Lifespan vs Healthspan

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We all want to live longer so we can enjoy extra years doing the things that reward us the most, with the people we love the most. But what does it mean to live a long life if those additional years aren’t lived in good health? How can we enjoy those extra years we’ve gained if we’re battling frailty and age-related disease?

This brings up an important distinction between two terms that are fundamental to our longevity: lifespan vs. healthspan. It’s easy to have our lifespan in mind when we begin our wellness journey, but it’s easy to forget about our healthspan.

What is the difference between lifespan and healthspan? How do they relate to longevity, and how can we take steps to improve both? We’ll cover all that and more below, with step-by-step tips and helpful resources to use in your daily life.

What Is Lifespan?

Lifespan is a familiar concept, the total amount of years a person lives, starting from birth and ending at death. Lifespan is the same as our chronological years, or how many candles we blow out on our birthday cake, and it’s gauged by the inevitable progression of time. When someone asks – “what is lifespan?” – they’re usually referring to this basic definition.

Why Do We Need Healthspan Too?

It’s important to note that lifespan doesn’t account for the condition of those years lived. Someone may reach the age of 100, but focusing on lifespan doesn’t consider how many of those years were spent in good health.

The McKinsey Health Institute reported that between 1800 and 2017, our average global life expectancy has more than doubled from 30 years 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 not-so-great health. 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.

What Is Healthspan?

Healthspan can be best explained as healthy aging, or the time that we live in good health, free of age-related disease and conditions.

Unlike lifespan, healthspan is less concerned with the number of years lived and more focused on the quality and vitality of those years. Healthspan serves as a measure of the duration an individual is able to maintain a high level of physical and mental wellness, without chronic disease or disability.

The concept of lifespan doesn’t take into consideration the presence of age-related health issues or conditions, like frailty, chronic pain, diabetes, cancer, dementia, and heart disease. Lifespan simply measures the quantity of years lived.

This is where the distinction between lifespan and healthspan is most significant, introducing quality of life into the conversation around longevity.

How Does Healthspan Relate to Longevity?

To comprehend the depth of the question – “what is healthspan?” – imagine living life not just for survival, but for actually living. Imagine gaining extra healthy years, and having the quality of life to enjoy those extra years in good health.

Healthspan captures the extent of our lives we can truly engage in, energized and healthy, being able to savor every moment to its fullest. The concept of healthspan brings the element of healthful living into the longevity equation, adding richness to the years we live, without just adding years to life.

Healthspan is not merely an indicator of longevity, but a measure of healthy longevity. It poses a fresh perspective on aging, encouraging us to aspire not just for a long life, but for a life that’s also filled with health and energy.

All in all, healthspan draws attention to the active, vibrant, and healthy years of one’s life, underscoring the importance of good health as we age.

Lifespan vs. Healthspan: Quality vs. Quantity

The comparison of lifespan and healthspan boils down to quality over quantity. When considering lifespan, we think about the total number of years an individual lives, without regard for the quality of those years. Healthspan, on the other hand, considers the quality of the years we live.

A long healthspan implies that a larger part of an individual’s life is spent in a state of ideal health, which is usually defined as freedom from debilitating conditions and chronic diseases. On the other hand, having a long lifespan but a short healthspan might indicate many years spent living, but filled with chronic diseases, physical impairments, or cognitive decline.

While lifespan accounts for the total number of years we have, healthspan describes how healthy those years are. Many longevity experts say that healthspan is the true measure of longevity, and since our lifespan is improving with societal and technological advancements, healthspan has become a focus of growing importance within the longevity community.

Why Not Both Healthspan & Lifespan?

As we begin our own longevity journey, we may realize quickly that we can’t just ignore our lifespan and focus on our healthspan. For example, our healthspan becomes less of a focus when our lifespan may be 30 – as it was in 1800. On the other hand, a long lifespan of 100 becomes less of a goal if half of those years may be spent in poor health.

The balance between lifespan and healthspan is critical. Longevity shouldn’t just be a race against the clock, but a quest for quality of life that adds substance to those extra years that we’ve worked so hard to gain.

Including both healthspan and lifespan into our longevity goals gives us a holistic view of longevity that focuses on both our physical and mental well-being. Rather than just adding candles to the birthday cake, it’s about ensuring that we can blow them out with the same energy as the years go by.

Fortunately, we don’t have to choose between one or the other. Many of the same strategies we use to give us extra years can also give us extra healthy years.

How to Enhance Both Lifespan & Healthspan

Promoting both lifespan and healthspan requires a focus on 360-degree wellness. The good news? There are a few vital but simple steps we can take to improve our lifespan and our healthspan, and you may already be incorporating some of them into your daily routine.

Regular Exercise

This one probably goes without saying, but making time to get your heart rate up is key to living longer and healthier. Any exercise is a step in the right direction, so take a walk with your pets or children, play some basketball, or go dancing, especially if you’re just getting back into a regular exercise routine. Ideally, you should be dedicating at least 150 minutes each week to moderate physical activity for the most substantial health benefits, according to both the CDC and the Office of Disease prevention and Health Promotion.

Healthy Diet

Not all diets are made equal, and depending on your unique health history, some diets may be better than others. The Mediterranean diet may be among the healthiest for most people, featuring high amounts of olive oil, fish, vegetables, herbs, fruits, and nuts, a combination that has been shown to reduce our all-cause and cancer mortality. Harvard reports that periods of fasting have also been shown to increase our lifespan, as well as improve the regulation of blood glucose, inflammation, and oxidative stress – all of which promote our healthspan. For a more complete overview of the best diets for longevity, check out the AgelessRx nutrition recommendations, courtesy of our Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Sajad Zalzala.

