When will I die? Life expectancy calculator

[simon43]

I could have posted this in the Pub section, because some of these life expectancy calculators are just gimmicks.

 

But there are some online calculators that ask very specific questions about your health, nutrition, illness, family history etc, and then use this information to try to give a more accurate estimate of the age at which you will die, (assuming you do not get squashed under a Thai bus before then...)

 

Over the past few months, I've improved my exercise and nutrition, and these lifestyle changes have resulted in a significant increase in my estimated life expectancy, using 2 different online calculators.

 

They both give an estimate now of about 95 years, as opposed to a life expectancy in the low 80's prior to my lifestyle changes.

 

Has anyone else tried these online calculators?  What was your death-age estimate?  Did the estimate encourage you to make changes to your lifestyle to increase your life expectancy?

 

Here are links to a couple of these calculators:

 

https://www.myabaris.com/tools/life-expectancy-calculator-how-long-will-i-live/

 

https://www.bluezones.com/

 

https://www.livingto100.com/  (this one seems quite detailed and with lifestyle recommendations)

 

 

[Crossy]

Despite being "slightly" overweight and drinking rather too much I am apparently good to 89 :)

 

Must be doing something right, lord only knows what.

 

 

[sanemax]

Simon . Did you recently post that you only have a few years left to live and that was the reason for selling your Pukett hotel ?

[CharlieH]

Dont drink nor smoke, overweight for height but also good to 89.(apparently)

 

My father is 94 and still going, my Mother died at 79 if you take the average of the 2 you get 87 ?

[xylophone]

According to these I died last week!!!

[Jingthing]

Do any of those workout with giving your email to get results? I don't like the privacy implications of them having my I.D. when sharing all that personal health info. 

Edited March 29, 2017 by Jingthing

[simon43]

Simon . Did you recently post that you only have a few years left to live and that was the reason for selling your Pukett hotel ?

 

LoL, well not that recently!  I contracted Aspergillosis many years ago in the UK, and that has caused me a lot of problems in the past.  I was always aware that the symptoms greatly reduced if I exercised my lungs.  This is why I took up playing the Lao khaen musical instrument about 5 years ago (since it allows me to blow in and out to generate the musical tones).  I have a new khaen with me in Myanmar and what with my daily cycling, gym cardio and playing the khaen, my Aspergillosis symptoms have disappeared and I no longer take any medication.

 

It was partly because I have (had?) this illness that I radically changed my lifestyle - diet and fitness regime etc.

[chickenslegs]

60 now, seriously overweight, drink far too much, but stopped smoking over 12 years ago.

 

I'm quite happy with my result - 85

 

But, apparently, if I start to do regular exercise I can add another 1.2 years - hardly seems worth it.

[simon43]

JJ- they all seem to want that email address, presumably to send you spam, even though they claim not to do this.  You could use a disposable email address....

[Jingthing]

One caveat.

I seriously doubt such calculators take living in Thailand into account.

Living in Thailand is much more dangerous than living in a western nation. 

 

I think as a generality though that people more often underestimate their life expectancy than overestimate it. This is especially true if you've already made it to "old" age. 

Edited March 29, 2017 by Jingthing

[simon43]

I'm quite happy with my result - 85

But, apparently, if I start to do regular exercise I can add another 1.2 years - hardly seems worth it.

 

It might on the eve of your 85th birthday....

[simon43]

I seriously doubt such calculators take living in Thailand into account.

Living in Thailand is much more dangerous than living in a western nation.

 

Agreed, and you need to be a little careful when it asks you where your live.  If you select Thailand as your home, then I guess that the calculator will use the average life expectancy of people in Thailand, which may be less than in 'western' countries, due to illness, reduced health care etc.

 

Of course, these calculators cannot easily take into account the risk of getting squashed under a speeding Thai bus....

[Jingthing]

True story. 

When I was in my 20's I was fully convinced I wouldn't make it much past 30 and that feeling was based on some evidence. So in my 20s I lived thinking that way. I don't regret it!

After that, time to start to fund the IRA (retirement account). Definitely not as much fun. 

I guess what I'm saying is that self PERCEPTION of life expectancy can change your life experience a lot, for better or worse, and whether your predictions are accurate, or not. 

Edited March 29, 2017 by Jingthing

[sanemax]

45 minutes ago, simon43 said:

 

 

 

LoL, well not that recently!  I contracted Aspergillosis many years ago in the UK, and that has caused me a lot of problems in the past.  I was always aware that the symptoms greatly reduced if I exercised my lungs.  This is why I took up playing the Lao khaen musical instrument about 5 years ago (since it allows me to blow in and out to generate the musical tones).  I have a new khaen with me in Myanmar and what with my daily cycling, gym cardio and playing the khaen, my Aspergillosis symptoms have disappeared and I no longer take any medication.

