Question on wizards aging.

[finwitch]

No: HPFGUIDX 114120

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "sad1199" <sad1199 at y...> wrote:
> sad1199 here:
> 
>     On a reread of GoF I am at the part where Harry falls into 
> Dumbledore's pensieve. He sees Dumbledore looking much like he does 
> now but Karkaroff and the Crouches looking younger. My thinking is 
> this the more powerful a wizard you are the longer you live. Not 
> because you can do spells or charms on yourself but because your 
> ability makes you stronger. The more abilities you have the 
stronger 
> your physical attributes are and the longer you live. Dumbledore is 
> the oldest wizard alive that we know of, his friend and previous 
> partner lived to be about 620(?)and he used the stone to achieve 
> this. But we don't hear of any other o-o-o-old wizards just, by 
> Muggle standards, mainly middle aged wizards. Does anyone else 
think 
> this? Like maybe being a very powerful wizard or witch slows down 
> your aging process?

Hard to say, but the professor who examined Dumbledore (and thus MUST 
be older than Dumbledore (to have passed Hogwarts before Dumbledore), 
most probably something like 170-200, considering the high status 
even then!) says that 'he did things with a wand I had never seen 
before' - and adds that if Dumbledore wishes to stay hidden, the 
Ministry will NEVER find him (and they didn't!).

I can think of several other reasons that wizards have longer life-
span - it's not JUST because they're magical:

1. No wizard smokes (at least I have never seen one do so, and I 
doubt JKR makes one), and thus they avoid several lethal (and painful)
lung-diseases.

2. No fast food. (and therefore, not so many heart-failures & such?)

3. No idealizing of being skinny, to go with wearing robes (so no 
anorectics either)

4. No traffic accidents leading to severe consequences (apparently 
they can fix splitting for the apparating excelently, at least it's 
not lethal).

5. Some good Healing methods, even though they do have magical 
diseases to balance that. (like phoenix tears vs. basilisk bites, or 
Mansdrake Draught, Pepper-up potion...)

6. What else is that Stopper of Death- potion doing than keeping them 
alive?

7. Magical children can protect themselves effectively (like Neville 
bouncing after such fall!), so much less children dying because of 
nasty adults or unfortunate accidents...

So indeed, they DO live longer and are healthier! I can see that 
their magic also means they heal faster, never get cancer or other 
lethal diseases... (I think the witches/wizards didn't get the plague 
known as Black Death, therefore were accused of causing it, this 
later leading to the infamous Witch-burnings and the separation of WW 
and MW...)

Finwitch