Whilst I follow the research into longevity – extending, reversing, slowing – it is clear that the prime requirement is to be alive. That is ensuring I continue to live whilst the various theories are explored and tested.
There is as yet no proven method of reversing ageing. Part of the problem is that there is no unequivocal biological metric of age. Until there is one such, none of the various theories can be put to the test other than the non-practical one of having matched pairs of people doing each contending theories and control groups to see who lives longest on average. Meanwhile, I continue to age.
There are problems with some of the purported life-extension/slowing theories. Such as CR, which seems to result in below average weight, which is found to correlate with higher mortality. Telomere extending may increase the chance of cancer. And so on. That said, I do try one or two of the purported ideas, but which have yet to show any benefit via my algorithms.
I early on realised that there already existed a large body of scientific research showing that various lifestyles factors relate to longevity – such as the amount of walking a person does. Further, that other biometrics related to the illness/healthiness spectrum, such as a body’s inflammation status. Over the years, during which I have logged my daily lifestyle (latterly over 400 variables), I have also accumulated a list of over one hundred biometrics associated with longevity and illness/health.
With all this data, I have produced algorithms to relate each of my lifestyle variables with all of the biometrics. From the metrics so derived, I have made both an overall metric to indicate my health, and my status for four critical sub-groups: cardio-vascular fitness, kidney disease, cancer, and body composition.
Whilst I have had some good results, such as my cardio-vascular fitness improving with age, there are some difficulties. One is that some lifestyle variables that correlate with improvements in some areas, the same variables are worse for others: for example, exercise is good for ageing, it seems bad for my kidney.
I have to confess that my methods have stretched my statistical ability beyond what is probably required to do full justice to what I am attempted with my rich raw data set. I use a combination of simple correlations with appropriate significant tests for many of the biometrics, and multiple regression analyses for those I have daily data on.
.To date, I have reached 85 and am going fine. I seem to be doing something correct. My terminal cancer diagnosis with a confirmed die-by-date a few weeks later in 2007 was confounded and has been in abeyance now for six years despite 3 recurrences. As was my kidney seemingly failing in CKD4 reversed to CKD3. My cardio-vascular system seems robust. My body composition is fine.
