There are times I just don’t know what we would do without the news media. Think about it. If they didn’t exist, we would likely never know about the dire state of the world in which we live. But, of course, in addition to feeding the narrative of constant peril and crisis, they occasionally serve up a useful gem that helps guide us to a happier tomorrow – happier, that is, if artificial intelligence or climate change doesn’t snuff out our very existence first.
That would be a bummer, to be sure.
One such useful article crossed the Cluttered Desk a couple of weeks ago. It’s headline boldly read, “What people who live to 100 years old have in common, according to science.” What, pray tell, do you think that area of commonality may be? I’ll end the suspense and tell you now. Researchers have discovered that people who live to be 100 “suffer from fewer diseases overall, develop them more slowly and are less likely to experience fatal conditions compared to people who live shorter lives.”
I know. I was as flabbergasted as you are. Never in a million years would I have been able to figure out that centenarians were statistically less likely to have encountered a fatal condition earlier in life.
And who knew that people who “suffer from fewer diseases overall, and develop them more slowly” are likely to live longer than the rest of us? I don’t know about you, but I am thrilled that whatever government funding supported this research was able to do so before DOGE cuts were established (which ironically will also be fatal to millions, according to the media).
But I sense my sarcasm might be peeking through the implacable veneer of neutrality I consistently display on these pages. So, let’s instead look further at researchers’ findings on the matter.
According to the source article:
A 2024 study from Sweden, published in the journal GeroScience, considered historical data from people over 60 years old born between 1912 and 1922.
Researchers followed these individuals from 1972 to 2022, considering the age of their death and also medical complications like stroke, myocardial infarction, hip fracture and various cancers.
Centenarians were found to have a lower age-specific lifetime risk for all conditions except hip fractures, which suggests that 100-year-olds are able to delay and avoid many major age-related diseases rather than surviving them.
That seems, at least to this non-scientific mind, to be key. If you want to live to be 100, it is best that you delay or avoid stroke, myocardial infarction, or various cancers. Hip fractures are apparently okay.
Researchers “found that cardiovascular diseases were the most common diagnoses across all ages, but they contributed less to the overall disease burden among those who made it to 100.” Well, duh. I’m glad they discovered that little pearl of wisdom.
The researchers seem to reach the conclusion that people who accumulate diseases at a slower rate will live longer than those who collect them earlier in life. It definitely makes you want to carefully assess any hobby that would have you collecting diseases.
The article does quote a “licensed social worker and gerontologist” who “said it makes ‘complete sense’ that people who avoid serious illnesses like stroke and heart disease live beyond 100 years old.” She added, “They also were not exposed to an abundance of modern medicine. They relied more on natural remedies and organic foods.”
I’m not sure my father, who lived to almost 101, would agree with that last part. I don’t think he ever ate anything labeled organic in his life.
She also suggested that “Modern-day technology and global connections, which were not available to centenarians, could also contribute to stress and other mental health factors,” adding that the older generation is more “free-spirited.” She finished with, “They had their struggles that we don’t see today; however, they just showed up in a different way, and they were handled in a different way.”
Yes, they had minor struggles like two world wars, a great depression, and a nuclear fueled cold war, as well as enduring 30+ years of The Lawrence Welk Show. But they didn’t have Facebook or TikTok to make them feel their lives were inferior (my sarcastic ramblings aside, I actually agree with much of what she said).
But the upshot here, the takeaway if you will, is that people who live longer don’t die as early as those who don’t, and the key to that success is not getting too many fatal diseases.
And here I implied the media was useless. Silly me.
Originally published on bobscluttereddesk.com
