Longevity Defined: How Is Healthspan Different from Lifespan?
Secrets of a Longer and Healthier Life
Dr Ryan Chow, founder of Reload PT, has made it his mission to help people understand the difference between lifespan and healthspan and prepare not just for a longer life, but a one that is free from pain, diseases, and disabilities that are so debilitating to so many in their later years.
In this article, Dr Chow explains what you need to know about longevity and healthspan – understanding that it is the starting point of not only a longer life, but a healthier, more enjoyable retirement in your autumn years.
How Do You Define Longevity?
There’s a misplaced notion that increasing longevity defined improving health among the population. In truth, our quality of life is often far removed from our healthspan – the longevity definition of ‘number of candles on a birthday cake’ means little if those extra years are spent in pain and with a lack of mobility that is detrimental to you daily life.
Today, we can expect to live longer than at any other time in human history. This isn’t because of a miracle longevity drug; a gradual improvement in general healthcare and medication has led to longer life expectancy. Indeed, since the 1930s, life expectancy in the U.S. has increased to the high 70s.
Why You Must Bridge the Gap Between Lifespan and Healthspan
We may have gained an average of 20 years of lifespan, but many people spend those last 20 years suffering from chronic diseases and disabilities. According to NCOA research, almost 80% of people in their 60s and older have at least two or more chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, respiratory disease, metabolic disease, diabetes, etc. This can be disabling, painful, and stressful. Is this the older age you desire?
The problem with preparing for a healthier you in your later decades is that health issues creep up on us (in a similar way that retirement does – and how many reach that milestone and wish they had paid more attention to financial planning in their 20s, 30s, and 40s?). When we’re younger, we feel invincible. Injuries are shaken off easily. Bones don’t creek. Knee injuries don’t cause us to buckle. Backs don’t ache.
There is no miracle cure to poor retirement planning. You can’t wave a magic wand and suddenly have a healthy retirement pot. Similarly, you can’t expect to turn around your health issues overnight when they have been neglected for years, if not decades.
The time to start fighting against the creeping health effects of aging is sooner, not later.
What Are the Major Causes of Poor Healthspans?
It’s not only improved healthcare that has delivered longer lifetimes – it’s evolution in our lifestyles, too. The explosion of the service economy and less physical work (automation has made many blue-collar jobs easier on the body) has certainly contributed to longevity. On the flipside, a more sedentary lifestyle envelopes many in health issues that impair quality of life as we age.
In all aspects of our lives, we don’t need to move around as much as we used to. Our lives are now dictated by convenience – even down to the smallest detail, such as remote controls to switch TV channels and smart phones to regulate lights and air conditioning in our homes. We have food delivered to our door thanks to services like Uber Eats. Soon, we won’t even need to turn the steering wheel in our cars to move from A to B.
The Industrial Revolution, and the inventions and innovations since, have made our lives easier. They have also destroyed the amount of physical activity we do and decreased the quality of our diet. Just like a machine that sits disused, when we neglect our bodies they deteriorate – and our healthspan declines.
Your Longevity Drug – Create Your Own ‘Blue Zone’
Ever heard of a ‘Blue Zone’? No? Let me explain.
There are certain areas in the world where more people than average have tended to live longer and healthier lives – places like Okinawa, Sardinia, and Costa Rica. In these areas, people aren’t victims of SNAPS – the behavioral risk factors of Smoking, poor Nutrition, excess Alcohol, Physical inactivity, and Stress. These areas are called Blue Zones.
Studying these populations, scientists believe that people there:
Eat good proportions of the right types of macronutrients and micronutrients
Are physically active, and take part in lots of low-intensity activity
When it comes to what we can learn from Blue Zones, it’s that you can’t separate diet and activity when it comes to longevity and healthspan; they’re both crucial.
When it comes to physical activity, you might expect New York to be one of the fittest cities in the world. After all, where do so many fitness fads start, before spreading everywhere else? You name it, the New York fitness scene (and those elsewhere) has moved from HIIT classes to boxing classes to running classes to…. blah, blah, blah. But you know what? You look at those Blue Zones, where people live longest and healthiest, and nine of those fitness fads or workout routines are practiced.
Maybe this is the real takeaway – the run-of-the-mill fitness business is good at selling the latest fitness craze to the public, and the public are incredible buyers.
Isn’t it time you stopped following the fads and created your own personal blue zone?
Blood Test Longevity and Healthcare 3.0
Using blood tests to determine your health risks is a key healthcare strategy. Such tests can identify the biomarkers that indicate your risk for certain pathologies or disease, and it’s how some diseases (including chronic diseases and conditions) are diagnosed. But why wait for the disease to take hold, before doing anything about it?
Dr. Peter Attia, a renowned longevity doctor, has coined the term Healthcare 3.0. He advocates for not using biomarkers and blood tests to diagnose the presence of a pathology, but instead to use them earlier as a marker to push us away from the line of no return.
For example, if you’re considered obese with a 40-inch waist or BMI of over 25, instead of waiting to cross that line, you can aim to go further below the line pushing away the likelihood of ever crossing it. This might mean tackling factors like total cholesterol, certain lipoproteins, HDL, LDL, uric acid, resting heart rate, blood pressure, and so on. Instead of edging towards tipping your blood pressure into a reading of 130 over 80, you take action to reduce and maintain your reading to, say, 110 over 60 – steering you further away from disease.
Optimizing biomarkers is where we can help people gain a handle on what activities are helpful to them, whether they are doing it right, whether they’re doing enough of it, and whether they are exercising sustainably to avoid the mistake of a lack of consistency and frequency.
Tackling Lifestyle-Related Chronic Diseases
Forget infectious diseases as a major killer. Chronic diseases are the biggest risk to longevity, with cardiovascular disease the number one cause of death in the world. Yet this is a condition that we can detect extremely early on. Second on the list of killers is cancer.
Believe it or not, cardiovascular disease and cancer are closely related to SNAPS – and this is something over which you can take control. But, too often, we leave it all too late. Because we don’t experience the symptoms to tell us that something is wrong, we think we’re fine. Then we visit the doctor – maybe for a regular checkup – and we’re told that something is wrong. Which is why the time to tackle these lifestyle-related chronic diseases is now – stop the time bomb before it can start ticking.
It's Never Too Late (or Too Early) to Start Developing Your Personal Blue Zone
Although the earlier you start the better, the truth is that it is never too late to build your own personal Blue Zone. Just like your retirement fund, the sooner you start investing in your health, the bigger the dividends in the future.
Even if you have spent years in gradual physical decline, a lot of improvement really is achievable.
Incorporating regular exercise, even simple movements, can significantly improve your healthspan – the outcome will be a longer, healthier, happier life. Whether through targeted exercises, dietary adjustments, or proactive medical checks, enhancing our healthspan is a crucial aspect of not just living longer, but living better.
Here at Reload, we excel in offering personalized physical therapy that starts by listening to your unique story so that we can tailor a program that aligns with your needs and goals. Through collaboration, we constantly adapt and evolve your treatment plan, ensuring it matches your progress and preferences. We communicate with you between appointments, providing continuous support and adjustments to optimize your therapy for effective pain management and recovery.
Make an appointment to see the experts at Reload PT, and start the journey to a longer, healthier life.
