Growing Old - Human Body Theme

Andi 0:01

there's a lot of doom and gloom about aging and that when you talk about the systems of your body and aging, pretty much all of them are bad. Yeah. Right. Things get worse. You deteriorate till you die.

Sups 0:12

I doubt I've asked any of the women. I know were over 60 years. When was the last time you got laid so?

Tanner 0:19

Yeah. and smoking is not protective. You know, it's like, it's

Sups 0:24

that's

Tanner 0:25

just Doctor talk

Andi 0:29

Hello and welcome to this episode of I Should have known the Trivia Game Show that Can't be Trusted. Each week, one of our quizmaster will present you with four facts about a topic, but one of them is a lie, and we have a very special episode. This week we are finishing up our exploration of the human body, which we've been doing all month, and this episode actually airs on the birthday of one of our hosts. So happy birthday Tanner. Yeah. birthday. I'm Andy and honor of Tanner's birthday. I am doing an episode on aging.

Tanner 1:01

Yay.

Andi 1:04

So we're gonna talk about human aging and the experience of growing older, the great. Yeah. But remember, one of my facts Is a lie. So, you can join Tanner and our other host soups in figuring out which one of my facts is a lie.

Tanner 1:18

Great.

Sups 1:19

Cool.

Andi 1:19

But yeah. it's not your birthday when we're recording. No, but it is Tanner's birthday if you are listening on the day this comes out. So if you are, send him a happy birthday over social media. You can let him know.

Tanner 1:31

absolutely.

Andi 1:31

So, we're not gonna do the science of how our bodies age, but we're gonna talk about what it's like to grow old.

Tanner 1:37

Cool. Okay. So how does it feel to get a little closer to death,

Andi 1:43

So our P Q Q. Okay. Our pub quiz question. So this one's gonna sound weirdly specific, but it's only because it was the study I used. What was the average life expectancy in pre-industrial Sweden? I told you it was weirdly specific. Yeah.

Sups 2:01

Pre-industrial Sweden. I wasn't expecting Oh, mean,

Tanner 2:05

Um,

Andi 2:05

I kind of picked pre-industrial Sweden 'cause I kind of think it probably applies to all of pre-industrial Europe, or at least most of it. Yeah. So we're kind of looking at that. We could do a plus or minus here if you're finding it. Hard to

Sups 2:18

okay,

Andi 2:19

maybe five years.

Sups 2:21

32. Oh,

Tanner 2:22

Oh, wow. See, I think it is gonna be closer to our current one than we think. I think it's like 60.

Andi 2:29

Well, if we're doing plus or minuses, then soup gets it. Okay. It was 35 years.

Tanner 2:35

Wow.

Andi 2:36

35 years

Tanner 2:37

old. But what does that mean?

Andi 2:38

Yeah. So a lot of people misinterpret this statistic.

Tanner 2:41

Yeah. All of a sudden, now it's my birthday, I'm gonna die

Andi 2:44

soon

Tanner 2:44

in pre-industrial Sweden. What the

Andi 2:46

Yeah, no. So it's important to remember that life expectancy is an average. So in pre-industrial Sweden, they had an infant mortality rate of 40%. Two out of every five infants born died in infancy. So that's dragging that number way down.

Tanner 3:03

Right. Because the average age then is like days or weeks. or

Andi 3:07

months. Mm-hmm. Right? However, if you make it two 15, then even in these pre-industrial places, your life expectancy was probably fifties or sixties. Yeah. So like old people existed. They had old people, Right. Yeah. It's just that so many babies died. It's very sad. Yeah. So, humans do live longer now than

Tanner 3:25

do.

Andi 3:25

to. Yeah, yeah. In

Sups 3:27

general.

Tanner 3:27

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Andi 3:28

we're doing a decent job at that. So anyway, I actually really wanted to keep this episode positive because I think there's a lot of ageism and a lot of people are very defeatist about the idea of aging. Yeah. So there aren't too many doom and gloom facts.

Tanner 3:42

Okay,

Andi 3:43

So ready for all the facts? Fact number one. In Blue Zones, non-drinkers outlive, moderate drinkers,

Tanner 3:52

blue zones and drinking.

Andi 3:56

So Blue Zones are places where people tend to live the longest. They have high numbers of, older people.

Tanner 4:02

Mm-hmm.

Andi 4:03

this term is coined by a guy named Dan Butner. he wrote a book about it. And they're called Blue Zone simply because the researchers who were researching them circled places in Blue Marker it is a dumb reason. So there are five places? The Mountain Region of Sardinia. It's just an Italian island. Okinawa, Japan. Mm-hmm. aria Greece. Mm-hmm. Koya Costa Rica. Oh. And Loma Linda, California. Oh,

Tanner 4:30

Oh.

