Life expectancy

[telstarbox]

How long are you planning / hoping to live for?

I'm in my early 30s and think I'd feel happy with reaching 90, subject to quantity / quality considerations of course...

[Basil]

Both my parents and their sisters (one each) made it into their 90s. Mum and paternal aunt still going strong in late 90s.
That's my first target.

[hellymedic]

Three of my grandparents lived past 90.
Those that weren't centenarians had a sibling who was.

My parents are still going.

My last great-uncle died two years ago today at 104½.

[nicknack]

I don't think planning comes into it. Dad lived to the ripe old age of 63 - heart attack - mum managed 93 after 2 years of dementia. I'm 67 with a bit of heart disease and not much else. I have no idea.

[Ian H]

It would be nice to continue until I get bored with it all.

[Jaded]

After an unplanned and quite surprising incident a third of my life ago, I’m quite happy getting this far, and possibly further.

[Polar Bear]

I'll take what comes but hope for  continued good health and to hang on to some useable sight for as long as possible.

[Ham]

It ain't what you've got but the way that you use it. There's little doubt that had the human physiognomy included an off switch, I may not have got past my twenties. But, I can't help hankering for one to be installed at the appropriate time. Numbers is a small part of the story, I can imagine little worse than being locked inside a failing body.

When the time comes I'd like to go quietly in my sleep like my dad, not screaming and shouting like his passengers.*

I'd like to hang around long enough to be remembered by grandchildren, that's about it.

*I once delivered this classic  line deadpan at a work training thing, when everyone had to share their life objectives.

[Redlight]

Happy to go now. I can't think of anything still ahead that I'm looking forward to.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

I am looking forward to the Raid Dolomites.  Today, is the day I planned to start it but due to unexpected circumstances* it has been put back a year.  So yeah, I have to keep going another year.

* 2 weeks ago I broke a rib.  There was also a pandemic.

[mrcharly-YHT]

There are lots of things I want to do, and life to enjoy.

Not afraid of death, but deeply worried how my children will cope when I go.

Non of my relatives made it past early 70s, many died a lot younger. I've already past the age when one grandparent and two uncles passed away.

[Wowbagger]

I come from a long-lived bunch. I think that the youngest to die amongst my parents and their brothers and sisters (7 in all) was 86. One reached 100, one is still going at 96.

I had a brother who died at 18 of muscular dystrophy. Apart from him, all of my other 4 siblings are still going pretty well. We are all on tablets of one sort or another. I'm the youngest at 66.

None of the above have abused their bodies with calories and alcohol to the extent that I have. I have two separate heart conditions, both of which should respond well provided I can keep down the things that I seem to enjoy. I enjoy a lot of stuff apart from booze and food, and in general I think I'm a very lucky chap.

I have no great desire to be around to witness the collapse of civilisation which I am convinced is not that far off. On the other hand, so many people depend on me for lots of stuff, not least my dear wife, I don't want to shuffle off this mortal coil and leave them to their fates.

Not that there's a lot I can do about it.

[tatanab]

Currently 68.  Males in my family tend to pop off in the early/mid 80's.  My father did not see 60, but my life style is very different to his.  My logical mind says I don't mind leaving this world, but I know that every cell will hang on as long as it can.  Like Wowbagger, I am not impressed by the future; perhaps that is a normal age thing.

[rogerzilla]

80s?  No firm family propensity to anything fatal.  I never knew my grandfathers but they were both heavy smokers and died in the expected way.

I hope I haven't buggered my heart by cycling.  My resting pulse is v e r y slow.  I never raced much, though.  Being a professional cyclist seems to be a good way to an early grave; besides atrial fibrillation, early calcification of the coronary arteries is a known consequence.  We're designed to follow the odd wounded antelope, not to run at FTP for six hours every day.

[L CC]

We're designed to follow the odd wounded antelope, not to run at FTP for six hours every day.

"designed". pfft.

Never mind the width, feel the quality. My parents are fit in their 70s being the first generation of non-manual workers but I don't fancy dragging into my 90s half blind, half deaf; with dementia, osteoporosis and reduced heart function.

