While it is unlikely that everyone will agree on a single definition, a common definition is that health expectancy is the period of life spent in good health, free from the chronic diseases and disabilities of aging. Modern medicine has increased life expectancy: in the last 100 years, global life expectancy has more than doubled. However, this has not necessarily been accompanied by an equivalent increase in healthy life expectancy. People are living longer, but many of those years are plagued by chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and even cancer.
This is where it's important to understand the difference between life expectancy and health. Life expectancy is the total number of years we live, while health expectancy is how many of those years we remain healthy and free of disease. These health problems are expensive to treat and often require long-term care. But what if there was a way to help us prolong our health expectancy, delaying age-related health problems, repairing damaged organs, and improving our quality of life? Regardless of age, your primary care provider is your best resource to provide you with the resources and tools you need to get your health on track.
Staying up to date with vaccines is essential to the health of each individual, their families and the community. The panelists concluded with a discussion of other factors related to healthy aging, such as exercise, diet, sleep and meaningful relationships, which included questions from the audience. He said he is continuing to work to improve public awareness of delirium and other conditions and to create health care systems that improve cognitive health. While younger people could benefit more in the long term if they focused more on therapies that moderate the duration of health, older adults may be the first to see benefits.
Alzheimer's disease is not a preventable condition; however, evidence suggests that eating a healthy diet and exercising your mind and body may help reduce the risk of developing the disease. It may seem like common sense, but maintaining a healthy and balanced diet with moderate and regular exercise and without smoking or drinking alcohol is the surest way to promote health and limit the onset of most diseases. Lifestyle changes, such as stopping smoking, increasing activity, proper nutrition, losing weight, and getting enough sleep, help maintain health. Fatty acids, energy “coins” such as glucose and oxygen, and antioxidants such as NAD+ have been shown to influence the health of various tissues and their stem cells in many different species.