Sups 4:31

Oh, wow. So

Andi 4:31

So he identified these five places and then looked at the behaviors of the people who lived there, and they identified like nine things that lead to. These longer lives in these

Tanner 4:42

right.

Andi 4:43

So one of the major things they looked at was drinking. People do drink in the blue zones. Mm-hmm. Except the one in California is, uh, high populations of, seventh Day Adventists. Yes. Okay. And so they culturally don't drink at all. That's part of their, religion.

Tanner 5:00

Okay. But I know, specifically those cultures in the other places have alcohol in their culture.

Andi 5:07

Yes. But drinking even moderately, on average, the people in these zones lived shorter lives than the people who didn't drink at

Tanner 5:14

all. Mm-hmm.

Andi 5:15

That's not to say no one drinks. Right. And that none of the old people drink and it's only the non-drinkers make it to be old. Mm-hmm. It's just that this is the pattern that you see in these

Tanner 5:24

Mm.

Andi 5:24

Hmm.

Tanner 5:25

Okay.

Sups 5:26

Yeah but I also know Italians drink a lot of wine. I eat a lot of pasta. Maybe that's like premium

Tanner 5:34

quality. Yeah.

Sups 5:35

So the ones who don't drink, they outlive the moderate ones is what you're trying to say

Tanner 5:40

yeah. Like you're saying, it goes against so many stereotypes I have for the cultures, so they must be such a like different. Island culture. Yeah. 'cause most of these are islands, right? Yeah. So like their culture must be so unique to them. Mm-hmm. Their drinking culture is mostly different.

Sups 5:57

Mm-hmm.

Andi 5:58

And other important factors included, community. Yeah. So most people in these regions most of them were faith-based. Yeah. So a religious group. Mm-hmm. they is daily socialization and high levels of physical activity.

Tanner 6:12

But the big fact is the non-drinking, which just sounds so fishy to me.

Sups 6:18

yeah. I'm kind of skeptical about this.

Tanner 6:21

I'm not

Sups 6:21

percent.

Tanner 6:22

I, yeah, I feel the same way. Yeah. But Mm-hmm.

Andi 6:26

so it's important to remember that these behaviors are patterns mm-hmm. That we see, but individual people can have very different stories. Mm-hmm. Right. For example, fact number two, the oldest person to ever live was a French socialite who smoked and loved chocolate.

Tanner 6:43

The longest lived is a French person. Yeah. Not one of the blue zone people.

Sups 6:48

No.

Andi 6:49

her name was Jean Louise Kama. She lived to be 122 years and 164 days old. Whoa.

Tanner 6:59

Whoa.

Andi 7:00

So she was alive from 1875 until 1997.

Tanner 7:04

Geez.

Andi 7:05

Yeah. She's the oldest, fully authenticated person by Guinness. So it is actually very controversial because for two things, it's very important to remember that there's a bias towards Western record keeping. And so many people in other regions can't prove their age in a way that Westerners would find persuasive. And so they might be older, but you know, you can't verify. Mm-hmm.

Sups 7:29

Especially, in Asia. Like in small villages. where people, historically have had a very active agrarian lifestyle. Right. And you see this old grannies like working in the farm, like, you

Tanner 7:40

know. And they're older than anyone can remember. Yeah. Yeah. But

Andi 7:44

Right. Yeah, It's hard to verify. Yeah. Verify. Yeah. And then actually this particular person, there's a whole conspiracy theory about her. Some people say that she's actually was her own daughter but I mean Guinness gives it to her. So Jean Louise was, a socialite from ales France. She didn't work her whole life. She was born into a rich family, married a rich guy, didn't work Easy easy life. she smoked from ages 21 until 117. Whoa.

Sups 8:16

My role model

Andi 8:18

she reportedly ate about a kilo of chocolate per week.

Sups 8:22

Oh, wow.

Tanner 8:22

She really loved chocolate.

Andi 8:24

Yeah. but she was physically active. She took up fencing at the age of 85. Wow. And supposedly was biking until 100, huh, So, yeah. So she, she didn't really follow the rules of the blue zone? No. but She's the oldest, fully authenticated person.

Sups 8:41

yeah. But I've heard about this lady, primarily because she's my role model, uh, and

Tanner 8:47

Is your goal to live to be 123?

Sups 8:49

No, just this whole chocolate and

Andi 8:51

cigarette kind of

Sups 8:52

of thing. like is like, you know, and like yeah. Didn't do a thing in her life. Like yeah, exactly. she's enjoying life. Yeah. Yeah. Well she did,

Tanner 8:59

She did. So the idea is, Could someone live to 122 while being a smoker and a chocolate lover? cause that kind of flies in the face of the first, fact.

