Much of the point of Further is to help you live a long, happy life. We talk about best practices for maintaining and optimizing health, share ideas to make sure you have the economic resources to live long and prosper, plus acquire the wisdom to self-actualize in the process.
That said, we’re subject to our own genetic programming when it comes to aging. No matter how well you take care of yourself, you’re getting older. And it’s not aging that actually kills you, it’s the things that happen because you’re aging.
- “Aging is by far the best predictor of whether people will develop a chronic disease like atherosclerotic heart disease, stroke, cancer, dementia or osteoarthritis,” Dr. James L. Kirkland, director of the Kogod Center on Aging at the Mayo Clinic, said in an interview. “Aging way outstrips all other risk factors.”
Dr. Kirkland and his esteemed university research team are working on a new approach to healthier aging, which targets the processes fundamental to aging that underlie all age-related chronic diseases. The team is studying one promising compound, a generic drug called metformin already widely used in people with Type 2 diabetes.
Meanwhile, another team headed up by MIT biologist Leonard Guarente is trying to establish a viable anti-aging pill by circumventing the FDA’s too-lengthy approval process through packaging cutting-edge lab research as so-called nutraceuticals. If that sounds sketchy, it helps that the company has five Nobel Prize winners advising it.
Some people are already pushing back against the idea of another pill to pop from Big Pharma. But if something is proven to safely work, can you honestly say you wouldn’t do it?
The massive economic incentives to find a solution means that if it’s scientifically doable, it will be done. In the meantime, you need to take care of yourself so that you live long enough for the science to gel, and maintain a quality of life worth extending.
And let’s face it … that’s what’s going to make the rest of your life worth living. No matter how long it lasts.
- Pursuing the Goal of Healthy Aging
- The Anti-Aging Pill
- Clearing the Body’s Retired Cells Slows Aging, Extends Life
further: health
Slow Food
I admit to being a fast eater. Lately I’ve overhauled not only what I eat (I slipped back into some bad eating habits last fall), but also the pace at which I eat. Seems to be helping, as I stay full all day despite eating things with kale in it.
How Eating More Slowly Can Help You Lose Weight
I’ve Got My Mind On My Stomach and My Stomach On My Mind
“Hunger isn’t in your stomach or your blood-sugar levels. It’s in your mind – and that’s where we need to shape up.”
Hunger is Psychological – And Dieting Only Makes it Worse
Up Your Octane
Over at 12 Minute Athlete, they’re departing from the usual emphasis on fitness and helping you get your nutritional game down right. Remember, how you look is only 10% exercise and 90% what you eat.
6-Week Fuel Your Body Nutrition Challenge
further: wealth
All of the Feels
“Why are we always exhausted at the end of a workday? Why do we come home wiped out, with barely enough energy to make dinner before collapsing for the night?”
Your High-Intensity Feelings May Be Tiring You Out
New Media Meditation
The modern workplace is about handling a firehose of constant information flow, while somehow finding enough space in the day to make sense of it all and create. This is a good piece about how some tech companies encourage mindfulness to boost both productivity and employee satisfaction.
How Google And Twitter Train Their Employees To Be More Mindful
Cart, Horse, Etc.
If only you could achieve the success you desire, you’d finally be happy, right? Well, in yet another cruel twist of fate, it doesn’t seem to work that way. Get yourself happy by doing the things you enjoy just for the sake of it, and success will follow.
Happiness Leads to Success, Not the Other Way Around
further: wisdom
The Art of Way
“The teachings of Sun Tzu extend far beyond the field of battle because they are focused on finding the easiest way to achieve a specific goal. His approaches can be applied to everything from business growth and goal setting to weight loss and habit formation.”
Lessons From Legendary General Sun Tzu: How to Use Military Strategy to Build Better Habits
Creativity Rules
One of the running themes in my other personal project Unemployable is a near-future where any job that can be automated by an algorithm or robot will be. This line of thinking dates back for me to Dan Pink’s A Whole New Mind, and the consequences will be felt by both our children and ourselves.
Want Your Children to Survive The Future? Send Them to Art School
Pre-Breakfast of Champions
“Before the rest of the world is eating breakfast,” writes Laura Vanderkam in What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast “the most successful people have already scored daily victories that are advancing them toward the lives they want.”
What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast
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That’s it for this week. Can I please ask that you share Further with someone who might enjoy it? Thank you!
Keep going-
Brian Clark
Further
