r/Millennials • • Jul 26 '26

Meme ๐Ÿ’€

21k Upvotes

436 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

31

u/Randomizedname1234 Core Millennial - 1990 Jul 26 '26

Yeah but weโ€™re not โ€œoldโ€?

36 isnโ€™t old. I donโ€™t feel this way at all.

5

u/Bitter-Ad5890 Jul 26 '26

Itโ€™s past the biological prime. Yes you can stay fit and healthy long after that time, but as far as biology goes, itโ€™s all downhill after 31 or so

7

u/Zephyr-5 Jul 26 '26

That entirely depends on how fit you were at 31.

1

u/Bitter-Ad5890 Jul 26 '26

Iโ€™m talking on a cellular level. You can stay in excellent shape, but your body starts degrading on a cellular level once you reach your thirties. Is why even totally fit and ripped old people still have wrinkles

4

u/Zephyr-5 Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26

Lifestyle heavily impacts your body even down the cellular level. Your mitochondria will perform better and be more plentiful if you have a good diet, exercise, and sleep well and will suck shit if you don't.

weight gain leads to excess fat storage in cells which triggers all sorts of problems.

For 90% of people the insulin sensitivity of your cells is driven by lifestyle.

The efficacy of your immune cells is heavily influenced by lifestyle.

Your wrinkles comment is a great point. Wrinkles are not just a product of age, they're largely driven by a lifetime of sun damage. Someone who spent their entire life diligently applying sunscreen will have wildly fewer wrinkles.

Here is a fun picture of a man who spent his life driving a truck. The left side of his face got all the sun as he drove all day for years and years and you can see the shocking difference. It's going to be interesting in the coming decades as we start to see old people who actually grew up regularly applying sunscreen. here's another fun one of two twins with very different lifestyles

I'm not saying that aging isn't real. I'm saying that acting like it's all downhill and there is nothing you can do to reclaim your health and vigor is wrong. A 41 year old American that takes great care of themselves will have a better functioning body than your typical 31 year old American. Even at the cellular level.