would of — TiredThinker

would've*

Fine.

Death at 50? No, no. I didn't really get going until 25, and the years between 40 and 50 were pretty good, in terms of youthful vigor and health. Looking back, the early 40s were peak years for energy and enthusiasm. The last 10 years, 65 to 75, have also been good, emotionally and intellectually. True, aged bodies do tend to start failing in the 60s and 70s, but it's not an "all-at-once" collapse. And a 75 year old educated brain, free of Alzheimers and other dementias, emotionally stable and curious, is a better brain than I ever had in the past. (I could REALLY have used this brain early on. Alas. No chance of that.

:100: :up:

Technically our body and brain just finishes developing at 25, so that essentially is the start of adulthood. I suppose it can all vary wildly from person to person as far as energy and focus. I really burned out after 32, then at 35 the most stressful time (which is statistically on point). I just hate the idea of cardiovascular and cancer risks increasing exponentially with age. I just wonder what a solid healthy decade would be like and can't imagine getting a significant advantage even with 50 more years compared to all I'd want to try in life.

I just hate the idea of cardiovascular and cancer risks increasing exponentially with age. — TiredThinker

Yes, that would be bad -- but the risks do not rise exponentially. They rise linearly; eventually they reach 100% and nobody gets out of here alive. If you are healthy at 65 (don't have serious heart disease, cancer, or circulatory illness) don't drink heavily, don't smoke, etc. the chances of living to 85 are quite good--not guaranteed by any stretch, but... good. If you have major health problems at 65, then you probably don't have to worry about living to 85

Living an at least reasonably healthy life style maintains good health and longevity better than an unhealthy life style. Again, no guarantees.

What were you doing in your late 20s and early thirties that lead to burn out (whatever that is) at 32, how old are you now, and how are you doing now?

Lots of people have periods of "sturm and drang" which can make life worse than it usually is. Many of my 75 years were NOT particularly good, but life went on anyway and then it got better.

I can't speak for anyone else and can only make reference to my particular situation, so with that as the context... not really.

Between the ages of 40 and 57 (now), in spite of having various health issues to deal with (actually quite large issues), I ended up competing in sports (in particular cycling and baseball - a sport I restarted at the age of 47) with people mostly in their 20's and doing quite well. Sure it's not professional sports, but when I was in my 20's I wasn't at the level of a professional athlete either, so that's not the standard of measure here. Indeed I'm now not quite as fast or a strong as in those days of my 20's, but my experience in the sports leading to me becoming far more innovative (plus a far more mature and relaxed temperament) coupled with my necessity to deal with adversity of injury and other health issues (and overcome them) has allowed me to excel in spite of bad circumstances when many much younger simply throw in the towel and give up at the first sign of trouble.

Perhaps realizing what doesn't kill me simply didn't try hard enough and playing with the skills I have rather than focusing upon what is outside of my skill set is what keeps me competitive.

I'm now well into my 50's closer to 60, but I just keep on going.

Personally I don't try to confuse youth with innovation and energy, just as I try not to confuse age with wisdom or stability... I simply figure I'll just keep on until I can't rather than fret over a bit of decline in my speed and strength and giving up. Life is simply a series of adjustments and adaptations, so aging is part of that process one gets to experience... why take that away?

Funny things is due to developing osteoarthritis I now have a rather wicked curveball and slider I didn't have prior to that issue. It totally upped my game as a pitcher. I didn't see that coming, but hey... work with what you have and don't waste time fretting over what you don't have, which was likely never there in the first place.

As to mental focus... it's likely I'm sharper than ever. My only 'regret' is that I'd like to take my current brain and put it into my 20's head... thus make far better use of what experiences I had come my way with a far better mind for reasoning.

Heck... I decided last year to start learning Japanese... no real clear reason other than I wanted to try it. Sure I suck at it, but I keep on learning. Now I'm involved in Japanese Baseball and will likely take up Kyudo if this damned Corona virus let's up and allows such an activity to be socially responsible again.

In truth... I don't want to be who I was when I was in my 20's or even 30's (the times were fun, but I was a terrible as a human - I see that now, but didn't then - and was really then only a work in progress). Post 50's me is far far better. ;)

I'm 41 now. I have been a home aide aid for my mother whom suffered a stroke in 07'. Taking care of her has been tough on my health, and certainly makes me wonder why any of us suffer such traumatic events and others don't. She was relatively young when she had a stroke. My uncle died around 60 of cancer and a few months after that my grandmother died at 99. It rarely seems to make sense.

Osteoarthritis improved your pitching? How can that be? I had neck injury and have painful spurs that wake me up almost nightly. I hate all diseases that we're nowhere close to curing. I have known too many younger than me that needed dangerous painkillers to tolerate muscular/skeletal injury that damaged or perpetually presses on nerves.

On the one hand, blessings on you for caring for your mother. On the other hand, your OP makes more sense now. You have been burdened from an age when most of us are on our own.

No, life and death do not make sense. My partner died of cancer at 66 after living a very health life. My father smoked (didn't drink), had heart disease and COPD and lived to be 102, lucid until the end. My mother was worn out when she was my age (now), and died a decade later, and wasn't lucid until the end.

As a gay man, accustomed to being poor with relatively low material expectations, no children, no car, no house payment, no debt, I was pretty free to live the way I wanted to, and did, sort of (less happily than I had hoped, but still...). I wasn't living close to home when my parents needed help, and I had 4 sisters who did live nearby. By no means did they split up the care evenly -- one sister carried a heavier burden than the other 3, and received no thanks for it.

