Learning from -this- experience

gds said:

Peder said:

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Because science's ability to protect us from the world has increased

our

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lifespan artificially, far exceeding the engineering provided by

evolution.

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That's why joints, eyes and other organs, and the mind wear out

halfway

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through. We should be dead at 45 like our ancestors of a century

ago,

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victims of disease, conflict, and broken bones, then recycled by
scavengers. Count your blessings, it could be worse! 🙂

--
Peder (Please reply to group only, email invalid)

Actually there is a lot of evidence to the contrary. Almost all of the
major improvements of life expectancy have come from large reductions
in infant mortality and reductions in infectious desease among
children. If you correct for that you would be surprised how little age
specific life expectancy has increased for those making it to the age
of 20 or so.
Yes there has been improvement and this will likely continue, but
surprisingly folks who made it to 20 hundreds of years ago made it to
60+ as well.
There is an old testament phrase that references man's life span as
three score and ten. So, some 5000+ years ago life span was looked at
being 70.

We have a statistical problem in the way deaths and life spans are
recorded. It would seem more logic to break it into age groups like
45-55 and you have a life expectancy of 55-100 with the appropriate bell
curve for that group. Do it again for 55-65, and each ten year group up
to 85-95 and count out accidental death. I bet the stats would change a lot.
Bill Baka

"Maggie" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Ray said:

The older I get, the more important that becomes. That's why I'm an

old

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runner and a new rider. Man I love it too. I got a helmet and

everything.

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I'm 15 lbs. lighter, the hills are getting easier, and the only time

I go

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for all out speed is when I see a big dog on somebodies porch. I

prefer the

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hills for conditioning over a flat out sprint, at least right now in

my new

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exercise and fun hobby. And the best thing is I'm getting all this
conditioning and my knees don't hurt, my feet don't hurt, nothing

hurts,

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knock on wood.
Ray

What's up with the knees anyway. Why do they hurt as you get older?
Have you wore them out from too many years of walking? What is it? I
never had a problem with my knees until the past few years. They are
feeling better now that I am walking and riding, but I never understood
why they began hurting so much. When your knees hurt it seems
everything is a chore.

I think my knees have taken a beating with all the jogging I did and as I
get older the combination of the pounding and the natural lack of ability to
heal quickly with age is the reason. The last few years it seems everytime I
jogged I'd injure something. Last spring it was my knee again. Before it was
either knees or feet. I finally decided I needed to make a change and was
considering swimming before I broke out the old Schwinn. Biking was the
answer.

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The people I knew who used to jog when they were young are now moving
to another sport. All because of the pressure they put on their knees
through the years. I was never a jogger. I never put alot of abnormal
strain on my knees. I was skinny as hell up until I turned 40 so it was
not due to carrying too much weight around all my life. That happened
after 40.

I don't mind getting older and looking older. I do mind that I can feel it
physically. I started noticing around 38 that I was getting dinged alot more
often when I played a physical game and did some long distance running.

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I hear this same sad story from everyone I talk to over a certain age.
Their knees hurt. (well actually, their knees, their back, their feet
;-) )

I know. It's kind of neat really. I came to the conclusion on my own that
biking was the new thing for me and running was pretty much over and then
when I went to some of the newsgroups for advice on some bike choices etc.,
I find that there are alot of injury prone exrunners who are getting older
and have gone the biking route also and are very happy with it, as I am.
People are all the same.

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What's up with this? Glad your enjoying yourself. :-)

That I am. Thanks
Ray

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Maggie

bbaka said:

My math is excellent. All my relatives that died before 100 did so by
way of bad habits or by choice by way of arthritis. I am fine, still all
of my hair and teeth, no gray, and riding or running all the time at 56.
I am better than half way there so my odds are going up.

No matter how well you treat yourself though, [censored] can still happen,
take the guy who ate only the right foods, did nothing to risk his life,
was killed when a truck wheel tossed a small stone like a bullet, hit
him in the head and he died instantly..

Life spans can be tricky, my father died of a stroke, caused by a blood
clot at 66, and mom other then bad knees (both bionic now) is in
pretty good health at 81. Her father smoked like a chimney and drank
like a fish his entire life, and lived to 94, now he couldn't walk
(arthritic knees), couldn't see, wore dentures, but his hearing was
good, and his mind was sharp as a tack.

It's all relative, if everything works reasonably well, then living to
100 is good, if nothing is going to work anymore, then it's better to
check out earlier.

Now it really depends on what your looking forward to, if your belief
system, is that there is something better coming after this life, then
do you really want to put that off as long as possible? If on the other
hand, your belief system is that there is nothing beyond your time on
earth, then naturally you want to be here as long as possible.

Although I fall into the first group, that this life is to prepare you
for a better life to come, I look after myself reasonably well, not to
prolong life, but to improve the quality of the time I have here.....

W

The Wogster said:

bbaka said:

My math is excellent. All my relatives that died before 100 did so by
way of bad habits or by choice by way of arthritis. I am fine, still
all of my hair and teeth, no gray, and riding or running all the time
at 56.
I am better than half way there so my odds are going up.

No matter how well you treat yourself though, [censored] can still happen,
take the guy who ate only the right foods, did nothing to risk his life,
was killed when a truck wheel tossed a small stone like a bullet, hit
him in the head and he died instantly..

Yeah, but that isn't the normal everyday happening either.

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Life spans can be tricky, my father died of a stroke, caused by a blood
clot at 66, and mom other then bad knees (both bionic now) is in pretty
good health at 81. Her father smoked like a chimney and drank like a
fish his entire life, and lived to 94, now he couldn't walk (arthritic
knees), couldn't see, wore dentures, but his hearing was good, and his
mind was sharp as a tack.

There is a saying over at brain dot com "Use it or lose it." and I think
that applies equally to brains and bodies. My dad was healthy except for
refusal to quit smoking even though he knew damn well they were killing
him. His reason "I've been smoking for 65 years, why quit now?".

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It's all relative, if everything works reasonably well, then living to
100 is good, if nothing is going to work anymore, then it's better to
check out earlier.

My feelings exactly. That is why my mother chose to cancel her own
ticket. Her arthritis wasn't going to get better and life in pain in a
hospital bed is not 'living'.

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Now it really depends on what your looking forward to, if your belief
system, is that there is something better coming after this life, then
do you really want to put that off as long as possible? If on the other
hand, your belief system is that there is nothing beyond your time on
earth, then naturally you want to be here as long as possible.

I am personally a non believer, but my reasons go like this...I want to
see if Lance can win 10 TdF's, and I don't want to miss tomorrow's
headlines. My grandchildren would be pretty bummed if I was to, ahhh, go
away. Personally, I know it will happen someday and I accept that fact.
I just want to be enjoying myself when that time comes, not in a
hospital bed.

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Although I fall into the first group, that this life is to prepare you
for a better life to come, I look after myself reasonably well, not to
prolong life, but to improve the quality of the time I have here.....

W

You said it all...quality of time here.
Cheers,
Bill Baka