It's widely believed that modern medicine is extending human lifespan. However, while it may stretch the years lived with disease and incapacity, it has done nothing to alter our genetic limits. Nor is it going to save us from our wrong living by giving us immortality with an injection, pill, or digital implant.
 
This misplaced hope derives from the insidious and erroneous philosophy of materialism that permeates modern thinking. The body is seen as a mere machine perpetually salvageable with spare parts and chemicals.


WE ARE NOT ENDLESSLY REPARABLE MACHINES
There is an inevitable decline that cannot be circumvented. The Second Law of Thermodynamics demands that all physical things, like us, move toward ever-increasing entropy, that is, toward ever-increasing breakdown and disorder. 

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THERE IS A LIMIT TO LIFE THAT CANNOT BE OVERCOME
Yes, repairs can be made. Hearts can be bypassed, joints replaced, and drugs can dull symptoms.
 
The body has incredible reserve capacity, but it's limited. For example, the heart can only increase its output by a factor of 6, the kidneys can function only to about 20% loss, and a person can survive with one lung and one quarter of the liver. But all reserves decrease with age. For example, over 50 percent of immune capability is lost by age 85, making every stressor more life-threatening.
 
Cells have an inherent limit to the number of times they can divide. When cells can no longer divide, we can no longer live. This limit, called the Hayflick limit, is proportional to the potential life span of the organism. For example, the Galapagos turtle has a maximum life span of 175 years and a maximum cell doubling of 125. Mice have a life span of about 4 years and a maximum doubling of about 28. Human maximum life span is about 120 years, and a maximum cell doubling of approximately 60.
 
The discovery of DNA has created hope that manipulating it could increase lifespan. But that has not come to pass. Nor will it. Life is far more complex than a sequence of biochemical letters on strands of genetic molecules. The idea of hacking our way to immortality is a fantasy.
 
 
MODERN MEDICINE IS NOT ABOUT CREATING HEALTH
Modern medicine is not about prevention and health. It thrives on disease care and managing symptoms for profit.
 
Modern medicine is the number one killer, not the number one health giver. We speed our trip to the grave with our first trip to the doctor. We’re turned into addicted customers, cycling through prescriptions, procedures, and side effects that often accelerate the decline they claim to treat.
 
Drugs don’t cure chronic disease. They mask it. And in doing so, they allow poor habits to continue unchecked, while the body quietly deteriorates. This isn’t living longer—it’s dying slower.
 
The goal should be adding life to years, not just years to life. To do that, we must prevent or overcome the chronic diseases that crush quality of life and bring early death: atherosclerosis, cancer, diabetes, obesity, arthritis, emphysema, cirrhosis, and more. These cause almost 90% of all disabilities and premature deaths.
 
These are not inevitabilities. They are consequences.

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WE ARE NATURAL CREATURES DESIGNED FOR NATURE
There is much we can individually do to create and extend health. It requires matching life choices to our design.
 
We weren’t built for sedentary routines, synthetic food, fluorescent lighting, and pharmaceutical dependency. We are natural creatures designed for a natural world. That means being outside in the sun, moving, eating natural foods, drinking clean water, breathing fresh air, and resting in sync with nature. Even in modern life, we can choose to align with the laws that govern healthy life.
 
Don't wait for science and doctors to reverse damage that you can prevent right now. Will is important, as is knowledge. The internet and AI are bottomless resources on how to live naturally. The information available to us leaves no excuse to be ignorant and dependent.

This is not where our faith, hope, and trust should be.

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​LIFE TO YEARS, NOT YEARS TO LIFE IS THE GOAL
There are societies noted for having many long-lived individuals, such as groups in Russia, the Pakistan Hunzas, people of the Vilcabamba in Ecuador, and in so-called “Blue Zones” like Okinawa, Sardinia, and Nicoya.
 
Fancy high-tech hospitals are usually nowhere to be found there. Rather, there is a high level of physical activity into old age. There's an absence of obesity and no retirement. Strong families, creativity, usefulness, and purpose continue throughout life. There is no cultural expectation to decline. Rather, there is respect and integration, not marginalization or institutionalization.
 
But even under the best of circumstances, aging brings changes we must concede. Skin, tendon, ligament, cartilage, eye lenses, and arteries lose elasticity, hair grays and thins, muscles atrophy, and bone density, energy, and stamina decrease. But affecting the rate and degree of such loss—trying to square the curve as much as possible—is within our grasp.
 
A life of health autonomy, not dependency, is the goal. Every choice we make either accelerates decline or preserves vitality.
 
The power to shape life lies not in a lab, but in our daily actions. Don’t wait for a miracle cure. Don’t trust your body to an industry that profits the more you are sick.
 
Take responsibility. Live as we were designed to and reap the health rewards.