I've seen it said that your date of death (if natural) is somewhat set in stone by genetics, but the condition you'll spend your final years in will be the result of your lifestyle instead. So living to excess will fuck you up in your later years but won't necessarily kill you any sooner.

[–] garretble@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Oh no. My grandmother is 92 and my grandfather is 93 and my great grandfather passed at 102.

I don't know if I want to live that far. I better start drinkin'.

[–] 123@programming.dev 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I think the point of the comment you replied to was that you will live until said ages potentially, but the quality of life in the last decade or so will be very poor. Growing up in a society where men drink a lot more than women (at least in my grand parents generation) I can tell you that you will likely also die from alcohol abuse sooner (generally heart attack or diabetes, but that last one also has genetic accelerants), but it is true that the last few years are not pretty.

Edit: when abusing alcohol heavily.

[–] Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 1 week ago

20-30% of lifespan is based on genetics and 20-30% of health in later years as well. The rest is all lifestyle.

This is controlling for external elements like accidents or disasters.

So somewhat genetics is true but it can be overcome with lifestyle to some degree. Figuring out which lifestyle choices is tricky and one of those times where sciences' replication crisis makes it all muddled.

Advancement in medicine also plays a role because it can reign in some poor lifestyle choices that were death spirals just a generation prior.

[–] Lemmyoutofhere@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Getting cancer is largely based on genetics.

[–] Smoogs@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

certain cancers like breast or thyroid and certain stomach are genetic.

For everything else age is a huge factor. It’s usually in late 60s a person gets more chances of cancer as your cells age and create mutations.

Certain life styles such as HPV are on the rise because of …well basically free loving in the 70s/80s prior to the vaccine. This is why you’re suddenly seeing a huge spike in throat cancer right now in 60 yr olds. Especially men and a lot of women are getting cervical cancer right now as gardisil was not around when they were most sexually active.

And then you have certain hernias as you age are likely to happen that can lead to stomach cancer as your cells will make more mistakes to try to heal these hernias.

Basically your cells heal. And each time they heal they increase in chances of mutation of becoming cancer. This becomes even more so as you age.

[–] No_Eponym@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 week ago

Waiting for all the COVID cancers, wildfire smoke cancers, etc. in 60 years