"Spring Chicken"

STAY YOUNG FOREVER (OR DIE TRYING)
2016
-by bill gifford
Bill is a journalist who does a dandy job collecting our best scientific knowledge on the struggle against aging and death. He visits centers, conferences, and public events (like the senior Olympics) to conduct interviews, with an amused and curious eye. He enters an aging study as a participant. He talks to the leading scientists in the field, and comes away with this - at the rate our knowledge is growing, one is justified in thinking that if you can manage to not die for another few decades, you might live to be very (even unprecedentedly) old indeed. But for now, these insights will have to do. Use it or lose it! Eat less. Sustained stress is terrible, but bursts of short stress (fasting, polar bear swims...) might be conducive to longevity, as they strengthen low-activity cells, and weaken voracious ones (like cancer). It's conceivable that very soon, chemo patients will be urged to fast before treatments. Aging doesn't seem to be about slowing down and wasting away, as long assumed, but rather about burning oneself out. We aren't designed to adapt to old age, as for most of our species history forty was old, so once we pass full development, there are development protocols in our body that have no idea how to slow down. A delightful read.