No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.
― Gautama Buddha, Sayings Of Buddha
Since 2006 I have been a student of understanding the biology of the human body. I started with just working on my diet and pushing myself to run, I did those things because I was diagnosed as a prediabetic. I have run 8 marathons, experimented with a number of diets and continue to beat diabetes by making lifestyle changes like HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training), meditation, intermittent fasting and hormesis (i.e the idea that what does not kill you makes you stronger through hot and cold exposure, Iceland is perfect for this if I have not said earlier). One thing that I cannot change is the fact that time marches on, I am 46 years old and I am not getting younger. I see it everyday when I look in the mirror and someone staring back with white beard, thinning hair, not perfect vision, wrinkled skin etc
It is the truth, all of us are getting old and the inevitable, we all will one day die. Everything that is born must also transform, that is the truth of our universe. I have seen death, when my father passed in 2011 and when my grandfather passed in 1984. Both my dad and grandfather passed when they were 74 years old, both had a heart attack. My father did not recover after a quadruple bi-pass surgery. There have been many in family and friends who have passed. A number of them due to disease and others due to diseases of old age. Like everything else we come up with explanations after the fact. Death is no different. When someone dies we explain the reasons after the fact. Doctors and medical professionals spend very little time on prevention of disease. I hope that changes.
I have been fascinated with the work of David Sinclair and I have been following and reading his work since 2015 when my diabetes condition came back with a vengeance. I think David is probably the first one that I heard talk about aging as a disease and how if we postpone or prevent aging we can postpone or prevent diseases that are caused due to aging. BTW, the biggest killers in the world today are disease caused by aging.
When I learnt about his new book Lifespan – Why We Age and Why We Don’t Have to, I had to get it and listen to it. You can sign up for his newsletter here, probably the most detailed scientific work that you can find as it relates to aging and longevity.
I highly recommend the book for anyone. It captures almost 3 decades of research on the subject and it has useful advice that anyone can follow. I think if we have to leave a legacy to the next generation it might as well be that they learn from our mistakes as it relates to our lifestyle. There are plenty of insights in the book backed by science and research.
