Three Not-So-Bad Things On Aging and Longevity

Three Not-So-Bad Things on Aging and Longevity:?Volume 14

January 4, 2022

Welcome back to your weekly dose of?Three Not-So-Bad Things?on Aging and Longevity. If your 2023 New Year's Resolution was to read this newsletter more regularly, please don't?give up on it by January 19th !

1. Are You Smarter Than a 45th Grader? At TNSB headquarters, we don’t have time to watch dating shows like The?Bachelor and?Love Island, but we’ve heard that they mostly cater to the young and the beautiful. But what about the rest of us? If you’re pushing 65 and your six-pack is all about the beer, and none about the abs? On most networks in the United States, you’re out of luck, but not so in China. In recent years, Chinese television has seen an explosion of?dating shows for the 50+ set . At one level, it’s not so surprising that shows like?Not Too Late for Fate?and?Care and Love?are finding a market, since China will be home to something like half a billion seniors by the middle of this century. But what we like about these shows is that they don’t fool around with?silly questions like ?“if you could be a flower, what would you be,” or “do you have a serious fear of any kind of animal.” Nope, they get right down to it: pensions, health, loneliness, memories of people come and gone. We can’t say whether it makes for good television or not—our Mandarin is a little rusty—but we’re happy to see some networks, even distant ones, are thinking creatively about age diversity in programming.

2. New year, new longevity... right? It’s 2023—the year that some once thought ?humans would be living as long as 300 years and would be wearing something called “kidney cozies”. As much as predictions from a hundred years ago may seem silly now, there’s a measure of truth in the idea that we are progressing into the future in many ways—one of which being in the industry of longer lives. This fall, the University of Southern California Leonard Davis School of Gerontology?released an article ?detailing different ideas on what the future for older adults could look like. Ideas for the future range from virtual reality technologies to intergenerational care, but one primary idea underlies the idea of future longevity: there’s a lot to look forward to.?

For one, Dean Pinchas Cohen explains, personalized medicine could play a huge role in health interventions moving forward. Forget one-size-fits-all—Cohen suggests that we will be able to better predict genetic conditions in older adults, and provide preventive care accordingly. Professor Sean Curran has a similar idea: personalized diets that align with the genetic make-up of each individual. Optimizing personal diets will allow for greater nutritional effectiveness and for healthier, longer life.

We like the sound of this future. Tune back here in January of 2123 for newsletter edition 5214 to see what predictions have come true.

3. It's not over 'till I say it's over! If Tom Brady was a farmer (something we would very much like to see), he would be?over a decade younger ?than most of his professional peers. But as a 45 year old football player, he is a huge outlier—six years older than any other player and even older than a dozen head coaches in the NFL. Brady may be unique within the NFL, but?as the New York Times recently reported , there are Brady equivalents in every profession: a 70-year old paramedic, an 83-year old baker, a 95-year old artist, an 88-year old composer, and an 85-year old doctor, to name a few. All these people, including Brady, share a passion for their work and a drive to keep moving forward. Just look at how 70-year old paramedic Jesse Izaguirre responds to those curious about when he will retire: “I say, ‘First of all, it’s none of your darn business.’ I’m kidding. I’ll tell them anything. When am I going to retire? Hopefully never.”

Our team hasn’t won the Super Bowl for 30 years, so it pains us to say it, but we hope that all these outliers, including Brady, can keep working as long as it gives them joy and purpose.?

Which Not-So-Bad thing surprised you the most? Let us know in the comments below!