Sups 9:11

But also there is this research that tells you that dark chocolate is actually really good for

Tanner 9:16

you.

Andi 9:16

Yeah. I couldn't find What kind it was. I think even a kilo of dark chocolate. It would be on heap,

Tanner 9:22

Yeah. Even if it is protective

Sups 9:24

of like

Tanner 9:24

organs, that's a lot of chocolate

Andi 9:27

kilo per week.

Tanner 9:28

and smoking is not protective. You know, it's like, it's

Sups 9:32

that's

Tanner 9:32

just Doctor talk Don't listen to me. Listen to her.

Andi 9:37

So you got a long way to go tan. Oh

Tanner 9:39

Oh yeah. That's my goal.

Sups 9:40

But 1 22. That's cool.

Tanner 9:42

I'm inclined to believe this one because when you ask a lot of old people, they're like, yeah, I take a shot every birthday or like I drink. You know, like they're not super strict on these sorts of things. So I believe this lady did this. Yeah.

Sups 9:53

I think this fact is true.

Tanner 9:54

Yeah. well, we're halfway done. we're,

Andi 9:56

halfway down.

Tanner 9:56

we're middle aged.

Andi 9:57

Yeah. We're gonna bring it down a little bit.

Sups 9:59

Mm-hmm.

Andi 10:00

But hopefully there's, we can take some positive things from this. So, fact number three, one of the most common regrets of the dying is working too hard.

Sups 10:09

I a hundred percent agree.

Andi 10:11

Okay. So this comes from a book by a person named Brony Ware, who was. A palliative care nurse in Australia. Okay. And worked at a nursing home. Mm-hmm. With people who are within weeks of, death. Yeah. And cared for them. And so she would talk to these people and ask. About their lives, what they regret, and she listed five regrets. so the top regrets were, not having the courage to be one's true self, working too hard, not having the courage to express their feelings, not staying in touch with friends, and not letting myself be happy.

Tanner 10:46

And she categorized them into these five main things. Mm-hmm. Okay. I'm trying to imagine life at the end of the road and what would you regret most?

Sups 10:55

I do get the feeling that, you know, the modern day labor this whole nine to five you are giving up or a lot of other things, right? you can't just leave a job and then say, oh, I'm gonna go bungee jumping, or I'm gonna go take a tour around the world, so I understand where these regrets are coming from,,

Tanner 11:12

Yeah. 'cause if this is true, it's playing into the idea of like, you're putting off enjoying it until you can retire Like, You work hard now to reap the benefits much later. Right? And these people are like, I did that and I made it this far, and I wish I didn't do that.

Sups 11:25

exactly. But also when you retire, like, I dunno, you've got a hundred other illnesses or

Tanner 11:30

Right.

Sups 11:30

that You

Andi 11:31

You get the

Sups 11:31

time to enjoy. Like you know,

Tanner 11:32

why enjoy life when you're

Sups 11:34

Yeah, I mean, it sounds true,

Tanner 11:36

Yeah. Yeah. if this is true, that makes a lot of sense because. It's not that. They're like, I hated work. I wish I didn't work. They're like, I wish I did this other thing instead of working so hard. So that's important to me because I think a lot of old people, they would say, I like working. I love what I do, or I, I wish I could continue working. cause it gives you fulfillment. It gives you a point. So I think it's important to keep in mind that it was at the cost of doing something else. Yeah.

Andi 12:04

That's why it's too hard working too hard.

Tanner 12:06

Ah, Let's say this is the lie. Yeah. This is not a regret that any of these, well, the majority of these people, the top five, this was not one of them. Mm-hmm. So how could that be true?

Sups 12:17

I mean, then it just could be any other reason. Right, right. Some other reason that, she thinks that we know,

Tanner 12:22

right. we're missing out maybe it's not that I missed out on stuff, it's that I did stuff I wish I didn't do. You're Which you don't really hear about, like, you know, as in regret that much. I don't know. But There's a lot of space for this to be a lie.

Sups 12:36

It is, it is. But I'm more inclined to believe that this one's true. Yeah. Yeah.

Tanner 12:41

It makes so

Sups 12:41

much sense Yes. And it's also a lot of things that I identify

Tanner 12:45

Yeah.

Sups 12:45

it's like, you know.

Tanner 12:46

Mm-hmm. Yeah. I want it to be true. Then

Andi 12:49

I've

Tanner 12:49

reason to not work hard.

