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Would you really want to know????

(54 Posts)
rosiemus Tue 20-Nov-12 14:18:01

In the papers today I saw that a simple blood test could predict how long you have to live. www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9689759/A-blood-test-to-reveal-how-long-you-have-to-live.html

I suppose it could have its uses (no point wasting £50 on a new pair of boots then - may as well blow it all on chocolate) but I really don't want to know when I am going to shuffle off this mortal coil. I like to think I have a whole lot more living to do - and if that is not to be the case then I'd prefer to enjoy my time without chalking each day off

Anne58 Tue 20-Nov-12 14:20:54

There's also the possibility of it being wrong. I remember reading about someone who was given x amount of time to live, went mad taking expensive holidays, treating the famil to all sorts on credit cards etc, then found it was a misdiagnosis and had massive debts!

kittyp Tue 20-Nov-12 14:32:05

Good point phoenix!

jO5 Tue 20-Nov-12 14:32:09

No!!!!!!! (quiverrrrr!)

Wonder if there is anything you can do to look after your telomeres?

Grannybags Tue 20-Nov-12 14:35:42

When she was 80 my Mum was told she had lung cancer and that she would be lucky to live 6 months. 3 months later we were told it was TB and she lived to be 97!

It would be handy to know how long you had to make your money last! I wouldn't really like to know how much time I had left though

jO5 Tue 20-Nov-12 14:47:54

Agree ab0ut the money thing.

Anne58 Tue 20-Nov-12 14:51:40

Apparently you can j05 , if this is to be believed!

www.tasciences.com/

Anne58 Tue 20-Nov-12 14:53:58

It would seem that taking this stuff causes you to grin inanely most of the time and take up tennis, whether you wanted to or not.

merlotgran Tue 20-Nov-12 14:57:22

I don't want to know either.

DH used to work with a man who was told he had terminal cancer. He was having a mid-life crisis anyway so decided to buy a sports car, get a girlfriend, leave the wife, blow his inheritance from his parents, run up huge debts and then......he got better! He is currently living on benefits in a bed-sit. His abandoned wife has remarried and is running her own business. There's a moral there somewhere.

JessM Tue 20-Nov-12 14:58:06

Load of rubbish. Even if it predicts the imminent death of birds (accidents, hawks etc apart) it would only tell people if they were going to drop off the perch in the near future. Not "how long they will live". Scam + sensationalist journalism.

jO5 Tue 20-Nov-12 15:00:04

That Suzanne could do with some of that! shock

jO5 Tue 20-Nov-12 15:00:26

that was to phoenix btw

soop Tue 20-Nov-12 15:09:53

phoenix...ha ha...so that's what's wrong with me! And, NO, I have no wish to know how much longer I have to live. Need to finish Mia's portrait...don't want to rush and ruin it! grin

Bags Tue 20-Nov-12 15:10:57

Load of rubbish vote from me too. Can't be done. Add it to the bullshit bin.

Smoluski Tue 20-Nov-12 15:27:22

Lalala can't hear you [fingers in ears and peeping behind fingers] emoticon

Nelliemoser Tue 20-Nov-12 16:03:42

No! I would not want to know. I will take my chances thank you. I have relatives who have been fairly long lived. Dad was 86, Mum was 82, her sisters 94 and 96, their grandmother 95 and their aunt 100+.

My PGM was 96 and that was after smoking until she was well over 80. But there are no guarantees in this life.

I am far more worried about how decrepit I am going to be before I snuff it.
It really is time for chocolate!

Bags Tue 20-Nov-12 16:36:15

I'm having the same thought, nelliem, and am tucking into a chocolate muffin that I bought for DD but which she doesn't want. Wouldn't do to waste it.

Grannyknot Tue 20-Nov-12 16:37:13

bags bullshit bin grin. I just remember the doctor telling my mother bluntly that she had 6 months to live at the most (secondary lung cancer) and not long after she mystified all the clinicians by going into complete remission for near on 2 years. How we enjoyed that time! She never had any treatment either. She had her strong spirit, her vitality and her essence. That's what she had. Life force, call it what you will ...

Riverwalk Tue 20-Nov-12 16:54:51

No I wouldn't want to know and I'm sure the test is a load of rubbish. I agree on the bullshit bin grin.

All this talk of chocolate .... my son came from Switzerland for the weekend and saying he had a pressie for me I imagined perfume or something .... it was a giant Toblerone!

Anne58 Tue 20-Nov-12 17:17:08

I've just eated a very small toblerone! Yummy!

(Don't tell glass .....................)

Nelliemoser Tue 20-Nov-12 17:28:15

From what I remember of bits of biology from an OU science foundation course 13 years ago the bit about the division of the ends of the Telomeres in cells is roughly correct, so I don't think this is all rubbish.

It is rather poor science reporting though.

The Telomere factors are only about the general ageing process. If I understand this right, the state of the ragged ends of your Telemeres can only offer a possible prediction of how long you might live, if any other disease process doesn't get you first.

Let's all go and eat chocolate. (Don't get knocked down by a bus in your rush to the chocolate shop but make sure you have clean underwear on just in case. )

absentgrana Tue 20-Nov-12 19:15:27

Do'nt like chocolate. I'm okay about dying though – as long as it doesn't hurt.

absentgrana Tue 20-Nov-12 19:17:39

I shall die of poor grammar.shock Don't, don't, don't… write out 100 times. See me Wednesday morning… Still okay about dying though.

petallus Tue 20-Nov-12 19:18:23

I don't want to go yet. I'm halfway through knitting a scarf.

Faye Tue 20-Nov-12 20:03:15

I don't fear dying but if I had some inkling I would eat chocolate when I woke up every day. Nothing is as nice as chocolate first thing in the morning.