[HN Gopher] Never take health tips from oldest people, say scien...
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       Never take health tips from oldest people, say scientists
        
       Author : howard941
       Score  : 9 points
       Date   : 2024-08-24 14:54 UTC (8 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.theguardian.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.theguardian.com)
        
       | throw_pm23 wrote:
       | yeah, take tips from scientists instead.
       | 
       |  _Branyas believed her longevity stemmed from "order,
       | tranquility, good connection with family and friends, contact
       | with nature, emotional stability, no worries, no regrets, lots of
       | positivity and staying away from toxic people"_
       | 
       | Sounds like solid advice to me.
       | 
       |  _[scientist] Sinclair said [..] improvements in vaccines for flu
       | and shingles, statins, and other medications would help increase
       | life expectancy among older people. [...] he said governments
       | also needed to take action to help individuals to make healthier
       | choices._
       | 
       | Sorry, I think I prefer the advice from the old person.
        
         | jraph wrote:
         | What is wrong with the sentence about the medication? This is
         | not advice by the way.
         | 
         | You can't take advice from old people on how to live old
         | because _they_ don 't know themselves how they managed it. And
         | there's the survivor bias. And that would be anecdotal.
         | 
         | Only the scientific method and solid studies can give us
         | insight on what makes us live longer.
         | 
         | Advice you quoted seems harmless, and is seducing, but we don't
         | know if this is what allowed this long life. Her advice tends
         | towards avoiding stress and we know that stress is to be
         | avoided, so that might (and probably is) good advice, but we
         | know that from scientific studies and you will need to adapt
         | the advice to you, taking in account what stresses you and what
         | relaxes you.
         | 
         | Some old people have been drinking a glass of wine a day or
         | smoking a lot and that somehow didn't kill them, they might
         | even believe that it helped them stay alive longer, and there's
         | probably even some truth in this because they might have
         | enjoyed it and we also know that being happier helps you live
         | longer, but that might still be terrible advice that has all
         | the chances to harm _you_. It might have even harmed them,
         | maybe they would live even longer without the smoking and the
         | drinking.
         | 
         | Everybody is different and some good advice for one person
         | might not apply to another. An old person might know what's
         | good for them, but that may not apply to you. Only solid
         | scientific studies will help us know what tends to work for
         | many/most people.
        
         | genocidicbunny wrote:
         | > Sounds like solid advice to me.
         | 
         | Sounds like pretty generic advice that I've heard from older
         | people...basically all my life. Maybe there's some underlying
         | truth that creates the commonality, but for the most part this
         | is about on par with "Don't do stuff that will kill you" which
         | is vapid and useless.
        
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