Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Genetic FindIng May Provide Test For Longevity

I thought this story was a bit depressing, for me at least.

However, NPR last week was all "Oh noes!" as they outlined possibilities. People might get depressed they don't have long life genes and do risky things, like not exercise! They were working from an assumption that people might want to live a long time.

Me, I'm the opposite. I have one long lived relative who would have passed 100 if she hadn't smoked for 60+ years. My mom's dad died in his late 40s or early 50s of lung cancer. Grandma Jane made it to 78, but had dementia. The rest of my dad's family seems to be dying young.

I live in fear of long life genes. What if you run out of money? And dementia is a big fear. And I'm not that excited about the future frankly. I'm often not excited about the present.

I mean, if an Old Man's War scenario presented itself I might be interested, but otherwise I have always thought dying in my 40s would be okay. Maybe in a car accident, which for a long time seemed to be my inevitable fate. When you've been in 20 or so car accidents, you start thinking one day you'll finally bite the dust in one.

I might have to go on a news diet. Maybe that would be a good idea.

1 comment:

Anne At Large said...

I think news diets are almost always a good idea. I am cut off from all news every other week now and it is awfully refreshing.

Thus, I think I will not be reading that article.