[T42]

Mum died at 87 with heart problems, Dad at 73 with diabetes, heart problems and far-out raving dementia. I'm 73 and despite losing track of orders of 10 in simple multiplication from time to time I still have most of my cups in the cupboard. Still, given my own diabetes, cardiovascular problems, depression and the bloody-minded disposition* that kills the motivation to do much about them I'll be lucky to manage another 5 years without something going pop, whereat MrsT will doubtless breathe a deep sigh of relief.

* probably part of the depression, but who cares?

[ian]

I've been dead, so I'm probably immune. I think that's how it works.

Grandparents sailed into their late 90s on the winds of cigarette fumes and coal particulates without going la-la. Anyway, I'd like to be around for as long as I am healthy enough to do something with it.

[ppg]

Dad lived to the ripe old age of 63 - heart attack - mum managed 93 after 2 years of dementia. I'm 67 with a bit of heart disease and not much else.

Give or take a year or 2, on all points that is exactly me, spooky

I can imagine little worse than being locked inside a failing body.

Try a Welsh 600k audax in April - you'll get a taste 

[numbnuts]

Looking around me next week will do

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

80s?  No firm family propensity to anything fatal.  I never knew my grandfathers but they were both heavy smokers and died in the expected way.

I hope I haven't buggered my heart by cycling.  My resting pulse is v e r y slow.  I never raced much, though.  Being a professional cyclist seems to be a good way to an early grave; besides atrial fibrillation, early calcification of the coronary arteries is a known consequence.  We're designed to follow the odd wounded antelope, not to run at FTP for six hours every day.

I have always had a resting heart rate c.47 or 48.  If any damage has occurred it was probably swimming not cycling.  My last blood pressure test was in a&e a couple of weeks ago and it was nearly problem low but the doctor said i had nothing to worry about apart from a broken rib or two.  He said I was 'tougher than I think' whatever that means.  I didn't take the cocodamol prescribed as it made me feel queasy, ibuprofen was better. 

My family on mother's side often live into the late 90s; parents died 76 and 83, I don't think the war did them any good, my mother became very ill due to WRNS living conditions; dad had physical injuries, due to overexertion, which never went away and also malaria.

[ian]

A low heart rate isn't (necessarily) a bad thing, it just means you've got a powerful and large heart (mine sinks down to 40-44bpm) and good cardiovascular fitness. That's a result of regular swimming, hiking, and cycling. A healthy cardiovascular system is a good way to increase the probability of living a longer and healthier life.

Professional sport and training, on the other hand, is pretty harsh and takes a significant toll.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I live in expectancy of a life.

[Kim]

I can imagine little worse than being locked inside a failing body.

This is pretty common, but people with failing bodies tend to get over that after a couple of years.  It's a mismatch of perspective that leads to all sorts of disablist/eugenicist thinking.

I never expected to get to 20, and I've not really settled on a stretch goal.  Ultimately, it's mostly down to luck and government policy, so it's somewhat academic.

[Wowbagger]

I can imagine little worse than being locked inside a failing body.

This is pretty common, but people with failing bodies tend to get over that after a couple of years.  It's a mismatch of perspective that leads to all sorts of disablist/eugenicist thinking.

I never expected to get to 20, and I've not really settled on a stretch goal.  Ultimately, it's mostly down to luck and government policy, so it's somewhat academic.

The bit I've put in bold was, I think, very relevant to Jan's dad. He retired in his early 60s but started to go rapidly downhill after that. He had been diagnosed with asbestosis and by the time he was 70 was in a pretty bad way. His other son in law reckons that he had ambitions for a recovery well in excess of the reality, and as a result spend far too long in hospitals where he contracted C. difficile...

[Ham]

I can imagine little worse than being locked inside a failing body.

This is pretty common, but people with failing bodies tend to get over that after a couple of years.  It's a mismatch of perspective that leads to all sorts of disablist/eugenicist thinking.

I never expected to get to 20, and I've not really settled on a stretch goal.  Ultimately, it's mostly down to luck and government policy, so it's somewhat academic.

Sorry, I still think it should be a personal decision, I can see that the pressure to conform to the ideal of a "plucky fighter" can be as demoralising to someone dealing with life affecting disability as anything else. But, I do understand what you mean.

To put this in personal perspective, I'm a fat git and I come from a long line of fat gits. My father was a fat git and his father before him. They were also both smokers, but they both ended up disabled with strokes living to mid to late 80s. I may change my mind, but I really can't see me wanting to continue living that way.