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If you want to stay healthy and age well, you must take control! About 15 years ago I decided that I was going down swinging when it came to aging. I not only want to live longer but I want to live better. What good is reaching an advanced age if you are debilitated and cannot take advantage of all that life has to offer? We most commonly think about how long we will live, lifespan but I prefer to think about how long I can live well, “healthspan”.
Lifespan refers to the length of time an individual lives, typically measured from birth to death and it is easy to measure. It is a fundamental metric used to assess population health and demographic patterns. Lifespan can vary greatly across different countries, regions, and historical periods due to various factors, including genetics, gender, lifestyle, socio-economic conditions, and access to healthcare.
Healthspan, on the other hand, represents the period of life spent in good health, free from the burden of chronic diseases and disabilities. It focuses on the quality of life experienced by individuals during their years on Earth. Healthspan encompasses physical, mental, and emotional well-being, emphasizing the ability to perform daily activities, engage in social interactions, and maintain a high overall level of functioning. Healthspan is harder to measure than lifespan since “good health” is subjective, but I think that you can get the concept and would agree that living well longer is more important than just living long.
I turned 71 this year and I feel great. I am active in every aspect of life and feel that I’m living it to the fullest. When I look around me, I see people my age and some much younger who are much less fortunate. They are chronically ill and dealing with disabilities that could have been prevented. I cannot believe how many people just do not take care of themselves.
The other night while solo I went to my local favorite Italian restaurant in NY and next to me was a guy probably about 50 who was sitting further back to the bar from me because of his protuberant abdomen. My dinner came which was eggplant in marinara sauce-delicious. He said, “what’s that?”. I said eggplant parm, hold the cheese. He scoffed. His meal came which was a large bowl of spaghetti and meatballs covered in parmesan cheese. I’m also pretty sure that he hasn’t hit the gym in a while. As he was lapping up every bit an using the bread to soak up the sauce I felt like saying “Com’on man! You’re killing yourself” but I bit my tongue. If not already there he is headed for diabetes, heart disease, stroke and worse.
So many people in our society just don’t care and while medication and invasive procedures keep them alive longer (lifespan), their healthspan will be severely limited. The life style that they chose not only affects them but raises our country’s healthcare costs, all of our health insurance premiums and contributes to greenhouse gas emissions.
I attribute my good health in large part to the lifestyle that I’ve chosen to live. While genetics do play a significant role (maybe 20-30%), don’t underestimate the impact of smart decisions when it comes to how you live your life. We all may have heard about a guy who lived to 95 who smoked two packs of cigarettes a day and drank a bottle of whiskey every night but that is the exception. While one may get lucky, you can increase your chances of being lucky by the way you live.
I am a physician and as an Internist, I have cared for thousands of adults with all sorts of medical conditions. My recommendations in this book come from my expertise as a physician, evidence when it exists as well as my own personal experiences and opinions. It is very easy to identify the tactics necessary to improve your health but much harder to implement them. The good news is you can start at any age to improve your current state of well-being and your future health. In this book I am going to cut to the chase (hence “Quick Start Guide), and in about an hour or two of reading you will know what to do IF you wish to change your healthspan. I am not going to go into great detail on the some of the topics, rather will basically tell you what you need to do. You can search any topic if you are skeptical.
I estimate that 80% of debilitating illness can be eliminated merely through changing one’s lifestyle. We are unfortunately a society that focuses on immediate gratification and then relying on the treatment of diseases that could have been prevented in the first place had we been smarter about our choices in life. We view taking medications or having procedures as normal and a solution for all of our problems but many of these problems could be prevented through living a healthy lifestyle.
Common cancers, heart attack, stroke, diabetes, arthritis, vascular disease, and others can be largely prevented. Our food industry promotes an unhealthy lifestyle, constantly bombarding us with images of delicious, inexpensive unhealthy food. Our medical establishment relies on the pharmaceutical industry that promotes medications that help overcome the consequences giving us a false sense of security.
During the evening news, many of the commercials are for new, effective, and expensive medications for type II diabetes, a preventable disease largely caused by obesity. I am irritated to see a jolly, obese woman dancing and singing with glee because her hemoglobin A1C has been lowered by a very expensive drug that causes our health insurance premiums to be exorbitant and is breaking the back of Medicare/Medicaid and employers who fund health insurance plans. I would much rather see a commercial of someone celebrating a reduction in their hemoglobin A1C because they are now eating healthily, exercising, and losing weight but since no one makes money on that, we will not be seeing that commercial anytime soon. Don’t get me wrong; the pharmaceutical industry has produced miracle drugs that have benefited millions. I just wish that our emphasis was more on prevention and non-pharmacological treatment rather than drug therapy.
Wendell Berry said “People are fed by the food industry, which pays no attention to health, and are treated by the health industry, which pays no attention to food.” And I couldn’t agree more.
Here are the ways to improve your healthspan:
· Eat Healthily
· Exercise your body frequently
· Manage stress
· See a primary care physician regularly and take your prescribed medicine (you will need less if you live a healthy lifestyle) and follow prevention guidelines (Cancer screening, vaccinations, etc)
· Know your numbers!
· Exercise your mind as much as possible
· Don’t do stupid things (smoke, drugs, excessive alcohol, risk taking, etc)
There is nothing secret about any of this and the ways to improve one’s health are obvious. You don’t need a medical degree to know that these tactics work and what you need to do. How to live a healthy lifestyle is crystal clear but doing them isn’t easy. It takes determination, discipline, self-control, and most of all effort.
Living a healthy lifestyle is not a passive process. It requires that you take intentional action every day. It is much easier to not do the things that will improve your health. Making time to hit the gym or preparing healthy meals can be challenging given the all the other life’s pressures. Implementing tactics to maintain your good health will require a change in your priorities. The choices that you make literally every minute will determine your healthspan and quality of life.
Ideally, you should participate in all health improving initiatives all the time, but even if you slip up sometimes, you will benefit from just doing more than you are doing now. The more you do to improve your health and the more consistently you do them will determine the extent of the benefits that you will achieve. How much effort you put into improving your health depends upon how you value it.
There are other benefits from you choosing a healthier lifestyle that include positive impact on our environment and improving the financial health of our country. The population living an unhealthy lifestyle has a tremendous impact on greenhouse gas emissions and the out of control expenses for healthcare in this country. I will elaborate on these things in the book.
Keep in mind that it's not just about living longer, it’s about living better, healthier so you can enjoy your life.
Join me by living a healthy life!
Dr. Steve Sivak
Dr. Steve's Healthy Life
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