I think Mr. Thiel is overly optimistic that we'll have cancer licked in 10 years. Certainly some subtypes, but anyway... Mr. Thiel is in his 40s. In 10 years, he'll be nearly 60, which is weaker, but still a fairly healthy age. I don't think he's risking dying from falls and such quite yet.<p>After reading Atul Gawande's book on ageing, aside from cancer and muscle weakness, it seems that one of the biggest killers is the dissolving of your skeleton as you age. When your skeleton weakens (e.g. in osteoporosis and other conditions), that alone is dangerous from a bone snapping standpoint, but those minerals and proteins don't just disappear. The excess calcium, released toxins (e.g. previously trapped lead if you were exposed before, and just stuff that shouldn't be in your blood), bio active proteins, etc wreck havoc on your organ systems as they are released into your blood. I think he mentioned that even artheosclerosis can be caused by "hard water" in your blood.<p>I know there's a lot of research going on into this as well, but as a cause of morbidity, it may be relatively overlooked as only the physical aspect is usually acknowledged by the public.<p>I'd love to see a doctor weigh in on this. :)