
Unlike taxes, the GOP, racial injustice and idiotic comments on neighborhood listservs, Death does appear to have a cure. Well, not actually a cure, but a possible delay. Death procrastinators can take heart that wills, farewells and the honoring of IOUs may be able to be put off indefinitely, if we play our cards right.
Outside of nuclear holocaust, too much CNN viewing and the ever-present threat of murderous buses, humans can live between 120 and 150 years. Heather Whitsen, Director of Duke University Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, asks “What’s the longest life that could be lived by a human complex system if everything else went really well, and it’s in a stressor-free environment?’”
Perceptive readers may have caught the term “stressor-free” in the above quote and suggested that, aside from white American men in the 1950s, there has been no time in human history that life has been stressor-free. But this explanation would take entirely too much time to delve into and would bring up a lot of unsavory thoughts. Those same readers may take exception to the term “human complex system” as well, since humans have, in recent years, become less and less complex, having devolved mostly into sound bites and bitmojis.
No matter. This blog post has to end in a timely manner, in order for LBL to continue her other (important) pursuits. For that reason, she will ignore the perusings of her readers and will simply go on. In a nutshell, a Singapore-based company called Gero found that as age increased, some factor beyond disease drove a predictable and incremental decline in the body’s ability to return blood cells or gait to a stable level after a disruption. In other words, akin to LBL’s journey to a restaurant rest room, the body can no longer find its way back to the place where it began. Trauma to the body works the same way. A young person’s response to trauma is swift. Old people are too busy trying to remember if they took their pills to jump start the recovery process. Oldies will be amused to know that this slide starts as early as 35-40 years. This dovetails with the end of most athletic careers.
If this blog post is starting to feel like a bait-and-switch, stay with LBL a bit longer. Research is gaining from how to extend life to how to make that longer life less impaired. Senescent cells (think of these as tiny little microscopic people with walkers, invading all of your organs, etc). These are cells that could once replicate to repair aging tissue but have now lost that capacity to do so due to internal damage. It turns out that they degrade surrounding tissue by secreting harmful molecules. Science now knows that accumulated senescent cells can be tossed out, walkers and all. This is huge.
Our bodies, as well as the ends of our chromosomes (call telomeres), get shorter over a lifetime. Shortened bodies don’t mean that much, but shortened telomeres mean more risk of disease. An enzyme, “telomerase” can elongate telomeres, resulting in better bone density and control of blood sugar. A host of other recent discoveries has shown ways to prevent the predictable decline of immune cells, eye cells and more. The list goes on and on. Little by little, not only is life expectancy being extended, the fallout of longer life is being lessened.
A word of caution: Just because humans are gaining the capacity to live longer and to be more vital while doing so, doesn’t mean that people should adopt a “There’s-time-to-do-it” lifestyle. Debts should be paid in a timely manner, RSVP requests should be responded to, and gifts should be acknowledged. LBL, herself, looks forward to a long life of vigor and vitality. She will need it in order to rant, qvetch and protest about the exact same things she did over 50, 60 and 70 years ago. If she lives to 150 years, she looks forward to holding up a protest sign and her middle finger at all of the dreck in the universe that was (and still is) responsible for agitating her when she was 20 years old. Some things, alas, are impervious to death.

100 Country Trek
January 5, 2022
Our world in the past , now and the future, Love your writing !! Thanks
Anita
Life in the Boomer Lane
January 6, 2022
Thanks, Anita. My writing has, thus far, kept me out of mental institution. 2024 might be too much for that to handle.
geezenslaw
January 5, 2022
I would like to join you in your socio-political goals you describe so elegantly. Notwithstanding, I plan to retire in Costa Rica where democracy still reigns and digtal nomads are welcomed. Ciao.
Life in the Boomer Lane
January 6, 2022
I truly envy you. I’m still wrestling with my allegiance to three kids and seven grandchildren.
geezenslaw
January 6, 2022
A poignant day to reply. I’m fairly sure CR will accept all 11 especially someone as productive as you. Fair Winds.
Peg
January 7, 2022
Love it, gave me a few good laughs!
Life in the Boomer Lane
January 7, 2022
Thanks, Peg!
Victoria C.
January 16, 2022
OMG I needed that. I’ve been blessed with good health and physical vigor all my life, and now, suddenly, totally unexpectedly, parts are going out-of-order. Especially my always-before-strongest-part, my legs. I worked in Emergency Medicine/ ER for 20 years, and expected to get help from MDs, To my shock, after 3 Drs (2 of them geriatric specialists) did absolutely nothing for 3 years, I went to a 4th who also did nothing – I mean, none of tem ever examined me, none ever looked up my symptoms in a medical book, and all failed to answer my questions, always cleverly manipulating the conversation elsewhere.
So it turns out that the standard of care for old people (and I have finally had to admit that I am old) is to chat them up, take their blood pressure with a machine (never feel a pulse or listen top a heart) and keep offering opioid drugs. I stopped going to any of them since the pandemic made it more dangerous to go than not to, and looked up my symptoms myself, on the Mayo Hospital School of Med. and Johns Hopkins site. (I DO NOT generally recommend this – if you have a doctor who is actively treating you,) I found some things my problem might be, tried the patient-doable things, and got the first improvement since 2018. I was able to get one or more of these Drs to order the tests I needed to “rule out” potential diagnoses, (MRI, xrays, blood tests for whatever) and was able to treat myself to a degree, and my conditions improved at last. The most effective and helpful treatment I have found, by far, is acupuncture, which Medicare does not pay for.)
A patient should NOT have to do this! We have much less access to reliable resources of information. We don’t have medical books! This experience has been mind-blowing and a bit horrifying. All of them seem to be very annoyed that I ask questions, and even worse – that I know things. They keep punting me like a lucrative football form one doc to the next. I am feeling helpless for the first time in my life.
All I can say is, I’m going to be watching your blog more closely now. I need an ally / advocate, and good news is always welcome.
Life in the Boomer Lane
January 17, 2022
Thanks for these comments Victoria. Those of us who are of that age can relate to so much of this. I’m grateful that my health holds out. But I am well aware of the deterioration of my body. And I have had at least one experience with a doctor who blew off my complaint by simply saying “You women! My wife always complains about the same thing.” Yes, we are often left to diagnose and/or treat ourselves, and that is frustrating and potentially dangerous.
David
January 17, 2022
I say keep looking. Yes, the perspective is: medicine works for younger folks and not so much for the older. I have a PCP that is concerned for her patients. I was having some real uncomfortable days when she sent me to a real specialist of Youtube fame. This specialist presents talks that other doctors come to hear. The Dr. I’m talking about took a year to fully diagnose me mostly because he does not like prescribing randomly to ‘fix’ an issue. I’m now in much better health. I’ve been married to 2 nurses and can relate. Keep looking for a PCP that has connections. Fair Winds and following seas.
Gail Kaufman
January 17, 2022
Increasing longevity and quality of life is all well and good, but until someone comes up with a solution for the very real prospect of outliving savings, it’s actually a frightening thought. This is a common fear, even among diligent savers.