 

It was partly because I have (had?) this illness that I radically changed my lifestyle - diet and fitness regime etc.

"After due and careful thought, I've decided to sell my Bed & Breakfast business at the airport. My long-term lung illness is not getting any better - it will eventually lead to my demise"

 

     09-09-2015  Simon43

[tonray]

These calculators are nothing but statistical databases that compare your stats to the mean. If you really want to get an idea of how long your will live (and how high or low your quality of life may be during that span), get a full body scan and evaluation. After the results, take action on items that need attention. 

 

By age 45 or 50 most of us have a certain percentage of arterial blockage, small cancerous growths in our prostate, etc etc. In many cases we will never be aware of these as they will never manifest themselves in any real harmful way before we die.

 

There is a retired cardiac surgeon who is currently 95 and who stopped performing open heart surgery at the age of 90. A recent interview showed him fit and sharp and he felt he still could jump into the OR today and perform as well as he did when he was practicing.

 

 

His secret ? Exercise daily and he has been a Vegan for about 60 years. He claims that if you want to avoid most of the age related illnesses that plague us, stop eating meat and animal products. He states that even a small change like only eating meat 2 or 3 times a week can add more than 10 years of healthy living to your expected lifespan. I am trying to cut back and eat more veggies and fruits and less high fat animal products.

 

As far as the full body scan...I don't want to know. 

[eyecatcher]

I achieved a wonderful aged 94;...... but then it said I can add another 15.9 years if I eat more veggies, beans and nuts

 

I just wonder if thats really necessary?

 

I can just reduce my drinking from 20 Changs a week to 10 surely??

[Stocky]

86, 78 or 88 - though Bluezones assure me I can live to 101 if I follow their plan.

[simon43]

... it will eventually lead to my demise"

 

Correct - that prognosis still holds, according to my doctors.  But by eating a very regulated diet and by exercising my lungs etc, I can minimise the risk of an early death.  But unless I die through accident, cancer etc, the aspergillosis will eventually weaken my lungs so that pneumonia will cause my demise.

 

But if I can put that event off until I'm 95 years old, then I'm happy :)

[xylophone]

2 minutes ago, tonray said:

These calculators are nothing but statistical databases that compare your stats to the mean.

Yes I believe that to be the case because I played around with the stats on one which appeared in a newspaper just recently and that seemed to "hinge" on the fact that the average life expectancy of a male was around 80, so no matter what I did, I couldn't get past that.

 

Now something closer to home – – – last week I went in hospital to have a calcium scoring test done on my heart to show how much calcium was laid down in my arteries, which is now considered to be a good indicator as to whether a heart attack can be imminent. Well my score was 0.2 which is extremely low and the nurse asked me how on earth I had managed to do that given that I am 70 this year and I replied – – lots of red wine!

 

Seriously though (although I am taking the above result as serious) I read an article just a few days ago which basically said that "most cancers are caused by bad luck" and although it did state that there are some which are caused by poor lifestyle choices and some genetically acquired, it would appear that according to this research, "bad luck" plays a huge part in many cancers, for example.

 

Link here:  http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11824847

[tutsiwarrior]

5 hours ago, Jingthing said:

I guess what I'm saying is that self PERCEPTION of life expectancy can change your life experience a lot, for better or worse, and whether your predictions are accurate, or not. 

 

in the words of a school chum who famously snarled: 'I don't wanna live past 25!'...

 

well, he made it to his early 40s then ODed on heroin...he was pretty dumb, James Dean syndrome and etc...

 

his girlfriend Pam was a dish and everyone wanted to bonk her and many did...I had the opportunity once but declined outta respect...undiagnosed aspergers autism has it's weird  moments...

 

 

[xylophone]

15 hours ago, Jingthing said:

When I was in my 20's I was fully convinced I wouldn't make it much past 30 and that feeling was based on some evidence. So in my 20s I lived thinking that way. I don't regret it!

Same thing here Jingthing as I was a real tear-away when I was younger, making bombs, riding motorbikes recklessly and taking far too many risks, not to mention partying hard and getting into all sorts of scrapes. As if to back this up I then went to work in Libya just after the revolution, which was still very tricky indeed and Nigeria just after the Biafran war, again not altogether safe.

 

As if to try and make this "prophecy" come true I spent some time working on the construction of an oil platform offshore Norway, and it would have to have been one of the most dangerous, atrocious and haphazard working environments I've ever experienced and in my opinion I was lucky to stay alive.

 

But here I am, aged 70 later this year and hopefully with a few years left yet.

 

Back to the topic, there are far too many other things out there which we can't control and which can impact upon our length of life and I got that experience early on when I was just 15, when a workmate went to see the company doctor in the local village, because he wasn't feeling well (chest pains) and the doctor gave him a full check over and a clean bill of health, and this guy was so elated he decided to walk the 1.5 miles back to the workplace.......he died of a massive heart attack on the way back.