People Die All the Time, Just Like That

In one of last month's numbers of NewScientist, there was an article about (primarily) mental and (secondarily) physical fitness as prophylactics against the symptoms of, e.g., Alzheimer's disease. The main thrust of the article was that mental acuity seems to result in substantial neurological capacity that substantially reduces functional impairment for any given stage of the disease in comparison to patients with less mental acuity, by providing more alternative pathways that better take up the slack of damaged parts of the brain. In other words, mental acuity seems to be associated with delayed appearance of symptoms until the disease is much further advanced, so that once symptoms appear there is (if you're a half-full kind of girl) a mercifully rapid decline and speedy death — or (if, like me, you're a half-empty kind of girl), symptoms don't begin to appear until death is dismayingly nigh.

If you can't tell, this leaves me ambivalent as to which I'd prefer. On the one hand, I'm reasonably content with the me that I am, and I'd like to stay as that me for as long as possible. On the other hand, I think the spectre of death already looms a bit too dreadfully as it is. I'm not sure I'd want to watch it get closer.

So, in the end, what I want hasn't really changed: to have the longest lifespan of any human past, present, or future (preferably by at least a couple of standard deviations), with decent quality of life throughout, and to go unexpectedly in my sleep.