Tim writes:

Heredity plays an equally important role in all of this - a person's
vulnerability to disease as a result of environmental factors (smoking,
drinking, breathing in asbestos fibers, etc.) is highly dependent on
genetics, as is your likelihood to suffer a stroke from smoking excessively,
or a heart attack from eating too much bacon, eggs, donuts, etc., or just
plain being overweight.

True ... but the FAA doesn't look at that, either.

Where do you draw the line?

My point is that the FAA criteria are badly skewed. Airline pilots with
first-class medicals still drop dead from time to time, and people who are
denied medicals still live to be 95 years old without ever being suddenly
incapacitated by anything.

The FAA criteria seem to be inherited from military test-pilot programs or
astronaut medicals, but they are far too draconian. The FAA could increase
safety a lot more by testing pilot competence more extensively and forgetting
the over-the-top medical criteria. In fact, the best way to determine pilot
aptitude is by testing it directly, not by inferring it from other
information, and since pilots are tested individually, this is a completely
practical goal.