Longevity and health-span
I’ve been thinking loads about longevity as 2025 starts. Not just because I’m 53 years old, but because as a chiropractor, I feel like I have an important role in providing information that will help you not just increase your lifespan but also your health-span.
Enter the Lifespan vs Health-Span conversation.
This ‘health-span’ article outlines how the word is much more commonly used over the last few years as researchers look to define health-span and find a way to measure what a healthier existence means.
Generally speaking, as we age, our physical, brain, emotional health and disease-free state comprise a measure of how well we are ageing. This article hopefully gives you some useful information on the topic and real-time things to do to help us stay healthy as we age.
This is a collection of ideas and actions you can take to not just prolong your life, but to be as healthy as possible during this time. It should have something for everyone - be it as a young person who feels indestructible and probably isn’t thinking much about longevity, to the middle-aged, all the way to the more mature generation.
Why not start with some simple tests to predict how you will age? Chris Hemsworth’s (aka Thor) health coaching business has a great series of tests to predict how you will age - take those tests now and see how you do!
I’ve done these tests with my family and its a great laugh to see how we all get on - especially the hang test!
While researching the topic, I found myself listening to a pod by Dr Peter Attia on the subject, and here are a few quotes that rang true from the podcast transcript.
“(It reminds me of the) Greek god Tithonus and how he wished for immortality.
He was of course granted his wish, but because he had forgot to ask for eternal youth, he became this indefinitely suffering human being who continued to age in perpetuity while his body declined… anybody who thinks about it for long enough would realise that any desire to live longer has to be accompanied by a desire to preserve health-span. I believe that anybody who thinks they want to live to be 200, implicit within that, I hope, is the desire to function as someone who is much younger.”
“You could make a case that most of the benefits in lifespan, roughly I would say three-quarters of the benefits you can get towards a longer life, come solely from pursuing better health. I want to say that again because I think it is, for me at least, it's such a profound statement. If you never thought once about trying to live a longer life and focused relentlessly on how can I improve my strength, my endurance, my stamina, and again, all the nuance around these things, my balance, my coordination, my processing speed, my working memory, my emotional health, my happiness, my relationships, if you only focused on those things and never once thought about heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer's disease specifically, I still believe you would capture three quarters of the way towards optimising your lifespan.”
5 components to ‘increase your health-span’ toolkit are
nutrition
exercise
sleep
pharma
emotional health
Bonus no 6. pollution, radical temp exposure, accident avoidance
(From The Peter Attia Drive podcast: Longevity 101: a foundational guide to Peter's frameworks for longevity, and understanding CVD, cancer, neurodegenerative disease, nutrition, exercise, sleep, and more, 29 July, 2024.)
As a chiropractor, there are numerous links to how we can help you stay functioning at your best. From keeping your brain and body well connected without interference (very useful for balance, co-ordination, strength and flexibility, helping with functional age-related tests and fall avoidance in later life) to helping vagal nerve function, balancing the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems encouraging optimal health, sleep and stress management.
Let’s crack on with an outline of what you can do to improve your health-span using the following categories. I’ve listed some of my personal favourite ‘hacks’ or links to information to help you in all the following areas below…
physical health/exercise
posture
nutritional health
sleep
health technology
aggressive screening
emotional health
temperature exposure
accident avoidance
“Maybe people seeing this or hearing about my story - just by them asking their GP - will create enough of a surge of interest that people that make the decisions will go ‘you know what, we need to address this’. And in the long term this will save potentially millions of lives.”
Physical
The most important thing listed in this article is exercise. It stands well above all in terms of benefit you will get at improving your health span. Its a simple concept, find something you like and repeat often. Ideally, it should be made up of cardio and strength components. Have a read of the BHF article on what they recommend or just get out of breath for at least 30 mins each day and do some weight-bearing resistance or weight training.
You’re welcome to join me on my 365-day challenge of doing these kettlebell (or body weight if you don’t have access to weights) exercises.
1 set of 20 reps daily
Use a kettlebell weight that suits you: 4kg-20kg
Swings x 20
Lunge and twist x 20
Side bend x 20 (10 each side)
GTOH (ground to over head) x 20 (10 each side)
Core (10 sits-ups and 10 side-to-side twist)
Squats x 20
Push-ups (quick fire) x 20
Plus if you have access to a bar:
Chin-ups x 4 sets of as many reps as you can manage - the goal is to try and get to 10 in a row each set
There’s a wealth of information out there to help you exercise and get/keep the motivation to move each day. Have a look at the crew from Pliability for their movement screen, which details where you may have some hidden problems.
