What is Healthspan? 5 Areas to focus on, to improve it.
If you were to ask someone what their biggest long term health concern was, more than likely they would mention the obvious challenge of living longer by delaying the aging process.
For decades, scientists have studied lifespan to determine the impact of factors that dictate how humans age. More recently, however, medical researchers have shifted their focus to healthspan. According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), healthspan can be generally defined as the period of life spent in good health, free from chronic diseases and the disabilities of aging. According to Alan Cohen, associate professor at the Butler Columbia Aging Center at Columbia University, lifespan and healthspan will always overlap in some way, but there is a major difference between the two. Lifespan is “the amount of time that passes between when you’re born and when you die, while healthspan is basically how long you’re living in good health.” However, you need to define what is meant by good health because being “healthy” means different things to different people. Cohen notes that “living a long life with conditions like severe dementia or chronic pain indicates that your lifespan is lengthy, but your healthspan has ended. Most people want to increase their lifespan as much as they can, but if quality of life is important to you in your final days, healthspan is what you’d want to lengthen.”
According to the NIH, in most areas of the world women comprise the majority of older persons (especially at the most advanced ages), but the additional longevity (almost five years) women have often comes with poorer health status compared to similar aged men. Basically, women tend to die of the same basic things that men do, but they die at later ages. Women are more prone to arthritis, which causes disability. Everyone loses muscle mass with age, and women start out with weaker muscles and a higher percentage of body fat. Women are also more prone to osteoporosis after menopause, and that puts them at risk for broken hips. To make matters worse, there aren’t enough experts in women’s metabolic health.
However, there has been more recent research conducted on improving health and increasing healthspan in advanced age. Dr. David A. Sinclair, for example, is a professor in the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, and is best known for his work on understanding why we age and how to slow its effects. Also Dr. Andrew Huberman, a neuroscientist and professor of neurobiology at Stanford School of Medicine, has made significant contributions to the fields of brain development, brain function and neural plasticity, which is the ability of our nervous system to rewire and learn new behaviors, skills and cognitive functioning. As more research continues to be conducted on the biological differences in aging of men and women, there will hopefully be a marked increase in the human healthspan.
Now that we have established that there are differences in aging, let’s look at the factors you can affect in midlife, to positively impact healthspan in the future.
Remember that lifestyle changes are a natural way of how our life progresses and making the necessary ones at 40, means they will be well established habits later in life. We’re here to help you.
Focus One: Stay nimbleEngage in resistance training that challenges you and maintains your muscle mass for a good base metabolic rate. But don’t forget to engage in mobility like dynamic stretching or yoga to allow the muscles to re-lengthen after they were shortened in workouts. Mobility also means maintaining a great range of motion and moving with your joints, optimally.
Focus Two: Find balanceEstablishing emotional balance in midlife and beyond, will make you more resilient to external circumstances and allow you to act more than react when life throws you curveballs. There is an intricate relationship between cortisol (a stress hormone) and progresterone, which declines in perimenopause. It is now up to you, to apply techniques like ‘non sleep deep rest’, meditation, breathwork or even cold immersion, to support your parasympathetic nervous system.
Focus Three: Eat well and not too muchPrioritize whole foods, protein and fermented foods. Our risk for type 2 diabetes is elevated in midlife and you can do your part of keeping your blood glucose spikes lower, by minimizing your intake of processed sugar and instead reaching for whole fruit. Adding more sources of protein, ensures support for your muscles and maintenance of lean muscle mass when there is hormonal induced tissue protein breakdown. Fermented foods contribute to a healthy gut microbiome which is closely linked to less severe symptoms of peri/menopause.
Focus Four: Hydrate with the right beveragesAlcohol should take a backseat or be reserved for special occasions because it has so many negative effects on your symptoms and overall health. Delaying coffee in the morning and prioritizing water and other beverages like tea or matcha, can give cortisol the chance to ebb off before you add caffeine, making you less jittery. Water, seltzer water, mineral water and good sugar free electrolyte drinks, are essential for your appearance, digestion and metabolism to function well.
Focus Five: Love fiercely but set boundariesAs you age, you give fewer f*cks and that’s good. Your 20-year-old self may have feared setting boundaries more than you do now. Embrace this power and stand in it. Your relationships become more sacred and those that stand the test of time need nurturing, because they are your support system through this sometimes strange, upsetting, confusing and empowering transition.
We surveyed 100 women on their big hopes and fears for perimenopause and menopause. The biggest and most consistent fears were around becoming invisible, undesired, unappealing, not beautiful or old and fragile. However, many realized the incredible opportunity this transition possesses and are ready to embrace it.
Here are some of our favorite quotes:
Stay healthy, fit, sharp and agile with a positive can do mindset
My goal is for society to normalize and celebrate this period of life.
I'm aware that in many ways each day is "as good as it gets" - things I do now may sooner or later be beyond my abilities.
Goals: get even healthier, stronger, more self aware and happier
Security in mental and emotional well-being makes a woman beautiful
Happiness, laughter, being able to express my emotions openly and clearly. Taking time for me each day, however that may look and the look changes as I change.