When it comes to longevity, it's not just about how long you live—your lifespan—but how well you live—your healthspan. Adding years to your life is great, but adding life to your years is even better. The secret is hiding right in front of you in the choices you make today.
What's the Difference?
Lifespan counts the years; healthspan counts the quality. You could live to 90, but if the last 20 years are spent battling bone and joint pain from osteoarthritis, inflammation, and osteoporosis, are those really "good" years? You want your years spent in retirement to be enjoyable! Luckily, lifespan and healthspan are intertwined. The actions we take to improve our healthspan almost always improve our lifespan!
Food: Your Tasty Health Booster
What you eat shapes your health. Here’s how to make food work for you:
Choose Nutrient-Dense Foods: Fill your plate with a variety of vegetables, fruits, lean proteins, healthy fats, and whole grains. These foods not only provide essential vitamins and minerals, but can help fight inflammation and promote bone and joint health!
Go Natural: Cut back on refined sugars and processed foods, which can cause inflammation; this can damage your heart, brain, and other organs, as well as increase arthritis pain. Instead of reaching for a candy bar, try substituting a serving of fruit!
Prioritize Protein: Muscle loss increases with age, making protein intake important. To fight muscle loss, make sure to eat enough high-quality protein from sources like lean meats, fish, eggs, dairy, beans, and nuts.
Exercise: The Ultimate Longevity Prescription
Exercise isn’t just for fitness fanatics. It’s a prescription for longevity. Like any prescription, exercise works best if you stay consistent:
Build Strength: Building and maintaining muscle is critical for long-term health. Muscle supports metabolism, protects joints, and significantly reduces the risk of injury, disability, and frailty as you age. Using resistance bands and hand weights are great ways to start building muscle.
Boost Energy & Health: Cardio boosts your energy and keeps your heart, lungs, and bones strong. You don’t have to start by running a marathon! Walk around your kitchen table. Build up to a brisk walk around the block. Do what works for you!
Improve Balance: Balance plays a key role in fall prevention—one of the leading causes of injury-related deaths in older adults. Practice standing with your feet together or in a tandem stance (one foot in front of the other) for ten seconds in a safe environment to improve your balance.
Live Long. Live Healthy.
Living longer is great. Living healthy is better. By treating food and exercise as medicine, you’re not just adding years to your life—you’re making sure those years are full of energy, independence, and joy. That's the real goal of longevity.
