How You Will Die
Updated: 5 days ago
“Talent without training is nothing” – Luke Skywalker, Star Wars Universe.
In Longevity Medicine we train for a longer life by optimizing health right now. The things we do today lead to better health now and possibly exponentially better health in the future. But I would take Luke’s quote a step further. Training without the right incentives and plan will not deliver on its own.
Your plan for health, longevity, and performance should start with an assessment of the risks you face. These risks include future diseases, distorted thinking or beliefs, behaviors that do not align with goals, and the dangers present in the environment around you.
But in longevity, on risk is most important. This risk is Death…..
A lot of people do not like to think about death. It brings of anxiety, memories of loved ones lost, and an end to consciousness, depending on a persons beliefs.
But in order to build a logical and rigorous plan around how you will live longer. Death must be considered.
At Wonder Medicine we start all of our program members journeys by exploring two very important topics.
1. Goals: Life goals, family goals, career goals, purpose, and what they want out of the program. But this will be an important discussion for another time.
2. Death: What things are most likely to kill you.
How to assess death
- What are my current medical problems, risks, and exposures. Advanced diagnostics and biomarkers can help with this. But just asking some simple questions like:
a. What medical problems do I have?
b. How is my current level of fitness and where will it likely be in the final 1 to 2 decades of my life on my current trajectory.
c. What do my behaviors put me at risk of dying from (e.g. smoking tobacco or junk food addiction = multiple forms of cancer.
d. What environmental risks am I exposed to (e.g. polluted air = COPD and lung cancer)
- How have genetically related family members have died. These people share your genetics and often times your environment. They are a window into your own mortality.
a. What things have killed my 1st and 2nd degree relatives?
b. At what age did these problems begin and at what age did they result in death.
c. Do I have a genetic predisposition to certain medical problems?
- What things am I most worried about regarding death. People have strong intuitions that when trained can be incredibly accurate. Intuition is simply your brain analyzing a huge amount of data and coming to a conclusion that seems as if it came from a higher knowledge or being. The brain is a powerful supercomputer. If program members are worried about something, I am worried too, full stop. Granted, if someone is worried about everything due to severe anxiety they are essentially worried about nothing. If you goal is everything, it will in fact become nothing by default.
Through the above methodology people can gain real insights about what their risk of death is, when death will come for them, and what exactly might kill them.
With this information in hand, you can start to build a plan. This is what we do for our program members at Wonder Medicine. It is also what we recommend that you do to kick off your longevity journey.
Thanks for listening, reading, and engaging in your health,
Bill Brandenburg, MD
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