[ExI] geezer guard

[Ben Zaiboc]

On Sun, Jan 3, 2021 at 11:03 AM spike jones via extropy-chat 
<extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org <mailto:extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>> 
wrote:
>
>     Ja, didn’t use a walker.  Third fall convinced him he just hasta
>     use one.  At that age, any fall can be adios amigo.spike
>

Technology (airbags, accelerometers, walkers, exoskeletons, etc.) is all 
well and good, but I think it's important to not forget or neglect the 
biological side of what can be done to prevent or ameliorate these 
problems. I'm convinced, after seeing several people get old and start 
to fail, that maintaining your power-to-weight ratio is more and more 
important as you age. That, and bone density.

This has really been driven home for me by seeing people unable to even 
get out of their chairs, not because of an injury, but simply because 
they are too weak to heave their own body mass upright. I've witnessed 
someone who fell over and didn't have the strength to get up again. 
Without help, they would have died, not from any injuries, but from not 
being able to move to get food and water.

This really scares me, and I don't think it's inevitable. It's certainly 
motivated me to take steps to control my weight and maintain my muscle 
mass as I get older. Even now, with all our technology, Exercise and 
Diet remain the most effective things we can change to keep ourselves 
alive (at least for people who are basically healthy in the first place, 
i.e. not already dying of something else). It's not a popular message, I 
know, but you just have to suck it up, if you want to survive. And as 
long as you're not dead yet, it's never too late to start.

-- 
Ben Zaiboc

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