Andi 12:50

Yeah. Well, those of us who aren't presumably dying very soon can maybe. Learn from that.

Tanner 12:55

Yeah.

Andi 12:56

So there's a lot of doom and gloom about aging and that when you talk about the systems of your body and aging, pretty much all of them are bad. Yeah. Right. Things get worse. You deteriorate till you die. Mm-hmm. Well, there's one area that is a little more positive. Fact number four. For older women, sexual satisfaction does not significantly decrease with age.

Tanner 13:19

Nice.

Sups 13:20

Okay.

Tanner 13:21

For older women? Satisfaction does not improve, but it does not

Andi 13:25

Yeah. Basically the idea is age was not a factor in any decrease in satisfaction. They looked at women between the ages of 60 and 89. Okay. And for those who were sexually active, they reported, between two thirds or three fifths. Of either moderately or very satisfied with their sex lives. So between the ages of 60 and 89, they didn't see a significant decrease in the satisfaction as you would expect with age. Okay. Right. but sexual activity was reduced. So older people aren't having as much sex as younger people. But when they're having sex, at least for the older women, it's pretty good.

Sups 14:04

Okay. Quality over

Andi 14:06

Yeah.

Tanner 14:06

I like

Sups 14:06

that. This

Tanner 14:07

This is something to look forward to. Women.

Andi 14:09

Yeah. Yeah. I know not much for you. Yeah, I mean, I

Sups 14:12

I couldn't me. No. I mean, probably will need that blue pill, but

Tanner 14:18

Yeah.

Andi 14:19

Yeah. But there is evidence. There is evidence of sexually active nineties something year old men. So yeah, you can keep going.

Tanner 14:27

Mm-hmm.

Sups 14:27

Okay, Wow. on you. Old women

Tanner 14:32

Yeah.

Sups 14:32

Yeah. Good job.

Tanner 14:33

This is, this is kind of uplifting. This is

Andi 14:36

that's that's what I'm saying. I, yeah. Everything else is, is all doom and gloom about aging. Your body breaks down, blah, blah, blah. But for those who are having sex, they're having good sex most of the time. Well,

Tanner 14:46

Well, that's good. If this is true, I do know a lot of talk. About older people and sex is that like, in like nursing homes, there's a lot of STDs and because there's no reason to have safe sex in their minds. You know,

Sups 15:00

I thought you just say There's, like massive orgies.

Tanner 15:03

probably. Yeah. Yeah, probably,

Andi 15:04

probably are.

Sups 15:06

Yeah.

Tanner 15:07

But like once you get to that age, Pregnancy isn't a worry anymore. So a lot of them think, oh well, safe sex doesn't matter. So then they wind up getting and passing around diseases. So I know that's a problem. So

Sups 15:19

they are having

Andi 15:20

It's true.

Sups 15:21

this

Tanner 15:21

is weird to think about. Yeah. You know, 'cause we don't normally picture older people having sex in our culture, but why not? They're people, they're adults. yeah. yeah. yeah.

Andi 15:32

So this is a bright spot in research about aging.

Tanner 15:36

If this is true, this is great to hear. let's entertain the idea that this is a lie.

Sups 15:40

Hmm.

Tanner 15:41

So if it's a lie, then your quality of sex goes down. As you get older. that would line up with our preconceived notions. Right? Sure,

Sups 15:48

sure. But, I haven't spent a lot of time thinking about old women having sex, so it's really hard to come up with like an opinion,

Tanner 15:57

you know, with

Sups 15:58

a convincing

Tanner 15:59

Yeah.

Sups 15:59

So I'm, how many women do

Tanner 16:01

know who are over 60

Sups 16:03

Few, but I don't think about their sex lives here. exactly. Yeah.

Tanner 16:07

Yeah.

Sups 16:08

I doubt I've asked any of the women. I know were over 60 years. When was the last time you got laid so?

Tanner 16:15

Yeah.

Sups 16:15

No, that's not a question.

Tanner 16:16

how was it?

Sups 16:17

it's not usually a conversation I had with them, but Did you I

Tanner 16:22

did.

Sups 16:22

I did,

Tanner 16:22

but your clientele

Sups 16:24

not

Tanner 16:24

60 plus

Andi 16:25

No.

Sups 16:25

No, the clientele was younger, but the opposite of the fact will be really gloomy. And then

Tanner 16:30

is yeah, It's a downer,

Sups 16:31

but then it's not really, then it's like an obvious thing. Yeah. Then it, then it's not a fact. Like okay. You would expect as women are older, that the satisfaction is kind of decreasing. Yeah.

