Before we deep dive into the nitty gritty of adding years to our life, we need to clarify the key difference between longevity and healthspan, and why I personally prefer the latter. Longevity is the amount of time your body has physically been on earth. Healthspan is the number of years in your lifetime that you have spent healthy, vital and active both mentally and physically. In the past few years, there has been a huge upswing in the science of longevity – more research, more money, more media. It’s no surprise big pharma has entered the longevity race to keep you alive with as many drugs pulsing through your veins for as long as possible.
But let’s get real, I haven’t met one person who wants to live for a century on this planet spending more than half that time in chronic pain, with one or more chronic diseases, taking a mound of drugs daily to manage all their symptoms plus the drug side effects, and spending their days in and out of a doctor’s office. Not one patient, not one family member or friend has ever said, “Sign me up for that!” My family may be weird in the cutest of ways, and the law of attraction is most definitely at play so if you believe I’m totally wrong and this sounds great to you then you can stop reading. It’s fine. I’m not your vibe. This is not the blog for you. Be well and “live long and prosper.” If you’re still reading because you now believe I’m a Star Trek fan, I am not. I’ve never watched a single episode, and I’ve exhausted my one and only reference.
Now that we have taken care of all the administrative business that must be checked off the list for a first blog post, we can get to what this blog is all about - healthspan. It’s mostly affordable. It’s mostly accessible. It’s very retro. Centenarians living in the Blue Zones (areas in the world where people live longer, healthier lives than average) have been doing it for generations. Side Note: If you haven’t watched the documentary, Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones, on Netflix, I highly recommend it. If you’re thinking this is way too good to be true, you would be right. There’s a catch to healthspan that turns most people away. It requires time, effort, consistency, discipline, and commitment in the six basic areas of foundational health – sleep, stress management, nutrition, exercise, connection, and purpose.
All six of these areas are critical to adding vital and active years to your life and this blog was created to discuss each of them often and in great detail; but there is one that rules over them all, so it makes sense that I discuss it first. It will sabotage all the hours of hard work you put into the other five areas, and it will wreak havoc on your entire body if it’s not addressed and managed properly. I don’t have to give you the details of a case study because I was the case study. In 2018, I was pregnant with our first daughter, finishing up my doctorate, starting a master’s degree in acupuncture and seeing patients full-time at the clinic on campus. In 2019, I was still maintaining that crazy schedule but now I had this beautiful baby that I rushed home to every night carrying the weight of mom guilt in my backpack, was pregnant with our second daughter and we had just bought a home for our growing family. Buying a fixer-upper looks like a great idea on those hour-long home improvement shows, but they aren’t that much fun in real life especially when you have a toddler and a new baby learning to walk in a construction zone. By 2021, I had a running list of symptoms ranging from annoying to life-threatening. I was getting panic attacks, heart palpitations, and dizziness. My moods were all over the place from silently crying in the shower to a rage usually directed at my unsuspecting husband. I was easily overwhelmed, and the brain chatter was relentless. I had tinnitus, insomnia, spartan level jaw clenching. I’m sparing you the gruesome details, but you get the idea, right? I was a mess. Things had to get better for myself and for my family and they had to get better quickly.
Chronic stress or being stuck in a constant state of flight-or-fight is known as a silent killer. One of the reasons is because the symptoms can be the same or similar in a many diagnoses like postpartum disorder or perimenopause or even a nutrient deficiency. I immediately jumped on the hormone dysfunction bandwagon due to my recent pregnancy. My first order of business was to reduce the post-baby weight that had not budged. That should have been a clue but as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle brilliantly wrote, "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact." Before I had kids, I was a runner that hated to run. For years, I ran regularly and consistently to keep my body in shape. I also did a high-intensity yoga class a couple times a week. I thought I would get back on that same workout schedule, restrict my calories and I’d be feeling like myself in about a month. Wrong! All the symptoms got significantly worse, and the scale didn't move. (Cue another panic attack) After I calmed down, my only option was to get curious about everything I was consuming both mentally and physically, who and what I was interacting with, how I was spending my time, what I was giving my energy to and how all of that individually was impacting my mental and physical health. I kept notes in a journal with an intention “Don’t do anything that makes it worse” written on the front page. If something felt right and it was a healthy behavior, I did more of it. If something felt terribly wrong even if my training told me it was healthy, I stopped doing it. I quit the master’s program. Running 4-5 days a week went to taking a walk outside every day. Having multiple cups of coffee as soon as I cracked opened my eyes went to drinking a glass of water, eating a protein-rich meal and then having one cup of coffee not five. Doom scrolling or binge-watching a show went to reading 37 books last year. I started therapy. I eliminated relationships that were not healthy. I eliminated the clutter in our house. I set boundaries, stopped people-pleasing and started making my health a priority. It has taken over two years and it hasn’t been a cakewalk; but I can confidently say most of the symptoms have either been eliminated or have noticeably diminished, and I am a far better mom and wife.
Dr. Mark Hyman, a popular functional medicine doctor, often quotes Dr. Herbert Benson who was a pioneer in mind-body research in western medicine. While we were making mixtapes and watching The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Dr. Benson was finding 95% of all illnesses at the time being caused or worsened by stress. New research has shown that staying in a constant state of fight-or-flight not only dramatically increases your chances of getting a chronic illness, it also accelerates the aging of our cells by shortening the length of telomeres. Telomeres are the little end caps at the end of your DNA strands that protect the DNA from unraveling (think of a shoestring). Shorter telomeres are one of the hallmarks of aging. If you are staying consistent and remaining committed to a healthy habit and you haven’t seen positive changes in the right direction, you need to take a serious look at how stress is impacting your life.
Even though many of my symptoms have been eliminated day-to-day, recovery is a long-term commitment. If I get in an argument with my husband or get worked up over the house being in a state of disaster, I’m out for a couple days with fatigue, muscle aches, headache and brain fog. Stress is something we all must deal with in one form or another but with positive changes and habits to manage it, science is showing we can undo or reverse the damage. Remember, it's not a one-size-fits-all solution. Experiment, take notes, and find what works best for you. If you are experiencing mental or physical symptoms related to chronic stress, please see a trusted medical professional. You can find additional information about symptoms of stress, stress management tips and more on our social.
References:
Calley Means: The Obesity Crisis, Ozempic, ADHD and Food Industry Lies - Dr. Mark Hyman (drhyman.com)
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