Should I Stay or Should I Go

Back in February I got a copy of Time magazine with these words on the cover in bold type:

"How To Live Longer Better."

I still have it. What does that tell you?

I gotta admit at the age of 64 I find myself reading stuff like this, which is so unlike me. I don't believe anything anybody says about the secrets of longevity, whether the philosophy involves exercise and healthy eating, or drinking a quart of whiskey a day.

In fact I don't believe anything anybody says unless it's: "Joe, you're the greatest human who ever lived". That seems plausible to me.

Health and longevity are individual things. Everybody's body reacts differently to stress, alcohol, exercise, diet. It is just one more thing that makes us individuals.

Personally I'm hoping that excessive whiskey consumption and cheeseburgers are the ticket; I just wish I knew. If I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that that was the answer for me, I would swill whiskey like water and chow beef like it was going out of style.

But I'm not sure, so every once in a while I tend to pull back a bit. 'Cause I don't want to die on a note of unfinished business. But who the hell knows - maybe vacillating between a semi-healthy regimen and an "I just don't give a shit" attitude will actually kill me sooner. Maybe you just gotta commit.

I have a strange relationship with death. It has always been on my mind. I am kind of obsessed with it. More so now than ever, obviously, since I can actually see The Grim Reaper beckoning me with his long, bony finger.

Very simplistic angle - I just can't imagine myself not being around. I am sitting here right now - I am Joe, husband to Carol, father of Keith and Craig. I've been around awhile, I have done things, lived a life (such as it is), made some kind of mark.

My brain cannot grasp the idea that one day I will just be gone. But I will and there ain't nothing I can do about it.

BUT until then there is NAD+, short for nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide.  If you can pronounce them, drop those three words at your next cocktail party and feel your self-esteem grow as your friends gaze up at you admiringly.

According to Time, this is "a molecule found in all living cells and is critical for regulating cellular aging...".

Normal levels of this stuff in people and animals diminish significantly over time. Research shows that if you pump this stuff back into older mice, they look and act younger and live longer than expected.

That's good enough for me. Get me 100,000 pills of this stuff. Just back a dump truck into my driveway, I'll be out there with a shovel and a bucket.

Of course the plan is to take NAD+ research through the approval process of the FDA. This of course will take a thousand years.

BUT there is a company called Elysium that is already selling a supplement call Basis that contains compounds known to boost NAD+ levels. They get away with this by calling it a supplement rather than a drug, which allows them to circumvent the FDA approval process.

Ain't America great.

Turns out it is available on Amazon. In fact there a bunch of different people selling it. I can get a bottle of 60 pills for $39.85. One of these days, when Carol isn't looking, I'll buy up some of that good stuff.

Truthiness: For the most part, in case your knowledge of me isn't nuanced, I am being facetious about all this. I don't really believe in a magic pill. But there is a tiny portion of my brain that keeps saying "Might not hurt to try it out". That portion of my brain was not active when I was 25.

In the meantime, I think I will throw out that issue of Time, pour myself a short whiskey and lose myself in the pages of Playboy.