living longer, but not living better

Sep 17

People sometimes assume that since I work in the world of longevity medicine, my life must be a nonstop parade of expensive gadgets, rigid protocols, and $400 tests. That I wake up at 4:30 am, plunge into ice water, fast for a day and a half, and inject myself with the latest peptide before my morning celery juice.

I'll let you in on a secret. I have tried a lot of that (fasting, peptides, hydrotherapy, fancy testing, and more) … and I really find it fascinating. Some of it has a place, but it is not the center of my life, and it actually isn't what keeps me feeling vibrant.

Another assumption people make is that the rest of my day must be one long list of no's. No chips. No wine. No dessert. No fun. That restriction and avoidance are the only way to truly feel your best for decades to come.

I want to set that straight, because it is the opposite of how I actually live, and the opposite of what I want for you. If longevity meant giving up everything I love, I wouldn't want it either. It's not about deprivation. It's about having the health to enjoy more of what I love, for longer.

So let me tell you what I actually mean when I say the word longevity.

lifespan ≠ healthspan

Lifespan is how long you live. The number of years, start to finish. Healthspan is how long you live well. The years you feel strong, clear, energized, and capable, before decline sets in.

In the US, we have gotten pretty good at extending lifespan. A century ago, the average American lived to about 54. Today it is closer to 78. But here is the catch: a lot of that gain came from keeping babies and children alive, not from adults thriving deep into old age. Where we’re still really struggling is extending our healthspan. So a lot of people are now living longer, but they're spending those extra years unwell. Not so good, afterall.

So when I say longevity, I am talking about the quality of your years, not just the quantity of them. It’s about being able to get down on the floor to play with your grandkids and get back up again without a plan. Hiking, skiing, swimming, dancing in your 70s and beyond. It is about staying strong and mobile enough to do whatever it is you love, for as long as you possibly can. Longevity is also just as much about your mind. Staying sharp, quick, and clear. Being the person who is still telling the stories, not the one struggling to remember them. It’s about being fully present for your own life, all the way through.

Longevity is not a number on a lab report or a score on the latest wearable. It is a question: How many good years can you have, and how good can you make them?

sedentary & inflamed

You would think that in the most medically advanced moment in human history, we would have this figured out. We have more technology, more data, more gadgets, and more information than any generation before us.

And yet…

Look around and you will see a country on more prescriptions than ever, and somehow sicker despite all of them. We sit more than any humans who have ever lived. Our bodies were built to move, and when they don't, they stiffen, inflame, and break down. We have normalized a level of stagnation that our biology never evolved to handle.

the loneliness epidemic

This part is the saddest of all. In the most connected, hyper-technological age that has ever existed, with a device in every pocket linking us to the entire world, people are lonelier than ever. It has reached a scale we can only really call an epidemic. We are simultaneously more plugged in and more isolated.

Loneliness does real, measurable damage to the body. Research links being chronically socially disconnected to a mortality risk comparable to smoking up to 15 (!) cigarettes a day. The same body of research ties loneliness to higher rates of heart disease, stroke, dementia, depression, and early death, with an effect on longevity that outweighs even obesity and physical inactivity. Connection is one of the most powerful health interventions we have, and most of us are starving for it.