While more and more people are taking an interest in ageing and lifespan, there still is a lack of awareness about healthspan. If you don’t know what healthspan means you aren’t alone. So what is healthspan?
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The basic definition is that it refers to the part of a person’s life during which they are generally in good health. New research reflects a trend among medical experts to distinguish between lifespan, which is the period between birth and death, and healthspan, which is the period when a person or animal is fully healthy.
Healthspan refers to the part of a person’s life during which they are generally in good health.
First of all, it is important to establish what being healthy means. A clearer definition might mean being free from serious disease, especially one that is a leading cause of death.
Why do we care about healthspan? Because extending the healthy period of one’s life should be a priority. If one is past their healthspan, it means they are chronically sick, often with a degenerating condition. Therefore, most people would agree that staying within their healthspan is desirable.
Thanks to modern medicine and advances in public health, the world’s population isliving longer. The number of people aged over 80 will triple in the next 30 years, according to the projections by World Population Prospects 2019 from the United Nations’ Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA).
However, a long life doesn’t guarantee a healthy life. Our body gets weak and frail as we age, making us more susceptible to diseases. Scientists have been racing to investigate molecules that have anti-ageing potentials to help us live not only longer, but also healthier.
Thanks to modern medicine and advances in public health, the world’s population is living longer. However, a long life doesn’t guarantee a healthy life.
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So, what can we do about healthspan? Unlike average lifespan, we don’t have a statistic to mark the end of the average healthspan. While there are good biomarkers for a few of the serious diseases like heart disease, for example cholesterol levels, there aren’t good biomarkers for other leading causes of death, such as most cancers.
As such, healthspan is a topic relevant to all people around the world with huge social and economic consequences. It might seem like common sense, but maintaining a healthy balanced diet with moderate, regular exercise and without smoking and drinking alcohol is the surest way to promote one’s healthspan and limit the onset of most diseases.
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