findings.

Based on his research, Longo's recommendation is basically:

Eat vegetables, complex carbs and whole grains most of the time, fish ocassionally, meat very rarely unless over 65, and fast some of the time.

Longo in fact claims that these are supported--along with epistmilogical and clinical studies-- by centarian studies which are literally first-hand detailed interviews with 100+ year-old people.

Farragher's incomplete explanation of survivorship bias also seems to have confused other commentators in this thread.

dukeofdoom2• 2 years ago

Never take health tips from pill pushers. The medical business is a business is a business! Doctors being the most notorious pill pushers on this planet.

Diet, exercise and good sleep, keys to longevity.

Popping pills key to early death.

Authority figure mad about someone ignoring their authority, is so old, it's stuff for fairy tales.

nope1000• 2 years ago

Doctors being the most notorious pill pushers on this planet

How about science podcasters advertising supplements?

ravenstine• 2 years ago

You mean neuroscientists hawking powder made from desiccated leaves and stems aren't actually experts in nutrition? ;)

dukeofdoom2• 2 years ago

They generally don't give ouy things that can kill you...though might be useless. Doctors on the other hand ... let's just say cemeteries are filled with people that listened to their doctor

efilife• 2 years ago

Diet, exercise and good sleep, keys to longevity.

So simple. Why didn't I think of this earlier

up2isomorphism• 2 years ago

What if the scientist himself is very old?

Never take health tips from oldest people, say scientists

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