Regarding medication, I’ll add that for people over 40, aspirin seems to be a decent all-purpose death reducer. The effect’s on the order of a 10% reduction in death rate after taking 75mg of aspirin daily for 5-10 years. (Don’t try to take more to enhance the effect, as it doesn’t seem to work. And you have to take it daily; only taking it on alternating days appears to kill the effect too.)
What about vitamins/medication? Isn’t Ray Kurzweil on like fifty different pills? Why isn’t everyone?
And Aubrey de Grey doesn’t take any. (http://www.quora.com/What-supplements-does-Aubrey-de-Grey-take-to-stay-young-if-any/answer/Aubrey-de-Grey)
It’s unclear whether taking vitamin supplements would actually help. (See also the Quantified Health Prize post army1987 linked.)
Regarding medication, I’ll add that for people over 40, aspirin seems to be a decent all-purpose death reducer. The effect’s on the order of a 10% reduction in death rate after taking 75mg of aspirin daily for 5-10 years. (Don’t try to take more to enhance the effect, as it doesn’t seem to work. And you have to take it daily; only taking it on alternating days appears to kill the effect too.)
Laziness and lack of information
Isn’t Less Wrong supposed to be partially about counteracting those? The topic must have come up at some point in the sequences.
http://lesswrong.com/lw/a60/quantified_health_prize_results_announced/