Here’s what we’ll cover in this blog post:
- What is lifespan
- What is healthspan
- Why we need both for our longevity
- Strategies to improve lifespan and healthspan
When we think about longevity, we often focus on the total number of years we live, known as our lifespan. But an equally important aspect of longevity is our healthspan—or, how many years we live in good health, free from disease and disability.
The difference between lifespan and healthspan is comparing quantity versus quality. We all strive to add more years to our lives, but how valuable are those extra years if they’re spent in poor health? The good news is we don’t have to choose between one or the other: we can take steps to live longer and healthier.
So, what’s the difference between lifespan and healthspan, and how can we improve both?
Lifespan vs. Healthspan
Lifespan is synonymous with our chronological years, or the total duration of our lives. Our lifespan starts at birth and continues with the progression of time. It’s how many candles we blow out on our birthday cake, and the number we tell others when asked how old we are.
Increasing our lifespan is the main goal for many who are just beginning their health journey. But the concept of lifespan doesn’t account for the condition of the years we live. This leaves some focusing on the quantity of their years, rather than the quality.
Healthspan is the time we spend in good health, free of frailty, disability, and chronic disease. It’s the time we spend doing the things we love with the people we love. Healthspan gives us the ability to continue enjoying life to the fullest. In other words, healthspan is a measure of how long we can enjoy physical and mental wellness.
The main difference between our healthspan and our lifespan is that our healthspan doesn’t last as long as our lifespan. If we develop a disease like cancer, our healthspan effectively ends, but our lifespan continues.
The average gap between lifespan and healthspan is about 10 years. This is called the healthspan gap. One of the goals of longevity science is to reduce this gap as much as possible, so we push off poor health and age-related decline to the smallest fraction of our lives.
Lifespan Without Healthspan
We can’t just focus on our lifespan in our longevity journey. Our health isn’t just about adding time to the clock—it’s also about enjoying the race. We should be focused on adding substance to those extra years that we’ve worked so hard to gain.
McKinsey Health Institute reported that between 1800 and 2017, average life expectancy more than doubled from 30 to 73 years. This is a huge improvement when considering lifespan alone.
But the time we spend in poor health hasn’t improved over this same time frame. In fact, it’s stayed largely the same. We still spend only about 50% of our lives in good health, which means the other 50% is spent in sub-optimal health. If the average lifespan is 79 years, then we’d spend nearly 40 years in good health, and another 40 years in sub-optimal health.
That means the average lifespan of our population is increasing, but our healthspan is stagnating. The same study reports that 12% of our lives are spent in poor health. For a 73-year-old, that equals nearly 9 years spent in poor health. That period of poor health could potentially be reduced if we focused our efforts not only on improving our overall health, but also on reducing our risk for disease.
Optimizing Both Lifespan & Healthspan
The good news is that we can take simple steps to improve our lifespan and our healthspan. Many may already be part of your routine.
Regular exercise
Dedicating at least 150 minutes each week to moderate physical exercise is an easy way to improve our health and reduce our risk for disease. Any exercise is another step towards your health goals, as long as you’re getting your heart rate up. Try to combine exercise with something fun, like playing basketball with your family or taking a walk with friends.
Healthy diet
Most diets can improve our lifespan, but not all diets help reduce our risk for disease. The Mediterranean diet may be the best and easiest diet to incorporate into your health routine. It’s also been shown to reduce our risk for cancer and all-cause mortality. If the Mediterranean diet isn’t your favorite, try some suggestions from our AgelessRx nutrition recommendations.
Good sleep
How well we sleep is becoming an increasingly significant factor of our longevity and overall health. Insufficient sleep is linked with many age-related diseases, like cardiovascular disease, stroke, and diabetes, so try to get 7-8 hours of quality sleep each night.
Stress management
Research has shown that stress contributes to many age-related diseases, like diabetes and heart disease. If you feel that stress is impacting your health, make time to do more things you love, and schedule time for stress-reducing therapy like breathing exercises and yoga.
Routine screenings
Routine screenings help detect diseases before they develop, which improves treatment options and prevention methods. It can be difficult to appreciate how valuable living disease-free is until symptoms appear. That’s why we need our doctors’ help to ensure no underlying signs of disease are hurting our chances of enjoying extra healthy years.
How to Get Started on Improving Your Healthspan Today
The United Nations recently declared that 2021-2030 will be the “decade of healthy aging”. That’s not only because global health is better than it’s ever been. It’s also because we have the tools we need to help optimize our lifespan and healthspan.
But knowing where to focus your efforts in your health journey can be a difficult decision, especially if you’ve already adopted many of the techniques mentioned above.
Try taking a quick health assessment to understand your strengths and highlight opportunities for improvement. This fast and free quiz, curated by AgelessRx’s team of longevity experts, provides actionable insights to help you best improve your lifespan and healthspan.
You can also take our free biological aging calculator to reveal your own healthspan gap. This calculator shows the difference between your chronological age and your true biological age, so you can see whether you’re aging faster than normal.
If you don’t know where to start, try a longevity consultation. This 30-45-minute consultation gives you the opportunity to ask our medical experts the questions that matter most to you, so you can learn what’s right for you. You’ll also receive a personalized report with personalized recommendations on longevity treatments, preventative care, and lifestyle adjustments that match your goals.
By making these strategic choices, you’re setting a solid foundation for a healthier, more vibrant life, with a focus on 360-degree wellness.
Note: The above statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.