Tests for aging well: First test

If you read The New York Times, you may have already seen this article: “Are You Aging Well? Try These Simple Tests to Find Out.” A challenge!

To keep my posts short (and provide material for four posts), I’m going to describe one of these tests per post, along with my test results. Here is the first test:

Go from standing to sitting on the floor, and back up again, using the least amount of support as possible.

Here’s a link to a video showing a man (in his 20s?) doing the test. CLINIMEX: Sitting-rising test (SRT) - an updated 2025 video . On the first try he uses one hand. On the second try he doesn't.  (It’s in Portuguese or something, but there are captions.)

The test is scored on a 10-point scale—5 points for sitting down and 5 points for getting up. You lose a point for every hand, knee or other body part you use to help yourself.  The article says that if you’re in your 30s and 40s, you should score a perfect 10. If you’re over 60 and get an 8, you’re in “very good shape.” 

My result: I used both hands and both knees to get down to the floor and the same for getting up, so I lost 8 points, giving me a score of 2. (First, I got down to my hands and knees to sit down, then I got back onto my hands and knees to stand up.) Pitiful score, but hey, I got down and up!

Supposedly this test is a predictor of mortality. A study that looked at more than 4,000 people, aged 46 to 75, found that, over the course of 12 years, the people who scored 4 or below had death rates nearly four times higher than those who scored a 10. Apparently, that’s because people with low scores were at a higher risk for falls.

 What if, like me, you’re 89? Isn’t my 2 worth something? Evidence of life?

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Should cancer be treated or not?

This is tricky business. Since 1992, the diagnoses of eight cancers in people under 50 has doubled in the U.S. Those cancers include thyroid, anus, kidney, small intestine, colorectum, endometrium (uterus), pancreas and myeloma (blood cancer). Breast cancer is also on the rise.

But here’s the thing: some cancer specialists say this surge is the result of an “epidemic of detection”—finding cancers that wouldn’t have killed patients. One doctor notes, “The epidemic narrative not only exaggerates the problem, but may also exacerbate it. While more testing is often seen as the solution to an epidemic, it can just as easily be the cause.” As another doctor noted, “We are a very imaging-happy society.”

Not every cancer is dangerous. Some go away on their own; others stop growing or pose no risk. Autopsy studies repeatedly find that many people die with small cancers they were unaware of. Prostate cancer is one of these; so is thyroid cancer. The problem is that it’s impossible to know if someone’s cancer will be deadly or not, and if the cancer is gone after treatment, there’s no way to know if it needed to be treated.

Other doctors believe the surge in cancer diagnoses is real and serious. While the death rates for six of the cancers mentioned in the first paragraph are flat or declining, the death rates of colorectal and endometrial cancers have increased. Some scientists attribute this increase to the obesity epidemic, or something amiss in people’s microbiomes, or toxins in the environment. They’re trying to figure it out.

For an introduction to this blog, see I Just Say No; for a list of blog topics, click the Topics tab.

Saturated fat (again)

 I’m not afraid of eating saturated fat. In fact, I eat plenty of it.

“Saturated” refers to fats, such as butter and animal fats, that are firm when refrigerated. Unfortunately, the term, “saturated,” makes it sound like the fat is somehow loaded with goop. In fact, it simply describes the composition of the fat molecule: each carbon atom in the molecule is linked to two hydrogen atoms such that the carbon is “saturated” with hydrogen atoms.

Saturated fats do not clog arteries. They are either burned for fuel or stored in your fat cells. Your cells need saturated fat to help your body perform important chemical processes and make use of vitamins and minerals. For example, saturated fat makes it possible for calcium to be incorporated into your bones.

Scientists have conducted trial after trial comparing the health effects of saturated fats to unsaturated fats, such as vegetable oils. The National Institutes of Health spent several hundred million dollars trying to demonstrate a connection between eating saturated fat and getting heart disease but never did find the connection.

In reviewing the data from the numerous trials, scientists had plenty to say. For example, “…after 50 years of research, there was no evidence that a diet low in saturated fat prolongs life.…if saturated fatty acids were of no value or were harmful to humans, evolution would probably not have established within the mammary gland the means to produce saturated fatty acids…that provide a source of nourishment to ensure the growth, development, and survival or mammalian offspring.”

By the way, most fats are a mixture of saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fatty acids. Lard is only 40 percent saturated fat. Olive oil is 13.7 percent saturated fat, which is why it turns cloudy when refrigerated.

So go ahead and slather your toast with butter. That's what I do.

For an introduction to this blog, see I Just Say No; for a list of blog topics, click the Topics tab.

Those food pyramids!

The 1994 food pyramid had you eating mostly starchy food: 6 to 11 servings of “bread, cereal, rice and pasta.” 

In adhering to the high-carbohydrate, low-fat recommendations, we increased our yearly consumption of grain by almost sixty pounds per person and our consumption of sweeteners, such as high-fructose corn syrup, by thirty pounds per person. The number of young people under the age of 20 with Type 2 diabetes grew by 95% from 2001 to 2017. A third of all people over 65 are diabetic. (Carbohydrates spike blood sugar.)

The 2011 food guide, below, reduced the grains to 30 percent of our diets, but also included the phrase "switch to 1% or skim milk."

Rigorous research has concluded that saturated fats, such as the butter fat in milk, have no effect on “major cardiovascular outcomes,” including heart attacks, strokes or mortality. As the American College of Cardiology states, "The recommendation to limit dietary saturated fatty acid intake has persisted despite mounting evidence to the contrary." (I don't believe in limiting saturated fats.)

I’m no fan of JFK, Jr., but the new pyramid (below) makes more sense to me, although it still limits saturated fat to about 20-22 grams for a 2,000-calorie diet. This limit is nearly impossible to achieve, especially if you’re eating red meat. 

Looking at these vacillating recommendations over the years, you might be thinking, what the heck?! Like me, you can just ignore them, especially considering that members of the guidelines panels have ties to food industries. The problem is that schools, military personnel, and others who receive food through federal programs are required by law to follow the guidelines. Poor them.

For an introduction to this blog, see I Just Say No; for a list of blog topics, click the Topics tab.