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Fluttershy comments on Open thread, Jan. 18 - Jan. 24, 2016 - Less Wrong
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So, I only recently decided to start taking Vitamin D after reading Gwern's discussion of it here, and I've been wondering if there are other easy wins for extending one's healthspan/life expectancy/lifespan cheaply that we're collectively missing.
On one level, it seems like having individual LWers go out, read a number of research papers, and then do a cost-benefit analysis on an intervention has produced good research before, but this approach feels a bit unorganized to me.
So, part of me wonders if it might be a good idea to just pay someone (say, Gwern, or someone who used to work for MetaMed--not that I asked Gwern if he'd be up for the task before writing this) to go and see if there are any obvious interventions that we're not aware of. The writer could try to write a more complete version of Lifestyle Interventions to Increase Longevity, or they could just look for new interventions that we LWers have collectively overlooked, and publish a short summary of their findings, if any.
I'm mainly asking about this now to see if people think this is a good idea, but I hope that, in a year or so, I'd actually be able to put up a chunk of money for something like this to be done, if I still thought it was a good idea.
Other easy wins: The Squatty Potty, magnesium supplements, meditation, and donating blood if you are male.
My experience with giving people the data behind squatting to go to the dunny is that their awkwardness about it strongly outweighs, initially, their willingness to experiment.
Which leads to the thought that there are probably some provably life-enhancing things that people don't even consider doing because it is so far outside their social mores that the possibility doesn't occur. I have had an entertaining few minutes trying to think of some that my great-descendants will be bewildered we didn't consider.
Seth Roberts nose clips while eating for people who want to lose weight probably falls under strong awkwardness that doesn't let people consider it.
Fecal transplants and cryonics.
I gave squatting a try a few months back. You can do the same thing by grabbing two cinder blocks and positioning them on either side of the toilet with the seat up. It felt slightly easier to defecate, but I couldn't figure out how to use it with pants as easily as regular sitting; you need to get out of one leg, almost, for it to work. And taking off my pants every time I need to defecate is a pain in the ass.
For many people who on their own homes it would actually be feasible to build or install a pit toilet. I do not know of anyone in America who has done so.
The cider-block idea sounds unstable... but I haven't tried it. However, it seems that it should be fairly easy to train your body to go just before you take a shower, assuming you take showers on a predictable schedule, thus solving the undressing inconvenience.
No, the cinder-blocks were very stable. That was not the issue. I also think it's a little unreasonable to schedule your defecations and showers for the convenience of your squatting toilet rather than the other way around. Bidets are a big improvement but I'm not convinced by squatting for people without problems.
An anecdote: it was easy to train myself to go before I went on to yoga-like exercises (at home) which lasted more than an hour, although admittedly I was a teenager, one should have an instructor at hand at least in the beginning, one should shower after the exercises, and I did it 3-4 times a week.
However, it also (seemed to) improve sleep quality.
Could you elaborate on why squatting is a clear win? I took a brief look online and the evidence seems to favor squatting, but not hugely: https://skeptoid.com/blog/2015/09/26/squatty-potty/
Regardless, thanks for the list!
The cost of squatting is tiny, and part of the benefit is saved time so on net it seems like a clear win.
Averages are pretty useless -- go to a doctor, ask for a full set of blood tests. And when I say "full", I mean ridiculously all-encompassing, if your doctor is OK with this. The printout of your results should take a couple of dozen pages.
Ask for copies of the lab results. Study them carefully and they will tell you personally what would be a good idea for your health.
Is that working under the assumption that normalizing is better for your health? I don't think that I would trust myself or my doctor to optimize supplements based simply on what I am low in.
For example, normal vit. D3 levels are often set by the healthy level for Caucasians, with the result that Asians with healthy, normal levels for their genotype are flagged as dangerously low. This is not something that you can assume that your doctor is aware of.
However, the tests would give you some starting points for research. Also, I suspect that most doctors are not likely to offer much more than a chem-20, which I think is pretty useful across populations (IANAD) -- but also is probably not what you are recommending.
No. That's working under the assumption that more information is better than less information.
I didn't say "listen to your doctor". I said "study them carefully".
Ask for specific, comprehensive panels. Do not go in saying "You think I should maybe get some tests?" :-/