Posture
There is no doubt that poor posture is something that makes you look older beyond your years. We are in an age where the habits we have (mainly screen time) promote poor posture more than any other time in history. Have a play with the below ideas to help improve your posture:
Set limits on your screen time
Think of creative ways to decrease the negative effects of screen time on your posture (sit/stand at desk; lie on your stomach with phone in hands with bent elbows and neck in extension to reverse some of the negative effects of phone screen time)
Exercise in extension (dead lifts, kettle bell swings, superman on a swiss ball)
Get your spine regularly adjusted to avoid the stiffness that inherently builds up with poor posture practice
Have a listen to a 3 hour podcast debrief of posture by Doc Huberman and his Huberman Lab podcast.
Nutritional health
“Eat less”
The simple formula of making sure energy in is less than, or equal to energy out will help resolve much of the problems associated with the health of society today. Obesity and diabetes-related illness and premature death are major health problems affecting our society.
Blue Zones… I couldn’t very well write a piece on longevity without mentioning the Blue Zones of the world where certain areas have a larger proportion of people who live to 100. Have a read of some of the habits from these zones. I love the ‘we eat till we feel 80% full and stop, not wait till we feel 100% full.’
Inflammaging is great term I discovered which outlines how promoting a state of inflammation prematurely ages us and decreases our health-span. What is inflammaging? Read this Nature magazine article.
Also take a listen to my podcast about inflammation by myself and Simon Billings a chiropractic nutrition expert.
Sleep promotion
Sleep, or the lack of it, over the course of our life has a massive impact on our health-span. I get it that sometimes you just don’t have a choice. Young parents among us have no control over how much uninterrupted sleep you get, but the rest of us have no excuse.
How can I improve my Sleep Performance? I consulted with whoop the health tech device to give some ways to improve our sleep.
Here are concise tips to enhance your sleep:
Prioritise sleep time to ensure adequacy.
Darken your room with blackout curtains for optimal sleep quality.
Limit screen time 30 minutes before sleep to promote faster sleep onset.
Reduce caffeine intake, especially after lunch, and opt for warm milk or herbal tea.
Use your bed exclusively for sleep to train your body for quicker sleep initiation.
Avoid strenuous workouts before bedtime.
Refrain from alcohol at least 3 hours before sleeping to prevent disruptions in REM sleep.
Health tech devices
Whoop and the Aura ring are two great devices, but the Apple watch and Garmin-type devices are also improving quickly. These devices, along with the numerous simpler versions of pedometers about, act as great motivators for exercise but also a great analysis tool for tracking optimal sleep and health promoting behaviours. The Aura ring and Whoop track your HRV, which is a direct feedback of the health of your nervous system.
Have a listen to Dr Conor and I discuss in depth the Whoop that I’ve been mildly addicted to for around 5 years. I have found that chiropractic, along with avoiding alcohol, and sauna, to be three things that improve my recovery/nervous system health.
Aggressive screening
Some of you may be aware of Sir Chris Hoy, whose first symptom of stage 4 cancer (prostate primary that spread to his bones) was shoulder pain. This prompted me to get to my GP and stop putting off the screening blood tests the NHS offers to all to check your prostate but also bone, lipid, renal, liver profiles plus a full blood screen. Simple and thankfully all normal, plus I didn’t even need a GP appointment and was referred immediately!
Full body MRI screening is also another avenue worth exploring.
Emotional health
I’ve already referenced the Blue Zones above in nutrition, however half the benefits of life in the blue zones reference emotional health and community. Read more in this article.
Movement is naturally woven into each day
Have a sense of purpose
Prioritize stress relief
Eat mindfully
Eat a primarily plant-rich diet
Consume alcohol in moderation
Religious or spiritual belonging
Put loved ones first
Choose social circles that support healthy behaviors
Temperature exposure
There has been a huge increase in the popularity of temperature exposure - both hot and cold - in recent years. There is more information detailing the health benefits of such activities. I love the Finnish study, which outlines how you are less likely to die of cardiovascular disease if you sauna-ed 3 times a week for 19 minutes. This study followed nearly 3,000 males over many years.
Really nice blog piece about benefits of ice and heat from the Centr guys, Chris Hemsworth’s company.
Cold water immersion, the most in-depth review I’ve seen.
Accident avoidance
Accidents, or unintentional injuries leading to death in some countries is the 3rd leading cause of death, and a high proportion of this especially in the older population is linked to falls.
Towards the end of this podcast chat I had with Jake Cooke, a chiropractor with a special interest in neurology, he outlines how a regular visit to a chiropractor will in theory make you live longer, just simply by helping you avoid falls later in life. Have a listen to the end of the chat as we finish discussing this idea.
*Disclaimer: I am writing on a topic that goes well beyond my scope of practice and the advice will be weighted towards the physical and slightly less information about the nutritional or emotional health, however I’m sure you’ll find the information super useful.
Thanks,
Craig McLean
Chiropractor