Lifespan or health span?

I am in my fifties, so my parents and their friends are all around their eighties. It is interesting to see how different people age. Some are well in their 80’s and still physically fully active. Others are younger and in a wheelchair. Some are on limited medications and have hardly to no difficulties, others have had several strokes and are on lots of medications. Some have passed away way too early.

‘It is genetic!’, one says
‘It is normal’, the other says.
‘It’s the way of life’, is generally agreed.

Well no, and no it isn’t. And to explain this I bring in Peter Attia. (click to find out who he is).

He wrote this book called ‘Outlive’, (also available in Dutch) which has changed my life and that of many others. His starting point is an interesting one. In the past, most people died a sudden death : either an accident or an infection. Nowadays most people die a ‘slow death’. Their health deteriorates in such a way that the last decade of their lives the quality of living diminishes to almost zero. Either heart and vascular diseases, Alzheimer, cancer and diabetes (the Big 4), sneak into the lives of the majority of people, and then slowly kill them.

Do you want to grow old?
It depends! You probably say.

There is life span (the time you are alive) and health span (the time that you are not just alive but in great health). Knowing this, we can easily say that we don’t just want a long lifespan; we want a long health span : we want to grow old while still being able to do the things we love doing now, without being limited by bad health!

Sounds good, you might say, but then why isn’t that happening today?

Here Attia brings in what he calls medicine 3.0, which complements the current medical system that he calls 2.0.

Medicine 2.0 (medicine as we know it), is known for its treating of existing illnesses and diseases. You get ill, the doctor gives you a pill, performs surgery, prescribes therapy etc… and you get either better or you -at least- remain stable. Year by year the pharmacy industry develops better medicine and treatments, and as such more sick people can be treated.

There is no denying that medicine 2.0 has increased our lifespan significantly.

What most 2.0 doctors don’t do though, is tackle the causes of the illness or ailment. Look for the why, look at early signals in order to prevent the 4 mayor diseases from happening. They get into action once it is too late : when you already have diabetes, when you have cancer, when you have had a heart attack, when your cholesterol is too high…

Medicine 3.0. on the other hand is focused on prevention, on living healthy, in such a way that the 4 big diseases that cause decrease in life quality and early death, do not sneak into our lives. Medicine 3.0 aims at improving your health span.

The big 4 are :
1. cardio and vascular disease
2. Alzheimer
3. cancer
4. diabetes

These illnesses don’t arrive in a flash. They start showing at least 10 to 20 years ahead of the official symptoms and are -according to Attia- all caused by metabolic dysfunction (insulin resistance). Thus all 4 can be avoided.

With just 4 different types of actions you can improve your health and remain healthy. Here they are!

Food : you are with you eat. The wrong food will cause metabolic dysfunction. (I will get into this in a separate post).
Work out : you only need 90 minutes a week of moderate intensity exercises to improve your metabolic dysfunction! (I will get into that in detail).
Manage stress : meditation, relaxation exercises (click to read my post on these 2 topics)
Sleep! (as always!) (click to read my post on that)

I am no doctor, nor am I a scientist, but I don’t have to be in order to know that this all makes sense! Are you triggered just like I was when I first heard this? Keep on reading my blog, watch this interview on YouTube or listen to the podcast