Stress Management

Stress management may be a less-obvious strategy for longevity, but research has shown that stress contributes to many age-related diseases, like diabetes and heart disease. In fact, stress may reduce our lifespan by nearly 3 years. For example, stress may lower our immune response and make us more vulnerable to disease. Most research on the relationship between stress and longevity is correlative, meaning that the studies only suggest a relationship in the statistics, without confirming an underlying cause. Still, it’s a simple fact that living a stress-free life improves our quality of life, regardless of its effect on overall health.

Good Sleep

How well we sleep is becoming an increasingly significant factor of our longevity and overall health. In fact, insufficient sleep is linked with many age-related diseases, like cardiovascular disease, stroke, and diabetes. The effect that our sleep has on our stress levels is also clear: less sleep equals more stress. That’s not to mention Daylight Saving Time and our health. It’s easy to forget that sleep is the time our bodies need to repair, maintain, and support our healthy function. Missing out on sleep is becoming more and more like missing out on a doctor’s appointment.

Routine Screenings

Speaking of doctor’s appointments…those are critical to our healthspan and our lifespan! We have to regularly check in with our healthcare providers to ensure there are no underlying signs of disease or other age-related conditions. This is just as important for someone in their 30s as it is for someone in their 70s. It may be difficult to appreciate how valuable not having a disease is until symptoms appear. But routine screenings help to detect disease before it develops, so treatment options become much more successful.

The groundwork lies in leading a wholesome lifestyle characterized by regular physical activity, a nutrient-rich diet, stress management, and plenty of good sleep. Routine medical screenings can also act as an essential preventative measure, catching potential health complications in their early stages before they progress.

All of these are just as important as the next. Most are simple steps we can take at home, and for the factors that aren’t in our direct control, we have dedicated healthcare experts to help.

How Do Genetics Affect Lifespan and Healthspan?

Though our genetics do influence our longevity, it’s key to remember that our day-to-day behaviors and choices have the most significant impact. In fact, recent research suggests that our genetics only affect about 10% of our longevity.

Just take exercise, diet, and sleep for example. These are factors that are entirely within our control, and though genetics may help improve any of them, the choice to start any of these healthy strategies is left to us.

By choosing to invest time in physical fitness, we can boost our cardiovascular health and overall physical strength. Consuming a diet full of fresh fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and whole grains can support our body’s essential functions, assist in maintaining a healthy weight, and even aid in preventing chronic diseases. Prioritizing a good night’s sleep every night can also optimize our body’s ability to repair and rejuvenate itself, enhancing our mental clarity and emotional resilience.

Stress management is another aspect of our health that’s not entirely controlled by our genetics. That’s why it’s important to find stress management techniques that work for you — whether it’s through mindfulness practices, spending time in nature, or engaging in activities you enjoy.

But overall, if our lifespan and healthspan were mostly controlled by genetics, the role of healthcare providers would be much less important in our lives. The simple fact that we can detect disease early and even potentially prevent them before they develop is evidence that our longevity is largely within our control.

Extending both lifespan and healthspan is within our reach. It’s just a matter of consistently making mindful, health-conscious choices. After all, the journey to a longer, healthier life is a marathon, not a sprint.

Modern Lifespan and Healthspan Research

Longevity research has been steadily pushing forward for many years, improving our understanding of lifespan vs healthspan. Since the 1960s, our collective healthspan has actively been increasing.

In fact, the first time the average human healthspan decreased in recent years was as a result of the COVID pandemic. Outside of such rare events, our healthspan is set to continually improve on average over the coming years.

Recently, new longevity treatments like Rapamycin have also been introduced as a way to extend our healthy years. Studies have already confirmed that Rapamycin has extended the lifespan of every organism it’s been tested on so far, including years, fruit flies, mice, and horses. The results of these studies suggest that Rapamycin could also extend our healthspan by improving gut microbiome, cardiac function, infection rate, and immune response.

Human trials into Rapamycin are already well underway, and researchers hope for an equally impressive result on the healthspan and lifespan of humans.

The Future of Lifespan and Healthspan Research

Now that healthspan has become a primary focus of longevity research, our average healthspan is set to improve rapidly over the coming decades. If our average lifespan continues to improve in tandem with our healthspan, many of us could soon be enjoying optimal health into our twilight years.

The United Nations recently declared that 2021-2030 will be the “decade of healthy aging.” This suggests that countries around the world are set to invest more not just in healthcare, but into longevity and aging research.

As researchers delve into the intricate genetic patterns that influence aging, we’re one step closer to comprehending how our genetics affect aging, bridging the gap between what we can control and what we once thought we couldn’t control about the way we age. This could potentially lead to genetic interventions that might extend both lifespan and healthspan.

While geneticists continue their research, scientists at the Interventions Testing Program (ITP) are also continuing to test the best possible combinations of medications to improve the number of years we live in good health. The ITP has found nine medications to “significantly increase median lifespan,” including Rapamycin. Most recently, they’ve found that a combination of Rapamycin and Acarbose can not only increase lifespan, but also improve many factors that influence our healthspan as well.

In the realm of biotechnology, breakthroughs such as regenerative medicine and tissue engineering hold the potential to replace or repair damaged cells, tissues, or organs. This paves the way for improved management of diseases that come with aging, which could extend both lifespan and healthspan.

Overall, the future of lifespan and healthspan research appears immensely promising. It stands at the precipice of groundbreaking discoveries that could redefine our understanding of longevity, bringing us closer to a future where we can lead longer lives in good health.

While we currently have tools to enhance our lifespan and healthspan, the future holds the potential for more advanced and effective strategies, pushing the boundaries of our current understanding of aging and health.