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On Sun, Jan 3, 2021 at 11:03 AM spike jones via extropy-chat <<a
href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org"
moz-do-not-send="true">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a>>
wrote:<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:18pt;font-family:"Comic Sans
MS"">Ja, didn’t use a walker. Third fall
convinced him he just hasta use one. At that age, any
fall can be adios amigo.<span class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:"comic sans
ms",sans-serif;font-size:large;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
</span></span><span style="font-family:"Comic
Sans MS";font-size:18pt">spike</span></p>
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<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Ben Zaiboc</pre>
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