Is Aging a Disease?
Homosexuality was considered a disease as recently as in 1974, yet as of 2018, homosexuals (doesn’t that oversized word conjure up images of beefy, hairy men in chaps?) can marry in most culturally advanced countries around the world. We’ve come a long way in terms of attitudes towards minority groups; so much so, that it’s a ‘thing’ to be in minority groups now. They’re all the rage. The point I’m making is that we no longer view gay as sick, far from it. It’s kind of cool to be gay these days. Footballers, Rugby players and nearly every other sport you can think of has its share of openly gay men and women.
Let’s not forget bisexuality either, they’re another sub-group within the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered) minority group, which in itself, has changed to something like…LGBTQIA (I wrote a tongue-in-cheek post about that here).
Ok, I got ever so slightly side-tracked.
Aging. Is it really necessary? I first read about the concept of everlasting bodies when I read a book by Deepak Chopra many years back titled, ‘Perfect Health’. He proposes that with the right mental attitude, the right plant-based diet and the right combination of exercise, our bodies shouldn’t degrade and die. He concludes that meat eating ages the body much faster and lack of exercise contributes to the problem. He also proposes that you are what you believe, but that’s a story for another blog.
You can do your own research to verify this information, but I’ll summarise that serum phosphate levels rise in the body after red meat consumption and this has been studied carefully and found to increase aging. While a number of independent scientists from around the globe have contributed to this collective body of information, an even growing number of meat producing industry workers will obviously debunk this, by stating that vitamins and certain minerals can only be gained from eating meat. How much of this we can believe is questionable given the bias.
Tobacco is really good for you
There are still newspaper clippings floating around that were copied from way back when, where certain tobacco companies declared that smoking was not toxic to the human body. Decades later, we know this isn’t true and that those same people have long since died from smoking related diseases (along with the hundreds of millions who will die because of the smoking they pushed).
Who you believe is none of my concern, but I will happily point out that many Indians – who are predominantly vegetarian, with access to clean water and medical facilities, live longer and healthier lives – aging slower. That’s a documented fact and a very interesting one.
We’ve also recently discovered that sitting down for long periods is bad for the body. In fact, it’s now referred to as the new smoking. If you sit for long periods, your body ages faster and you’re at greater risk of type 2 diabetes and several types of cancer.
So how are you supposed to work a desk job if sitting is so bad for you? Apparently, you get up and move for 1 minute every 30 minutes. I’ve worked for large organisations that have timers that blank your monitor for 1 minute every 30 to force you to get up and stretch your body. Smart.
A woman by the name of Elizabeth Parrish of Bioviva, claims to have tested an anti-aging cure on herself by lengthening the telomeres, which shorten as we age. Liz believes that aging is a disease and that we can treat it using her method. She’s so convinced that she’s using herself as a guinea pig.
She’s not the only one, there are several scientists who are beginning to see aging as a disease and one that can be cured.
Is aging really a disease?
I think we’re about to find out. With so many disparate groups dedicated to anti-aging, I think we’re on the precipice of such a discovery.
The problem isn’t so much whether or not we’ll likely extend the lives of humans – and perhaps even animals – but whether or not planet Earth will sustain us.
There’s already considerable talk that we’re heavily overpopulated and that we aren’t able to sustain over 7 billion people and their diets.
Here’s the interesting part. We can’t sustain 7 billion meat eaters, but some studies suggest that we can support much more than that number if we were plant-based eaters.
Interesting, isn’t it? It’s like the more we uncover, the more we learn that not only our bodies, but the planet itself is saying, Go Vegetarian and live longer!
Who knows? Maybe this is true or maybe, it’s all a load of shit. Meanwhile, I don’t know where I stand on the ‘sitting as the new smoking’ talk, but I do know that as I get older, I’d like the option of living longer.
The only problem is, will we get jaded? Imagine if we could live a couple of hundred years. Wouldn’t we get bored of nearly everything? Would we have suicide booths as an option for when you’ve decided enough is enough when the no longer quantifiable option of death is taken from us?
Food for thought.
Let me know what you think.
Fox
Have you read Circle in the Sand yet?
Thanks, its a good post. Im already jaded and Im not even 30!