Tanner 16:42

It's thing, Right. Why would you need to make that a big fact? Yeah. It's not a, so that's why this one's so surprising, so I think it's true. Yeah. Yeah.

Sups 16:49

Okay. Alright.

Tanner 16:50

thank you for the birthday present of this whole episode. we have four facts about getting older and aging and the wisdom and the experience of it, but one of them, Is a very bad present. It is a lie. So before we guess, which one, is a lie, can you please repeat the four facts for us?

Andi 17:07

Of course. Fact number one, in blue zones non-drinkers outlive moderate drinkers. Fact number two, the oldest person to ever live was a French socialite who smoked and loved chocolate. Fact number three. One of the most common regrets of the dying is working too hard. And fact number four, for older women, sexual satisfaction does not significantly decrease with h.

Tanner 17:41

Wow,

Andi 17:42

those is not true.

Tanner 17:43

this is very hard. none of them really jump out at me as being fake, you know,

Sups 17:48

I think it's number one. Yeah, They live longer because they drink more

Tanner 17:51

Because they drink.

Sups 17:52

You think they drink premium quality wine,

Tanner 17:55

yeah. I mean, I know that in Okinawa there's a specific kind of alcohol they have in Greece. They have their own type of alcohol. Maybe this is just a coincidence. Yeah. Or maybe it's like ask all these people and they're like, yeah, I

Sups 18:10

drink. Mm-hmm. And they

Tanner 18:11

all live longer.

Sups 18:12

Yeah.

Tanner 18:12

Very possible. I think the regrets one is one where it can easily be a lie.

Sups 18:18

Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Tanner 18:19

But I really want it to be true because I want an excuse to not have to work as hard, but maybe that's who it's,

Sups 18:26

Yeah. Yeah. And

Tanner 18:27

old French woman, I think the stereotype of French people smoke French, people love chocolate. Mm-hmm. Maybe that's what she's playing off of. She's like, yeah, this French woman lived super long, but she lived a very clean life. She never

Sups 18:40

touched a

Tanner 18:40

cigarette, and I'm just.

Sups 18:42

playing on, but then you see, it's no fun.

Tanner 18:44

I think that's the lie. maybe she lived that long. Yeah. But it's playing off of the French stereotype.

Sups 18:49

okay. Okay. I think I'm gonna go with number one. Yeah. Yeah. They're drinkers.

Tanner 18:53

Okay. Great. Okie let's unwrap the present. Find out what's inside.

Andi 18:59

The lie is fact number one. It is, is exactly the opposite In blue zones, moderate drinkers, outlive, non-drinkers, except of course, in the place where they don't drink at all. cause it is very unusual that you would have drinking is actually good for you because in the whole world that is not true. Any amount of alcohol is bad for you. Mm-hmm. That's the rule. But in these regions, they think the idea is that moderate drinking a very high quality of the right kind of thing. That's what's good for you.

Tanner 19:31

Well, yeah, just export the Sardinian wine. It's the elixir. It's the fountain of Youth, right.

Sups 19:35

told you it's the premium quality wine there. It's.

Andi 19:38

so it's a combination of factors. So like it's probably likely that you could extend your life with lifestyle choices, and probably the bigger thing is that not about extending your life, but your quality of life will probably be much better if you take care of your health.

Tanner 19:53

Oh,

Andi 19:54

Right. So you maybe you only live to 75, but you have 75 good years

Sups 19:59

Yeah. So

Andi 20:00

It's good to take care of yourself. yeah, But it is important to remember that it's the lottery, right? There's nothing you can do actively to prolong your life. that doesn't

Tanner 20:10

Right? Even if you take all four of these facts and put 'em all together, you move to ine. You drink the wine, you take up smoking you fence, you have sex as an older woman, whatever. You do all this stuff. you don't work too

Andi 20:21

hard. You

Tanner 20:22

hit by a truck tomorrow. I like that. It's,

Sups 20:25

it's kind

Tanner 20:25

of a good outlook on life. Yeah. It's not so bad.

Andi 20:29

Basically it's like, Aching is a privilege. It's a natural part of life. It's not the worst thing. Yeah. So just, just chill.

Sups 20:37

Yeah. Yeah. No

Andi 20:39

we do what makes you happy.

Sups 20:40

I should have known.

Tanner 20:41

I should have known.

Andi 20:42

Thanks for listening to this episode of, I Should Have Known if you are watching this on YouTube, please do all the YouTubey things, like, comment, subscribe, let us know if you got the fact right. this is the end of our human body theme. and we are starting a new theme, We're doing music, and Tanner is going to be presenting four different classical composers. and as always, thanks for listening.

Tanner 21:10

horny, horny.