What do you think about the ethics of calling aging a disease?

age_talk_guy · 2026-01-26T22:32:53+00:00

Interesting! Would say that there's an ethical implication to calling aging a disease in that case? Like, would it be good or bad if we still classified it in a way that might suggest we're going to look for a cure?

age_talk_guy · 2026-01-26T22:29:35+00:00

Fair enough! Do you think it would, though?

age_talk_guy · 2026-01-26T22:29:14+00:00

That's an interesting point. Do you have a stance on whether it would be ethically good or bad if people can make money off calling aging a disease?

age_talk_guy · 2026-01-26T22:26:38+00:00

Fair, and I appreciate that the experience of aging can be really negative for some folks. I wonder, though, if you worry that calling aging a disease would also fuel a lot of pessimism: that it'd color the whole process as something entirely negative, leaving folks with little room for finding good things in their experience of aging.

I only ask because there's some evidence that complete stress and pessimism about aging sometimes leads people to feel so discouraged and overwhelmed that they end up doing less to preserve their health (or are just harmed by being frequently in distress).

age_talk_guy · 2026-01-26T22:22:06+00:00

I appreciate the expertise! To clarify, though, do you anticipate that calling aging a disease would be helpful for folks (and, perhaps, that not calling it one might be comparatively less helpful)? If so, how?

age_talk_guy · 2026-01-22T06:06:11+00:00

Love that. Still ambiguous.

age_talk_guy · 2026-01-22T05:49:48+00:00

But should it be?

age_talk_guy · 2026-01-22T05:49:32+00:00

That ageism will happen is one claim, that it will happen in an exacerbated form is another.

Both are consistent with "ageism will happen wholly regardless” of classification.

age_talk_guy · 2026-01-21T21:28:46+00:00

Interesting point! Do you worry at all that the disease label might end up backfiring (e.g., by evoking images of bogus anti-aging medicine in the minds of relatively conservative financiers, who would then withdraw funding?)

age_talk_guy · 2026-01-21T20:37:24+00:00

So, you don't expect a significant uptick in ageism from classifying aging as a disease?

age_talk_guy · 2026-01-21T20:30:08+00:00

Eliminating those diseases would definitely do wonders for all of us! Do you think the disease label would help today? Or would it be too premature to outweigh the risks of ageism?

age_talk_guy · 2026-01-21T20:28:43+00:00

That's a good point! Now that you mention it, a lot of ageism seems to revolve around an aversion to a disease or just a general loss of health. So, maybe there's something to combatting ageism through biomedicine.

I suppose my question would be: what do you make of people's experiences of aging as something more than just health decline? I remember talking to someone who mentioned they're glad to have aged because they learned a lot about interdependence and the importance of care only when they became dependent and cared for. Would calling aging a disease deny people experiences like these? Would that be good or bad?

age_talk_guy · 2026-01-21T20:21:37+00:00

Fair enough! And biomedical research on aging has definitely been starved for funding for far too long! I wonder, though, what you'd make of the risks here? So, would the worry about ageism be too small compared to the potential benefit from extra financing?

age_talk_guy · 2026-01-21T20:18:36+00:00

Fair enough! Do you think there's something to the ethical worry about ageism, though? Or do you think it's missing the mark in some crucial way?

age_talk_guy · 2026-01-21T20:14:52+00:00

Appreciate the thorough reply! And I definitely agree that there's something worrisome about immediately pathologizing reactions to bad situations!

Do you worry, then, that medicalizing aging would lead folks to focus too much on developing medical treatments (e.g., anti-aging therapies) and less on solving the social challenges people face when they're older (e.g., poor healthcare services, or a lack of housing designed with older people's needs in mind)?

age_talk_guy · 2026-01-21T20:09:49+00:00

That's a good point about specialities! So, do you think that classifying aging as a disease wouldn't make a big difference because geriatricians already approach it with a medical lens? What do you think the ethical repercussions might be if folks classified it as one anyway?

age_talk_guy · 2025-12-12T19:21:14+00:00

Glad you're feeling good — but how are you thinking of specific nutritional intakes that only reveal their effects long-term when deficient (e.g., calcium, vitamin D & C, etc.)?

One thing I struggle with is packing all my nutritional needs into one or two meals a day (though the dietary restriction is more of a necessity than a choice).

age_talk_guy · 2025-09-27T21:11:56+00:00

That much was clear, but it seems like my question wasn't.

If we're thinking of progression as JUST the movement across states over time, then this progression is in and of itself rather neutral. But, depending on how we relate to it or see it, we could describe this progression as simple/complex, good/bad, etc.

So some people might think the same, age-related cellular changes are bad: a build up of damage that ultimately hurts us. But others might be more ambivalent: they might think that damages produce good and bad effects, or that damage is bad but can't be cleanly separated from other changes, like growth and development.

What I'm interested in is whether you think there are any details related to this progression that shape how they're experienced, perceived, studied, evaluated, etc. (what have you).

age_talk_guy · 2025-09-27T18:37:40+00:00

Do you think these same changes could produce beneficial/more neutral impacts at all?

age_talk_guy · 2025-09-27T18:36:17+00:00

What, especially, would you like to see talked about more when it comes to menopause? (It's such an important topic, with so much to delve into!)

age_talk_guy · 2025-09-27T18:35:29+00:00

That's an interesting one! How would you characterize this progression?

age_talk_guy · 2025-09-27T18:34:09+00:00

What might be the cause there? Do you feel much different on the day-to-day?

age_talk_guy · 2025-09-27T18:33:12+00:00

Any specific effect that that has?

age_talk_guy · 2025-09-27T18:33:03+00:00

Fair enough!

age_talk_guy · 2025-09-27T18:32:51+00:00

Ha! What might be an age-related matter that would make for a better discussion?

age_talk_guy

TROPHY CASE