^{I love clickbait.}

No One Dies From Old Age: Autopsy Studies Reveal the Real Causes

https://www.vice.com/en/article/no-one-dies-from-old-age-autopsy-studies-reveal-the-real-causes/

That's kind of a great essay, but also wholly lacking in substance.

Translation: this reiterates things I say so it makes me feel smart, but it doesn't actually tell you anything.

One example that I know well though. Alzheimer's deaths are vastly under-reported. One consequence of Alzheimer's is that the gag reflex is attenuated and eventually the patient even loses the ability to swallow.

Many dementia deaths get coded as "pneumonia" but it is commonly *aspirational* pneumonia, which is to say it is caused by aspirating things, not by a virus. And the reason the patient aspirates is because their swallow/gag ability is diminished. And the reason for that is that Alzheimer's has caused that diminishment.

> interventions like intermittent fasting extend lifespan in mice, but mainly by delaying cancer deaths

It reminds me of something I heard yesterday about translating animal studies to human health: "Just because a dog will die if it ingests cocoa powder does not make cocoa powder bad for you."

The converse is true - many of our fellow mammals eat poison oak and poison ivy. Not recommended

>>  "Natural causes" sounds neutral

Another reframing that I have heard recently...

A person was complaining about the "exercise is medicine" framing. You often hear things like, "If we could get exercise in a pill, it would be the most effective intervention ever invented." And then the shorter, "exercise is medicine."

The person in question was pointing out that for the first 99.99% of human history, constant daily activity was the normal state of affairs. He said, "Exercise is not medicine, it's the baseline case. Inactivity is poison."

He argues that health is not improved through exercise, it is diminished through inactivity.

Sitting is the new smoking.

>sitting

And ultra-processed foods are the new environmental pollution.

And standing all day at a desk instead of sitting is emerging as the new vaping