‘Aging is a disease’: Inside the drive to postpone death indefinitely

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Longevity has become an industry, a subject of bestsellers, podcasts and newsletters. But is a life meted out in metrics, often for a price, worth it?

t’s 11 a.m., which means tech tycoon Bryan Johnson has already consumed his three daily meals, including dinner, and will fast until 6 a.m. tomorrow. By day’s end, he will have ingested more than 100 pills, mostly supplements. He will stop drinking water to ensure a solid night of slumber, which averages 8 hours 39 minutes. How does he know this? Johnson tracksJohnson, who lives in Los Angeles, is the founder of Blueprint, an “experiment to explore the future of being human.

A lodestar for diets, do-this-don’t-do-that newsletters and lifestyle coaches. A branding opportunity for emollients, olive oil, trademarked wellness programs and more supplements.A burgeoning apothecary of serums and humectants is marketed as “anti-aging,” whatever that is. Longevity coaches promote programs capable of “reversing aging.

Old age and infirmity aren’t respected in much of our culture. We’re a young nation that seizes on the new. Throughout history, old age was venerated, synonymous with wisdom, partly because, for millennia, few humans made it to 50. But 50 is child’s play in an age of supercentenarians, people who live to 110.We’re less comfortable with the inevitability of our final days.

There’s a desire to reverse pervasive ageism, to reimagine and redefine what people’s later years might look like. “Younger generations will view us differently. They won’t see us as ‘old,’” Olshansky said. “I’m far more productive now than many kids.” The key to being healthier needn’t be complicated or expensive, said Olshansky, who has studied longevity for about four decades. It comes down to five words: “Exercise more and eat less.” Then again, he noted, “you could be coached on all of that and still die at the same age.”Austad is unsurprised that some people are trying to classify aging as a disease.

 

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