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Quote: Wizard

about the only commonality was the person kept busy their whole life -- mentally and physically.

I heard that that the other day. Movement
is life. Keep moving to keep living. Watching
daytime TV is not moving and it's not living.
I have an 84 year old friend who still tutors
kids in math, does piano videos every day,
and takes 2 hours of chess lessons on Skype
from a guy in Malaysia every week. He never
stops moving.

The Mountains in Germany don't seem particularly high. The Zugspitze has an elevation 2,962 meters and is the high point in Germany. I don't know how you feel about climbing a mountain that has three different cable cars going to the summit.

Trains from Munich to Garmisch-Partenkirchen (site of 4th winter Olympics in 1936) run every hour.

Three cable cars run to the top of the Zugspitze.
The first, the Tyrolean Zugspitze Cable Car, was built in 1926 and goes up the Austrian side of the mountain.

A rack railway was built 1928-1930, the Bavarian Zugspitze Railway, runs inside the northern flank of the mountain and ends on the Zugspitzplatt, from where a second cable car takes passengers to the top.

The Eibsee Cable Car was built in 1963, and goes to the German side. The route is normally traveled in 10 minutes at a speed of 36 km/h (22 mph). The tramway can accommodate 300 persons per direction each hour.





Innsbruck Austria is only 40 miles away from Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and was the site of the 1964 and 1974 Winter Olympics.

Quote: SOOPOO

Not my area of expertise.

I don't know if there would be much financial incentive to perform studies and there would certainly be some financial incentives to refrain from publishing the results. I keep wanting to say Trimarans but that is a type of boat. Whatever these professional athletes who run swim bicycle fire a rifle and kayak are called, they have sponsors, that's how they make their living. I'm sure they would love to have evidence of how to extend their earning power, but who would fund such studies. I've heard (but never verified) that some long distance runners have cardiac enzyme panels that would send an average ER doc into desperate action if an ordinary person was wheeled into the ER that way.

Remember how certain advances in medicine came about thru unusual economic incentives. I know of one therapeutic procedure that is now used in humans that was derived from studies of ultra-valuable race horses. Well, I guess they studied the techniques on ordinary nags and used them on the expensive racehorses, but the principle is the same: supporting data exists only if there is economic incentive to develop it and such supporting data is often not going to be in the public domain for economic reasons as well.

Now as to long life: I've posted before about virtually all of these "Long Life Clusters" being in areas that are very windy. They are also in rural lifestyle areas wherein gardening, long-walks and perhaps bicycling are simply required.

As far as longevity unrelated to geographic clusters go, the usual finding is related to forward motion. Just as an airplane keeps flying largely because it is already flying, people seem to keep living largely because they are always busy. Some sort of exercise, even just long walks is common. One Australian doctor was an advocate for exercise and when he visited his daughter in the New Mexican high desert area, her husband, a MajorDomo of an acquecita had to go perform some demanding physical labor in the hot afternoon sun. The doctor rose to the challenge and, despite his age, joined in. He never cashed the chit he received but instead had it framed and posted on his office wall. He was proud of a day of pick and shovel work in the hot New Mexican sun at his age.

It isn't necessarily diet related. Some long lifers are indeed health food advocates who start the day with yogurt (a weight loss food) but some long lifers start their day with a Boiler Maker, a shot and beer drink. One man in his eighties who worked at a Home Depot type place loading one hundred pound bags of cement said the best investment he ever made was his lifetime membership in the YMCA. Dancers also seem to have a long life expectancy though its hard to prove it. Researchers look at calorie restriction in lab mice but its hard to do it in humans. Closest group I can thin of is show girls and actresses in the thirties who had low calorie intake due to finances followed by low calorie intake due to wartime rationing, but normally you just can't find long term studies of humans consuming low calories.

One need only look to the Guyton family which has over a dozen Harvard Medical School graduates. The original author of Guyton's had a slight handicap but he promised his wife that none of his children would ever see him inactive. Rich enough to hire a contractor he built a large stone retaining wall himself just to always have some project to be seen working on.

As to the race horses.

The procedure was used on horses and then on people but was of course considered a nutcase procedure and in no way covered by insurance. Later it went thru an 'experimental' phase and slowly gained acceptance but its original success was due solely to the fact that race horses are very valuable and therefore a financial incentive was present for 'thinking outside the box'.

When are you going to attempt Everest? I read four chefs are trying to start a restaurant at Everest base camp. Maybe you can just go for a meal.

Quote: rxwine

When are you going to attempt Everest? I read four chefs are trying to start a restaurant at Everest base camp. Maybe you can just go for a meal.

It isn't officially on my bucket list but I would like to do the hike to Everest base camp. A good restaurant there would be all the more reason. My initial reaction though is that it is a publicity stunt and won't last.

I'm sure you were joking about summitting Everest. I am too old, it's too expensive, and I am simply not at that level.

Quote: Wizard

It isn't officially on my bucket list but I would like to do the hike to Everest base camp. A good restaurant there would be all the more reason. My initial reaction though is that it is a publicity stunt and won't last.

I'm sure you were joking about summitting Everest. I am too old, it's too expensive, and I am simply not at that level.

There is a lottery and waiting list also.

Quote: Wizard

It isn't officially on my bucket list but I would like to do the hike to Everest base camp. A good restaurant there would be all the more reason. My initial reaction though is that it is a publicity stunt and won't last.

I'm sure you were joking about summitting Everest. I am too old, it's too expensive, and I am simply not at that level.

There is a lottery and waiting list also.

Quote: Wizard

I'm sure you were joking about summitting Everest. I am too old, it's too expensive, and I am simply not at that level.

I've heard you talk about Denali. As an alternative there is a mountain in the Southern Temperate region that is about 2500' taller.
The highest mountain outside of Asia is Aconcagua (6,962 m or 22,841 ft).

I guess a lot of people try to climb, since it doesn't require ropes, and they fail to summit because of the altitude. More than half of attempts don't make the summit. There are no hard statistics on number of attempts, but it could be well over 100,000 attempts.

Permits are $300, $500 or $700 so it is probably a lot more expensive than Orizaba, but I would think it would be cheaper than Denali. In total, probably a few thousand dollars.

An entire trip takes about 3 weeks. 4 days to travel to Argentina from the US including a day or so in Mendoza. Then 3 days trek to base camp at 13,800'. After a couple days rest and getting used to the altitude at base camp we spent the 4 days climbing between Camp 1 and Camp 2 at 19,000' on acclimatization climbs, gear carries to the camps and finally moving to Camp 1, ) and Camp 2. On day 17-19 you would summit. The return to Mendoza was a swift two days.

Quote: Pacomartin

I've heard you talk about Denali. As an alternative
The highest mountain outside of Asia is Aconcagua (6,962 m or 22,841 ft).

Yes, that is definitely on my list. I am pretty good at altitude, so think my chances of success are at least 50/50. There is a total eclipse cutting through Chile and Argentina next year. That would be the perfect time. However, I doubt I can spare the time and my income isn't what it used to be.