{"id":373660,"date":"2023-12-07T15:23:12","date_gmt":"2023-12-07T20:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/can-trying-to-cheat-death-paradoxically-kill-you-sooner-the-niche\/"},"modified":"2023-12-08T11:04:37","modified_gmt":"2023-12-08T16:04:37","slug":"can-trying-to-cheat-death-paradoxically-kill-you-sooner-the-niche","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/can-trying-to-cheat-death-paradoxically-kill-you-sooner-the-niche\/","title":{"rendered":"Can trying to cheat death paradoxically kill you sooner? – The Niche","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

Can you paradoxically kill yourself early by trying to cheat Death? For example, die through risky anti-aging approaches?<\/p>\n

The question came to mind because such longevity efforts have become more extreme. They also get more hype in the media. I\u2019ve been following the anti-aging space mainly because many interventions involve risky stem cell injections. Those trying to reverse the clock also sometimes do other really \u201cout there\u201d things like DIY gene therapy.<\/p>\n

I believe that some such efforts could be fatal. It\u2019s an odd paradox. Go all out trying to cheat Death and you might throw out the welcome mat for it.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s going on here?<\/p>\n

\"anti-aging,
Are some of today\u2019s anti-agers suffering from something like an anti-aging Dorian Gray Syndrome?<\/strong> Image from the cover of The Picture of Dorian Gray.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Extreme anti-aging as a disease?<\/h2>\n

Certain well known anti-agers have been trying all kinds of unproven stuff and getting major media attention for it.<\/p>\n

Given the risks, could some of these more outlandish anti-aging efforts be so extreme that taken together they are a disorder or disease? In some cases it could be a version of Dorian Gray Syndrome<\/a> <\/strong>with an obsession with fighting aging. What is Dorian Gray Syndrome? It\u2019s an unhealthy preoccupation with aging and one\u2019s appearance seeming to get older. The word for fear of aging is gerascophobia, which is perhaps part of this too in some cases.<\/p>\n

In a hypothetical extreme anti-ager\u2019s view, maybe you can never be too thin, have long enough telomeres, have low enough body fat, or have the just right DNA methylation pattern. But apparently you should try whatever you can to get as close to some ideal as possible. Maybe an updated book or movie version of The Picture of Dorian Gray<\/em> could be The Telomeres of Dorian Gray<\/em> or The DNA Methylation Profile of Dorian Gray.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s go through some of the riskier anti-aging approaches and why they are potentially dangerous.<\/p>\n

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How trying to cheat Death could bring it early<\/h2>\n