Seeing your latest post... yeah, I don't get how osteoarthritis works out to be any sort of advantage either. I find it a major pain in the knee bone connected to the hip bone, connected to the back bone, connected to the neck bone, connected to the shoulder bone, and so on.

Perhaps realizing what doesn't kill me simply didn't try hard enough — Mayor of Simpleton

What doesn't kill us the first time practices and works out at the death camp, then returns to try again.

Hey, glad you're still kicking and kicking competitively at that! Carry on.

There is a mice study out of Stanford showing proof of concept towards regenerating cartilage. I hope that makes it to humans. Cartilage breaks down pretty slowly over life, but after it falls below a level it really lets bones get messes up.

It is good to have the experiences that come with time and age, but in a more tired body it seems like many of the lessons are less applicable.

Osteoarthritis improved your pitching? How can that be? — TiredThinker

The middle finger of my pitching hand had become a bit stiff and when I do a curveball release middle joint no longer flexes. This results in a longer lever where the spin in created making the pitch break quite sharply at the last moment due to increased spin.

In addition I now throw only a two seamed fastball, but with two different griping points respective to the seams. They look fully identical out of my hand, but one crosses the plate 20 cm low than the other. If I get that working well it becomes nearly impossible for a batter to hit a line drive. Again it's how the spin is created and it's all do to the stiff joint.

My speed is far off my top when I was younger, but speed is the easiest to adjust to for a batter.

I figure I have another 4 to 10 years left in me, but if I have to stay out much longer due to Corona making it socially irresponsible to play (my choice), well... if you don't play eventually you can't play anymore.

Then again, my baseball uniform is one of the many 'clown suits' I own. ;)

I had neck injury and have painful spurs that wake me up almost nightly. — TiredThinker

I can relate to you here.

I have cervical radiculopathy. It's been developing since I was in my 20's, so for me it's kind of nothing new. Somedays it's really painful, but I have learned to manage it fairly well.

The joke in baseball is that I've had more surgeries than the whole team combined and play with more current injuries that most of them have had in their lifetime. Either I'm just too stubborn, stupid or difficult to kill.

I have known too many younger than me that needed dangerous painkillers to tolerate muscular/skeletal injury that damaged or perpetually presses on nerves. — TiredThinker

I know too many younger athletes who think sports are never supposed to hurt. Pain and discomfort are really part of the package deal when you sing on for sports. Pain is a necessary guide. Learning to deal with that, as well as how to work around the pain and still perform well is the reality many wish not to face. That's not a new thing or simply something specific to the current generation.

Indeed there are cases and situations where the pharmacology is absolutely necessary, but I've noticed a stronger trend toward dependency rather than it being applied for necessity. I can't say for sure if this is really an increase in cases, but I can say there is more awareness of cases.

Nonetheless... I just do it until I can't. I fully expect to have my baseball participation to end not on my own terms. Good thing is I have more options out there due to more time to investigate.

Good to hear you're doing well. :flower:

I also have a friend with ALS and MS. That wasn't true before age 35. It seems lots of stuff goes from rare to common at that age. And after 55 I've read our DNA breaks down much faster. The medicine of the future seems less and less like it will be in time.

In comparison to other animals we seem to die fast
And we also seem to show are age more so then other animals by the time we're in are 80's we look nothing like we did in are 20's and 30's unlike other mammals. Example being the horse it's up and walking within 5 to 10 minutes of being born and is able to have more of it's kind in less then 2yrs of age and has a normal life span of 30 to 40yrs while humans can take almost 2yrs just to start walking and 12 to 14yrs before "technically able to reproduce" and only live to be 60 to 70's ... Yes I've heard many different reasons and explanations as to why this is the case so no need in filling me in on them . I feel that technology is killing us more then it is helping but I can't see this world giving up it's beloved technology any time soon

I feel that technology is killing us more then it is helping but I can't see this world giving up it's beloved technology any time soon — MAYAEL

I hear ya, man. As someone who took a hiatus from city life, I had half an acre to myself to live in the bare minimum. I slept well and woke up with mental brightness and lots of energy to do plantings, build things, and fucking..cook..real food! I was also reading books, writing, and couldn't care less about the rest of the world. My hearing got sensitive -- I could hear sounds a lot louder. I didn't allow noise to invade my abode and my existence.

Then I went back to civilization. First thing that bothered me were sounds of loud TV, the mower, and house alarms.

yeah I was raised alone in the woods as a kid so when I moved to the city it was and still is so loud . People think I'm joking when I say I can hear when people upstairs turn on the TV or if someone has a WiFi box in their house I can pick up on it Infact one of my hypothesis I have as to the increasing mental health problems people are having is do to the constant bombardment we are receiving from radio waves I think we are starting to subconsciously pick up on them despite the fact that they are far past the range of the human ear I feel that we are developing a way of reading these signals phiscally and subconsciously it's creating anxiety. I'm still working on a way of proving this but the scientific method is a limiting method and unfortunately the only one people seem to place any real value in these days.

Infact one of my hypothesis I have as to the increasing mental health problems people are having is do to the constant bombardment we are receiving from radio waves I think we are starting to subconsciously pick up on them despite the fact that they are far past the range of the human ear I feel that we are developing a way of reading these signals phiscally and subconsciously it's creating anxiety. — MAYAEL

Great hypothesis! I believe you. Find a way to do an experiment on that.