People are Living Longer, but Not Healthier
Plus: What is healthspan?
Welcome back to your weekly dose of wisdom and wellness, helping you make tomorrow a little better than today. Below you’ll find links to several in-depth, actionable stories by Wise & Well’s team of journalists, topical experts and practicing professionals. First, this week’s newsletter-only news brief and tidbits…
BIG WORDS: Healthy Life Expectancy
Healthy life expectancy (HALE) predicts how many years, on average, a current newborn can expect to live in full health free of disability due to physical or mental diseases or injury (though exactly how this is defined and measured varies) and based on other demographic factors known presently, including race and ethnicity and where they live. How long an individual actually stays in good health determines their own healthspan.
VITAL STAT: 12.4
The gap, in years, between how long people in the US live (lifespan) and how long they live a healthy existence (healthspan). It’s the largest gap among 183 countries analyzed in this new study:
BRIEFLY: Gap Grows Between Lifespan and Healthspan
Around the world, people are living longer than they were at the turn of the millennium, but while lifespans are increasing, those extra years are often not particularly healthy ones, a new study finds.
Between 2000 and 2019, lifespan globally increased from 79.2 to 80.7 years in women and from 74.1 to 76.3 years in men. Yet healthspan didn’t increase commensurately, the researchers found. The gap between the two widened by 13% to 9.6 years, globally and in the US. (By analyzing data through 2019, the researchers avoided confounding effects of the pandemic.)
“The data show that gains in longevity are not matched with equivalent advances in healthy longevity. Growing older often means more years of life burdened with disease,” said the study’s senior author, Andre Terzic, MD, a Mayo Clinic researcher. “This research has important practice and policy implications by bringing attention to a growing threat to the quality of longevity and the need to close the healthspan-lifespan gap.”
Improving healthspan requires more emphasis in healthcare systems on proactive wellness, rather than just treating illness, Terzic and his colleagues say.
That aligns with what many other experts say about both lifespan and healthspan. Despite hyped claims of extending human lives by decades or even centuries, many researchers say the significant increase in life expectancy achieved over the past century or so is leveling off and nearing a practical limit. But what we can do—at least in the aggregate—is expect to be healthier through most of our time on the planet. Problem is, achieving greater healthspan—particularly avoiding common chronic diseass like heart disease, dementia and many cancers—starts with basic lifestyle changes like moving more, eating healthier foods and dealing with modern stresses and anxiety so that we can sleep better — stuff that modern humans struggle mightily with, due both to lack of desire or energy and to systemic challenges.
To learn more about healthy living, check out Wise & Well’s topical sections covering everything from Aging & Longevity to Exercise and Fitness and Mental Health, plus how to deal with Stress and Anxiety.
THIS WEEK’S FEATURES
A selection of this week’s informative, entertaining and actionable stories by Wise & Well’s team of journalists, topical experts and practicing professionals.
13 Things ADHD is Not
Last week, John Kruse described what ADHD is. As a follow, this week he explains what the condition isn’t. For anyone who has ADHD, or thinks they might, or knows someone who does (or might) this article illuminates much by comparing the condition to wholly unrelated and tangential behaviors and diagnoses often mistaken for describing ADHD.
ADHD is not a deficit of attention. It’s not a moral failing… It’s not a lot of things people think it is … ADHD is not just a collection of symptoms on a checklist … ADHD is not autism … ADHD is not anxiety …
— John Kruse MD, PhD
How to Establish a Regular Sleep Schedule
Last week I wrote about about new research finding that inconsistent bedtimes are linked to poor health. As promised, here’s the follow-up, with a big basket of tactics to draw from to create a simple strategy that helps you fall asleep around the same time each night and get better quality sleep, cultivating better health, productivity and happiness.
Sleep is not an isolated act of unconsciousness, but part of the 24-hour cycle programmed by evolution into all the systems of the brain and body. Here’s the first thing you need to do every day to optimize your circadian rhythm: Get your butt out of bed.
—Robert Roy Britt
Redesigning the Chronic Pain Experience
Dialogue between doctor and patient regarding chronic pain often revolves around the zero-to-10 pain scale, which I’ve always found to be exceedingly arbitrary. Is my pain a 4 or an 8? Compared to what and whom? So I think it’s amazing that a 24-year-old came up with a better idea for the scale, one that actually describes her experience.
Although her redesign was merely part of a student project, Schweiger hopes she can someday use her experience and expertise to improve healthcare for people like her.
—Randall H. Duckett
Yes, You Can: The Power of a Growth Mindset
I’ve always leaned into learning and growing, changing careers many times and embracing the challenges of not knowing that the hell I was doing. New research proved to be a revelation to me, as it described my traits as being aligned with a “growth mindset,” a positive outlook which, mixed with passion and grit, drives success in business, sports, creative endeavors and even relationships. I mean, I’m still learning, of course!
A growth mindset leads to greater success in just about any realm, from sports to business, art and music, even relationships, says Hermundur Sigmundsson, PhD, a professor of psychology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and author of the book, How We Learn and Become Experts: Igniting the Spark.
—Robert Roy Britt
Finally this week, in case you wondered…
Adults Grow New Brain Cells. Now We Know What They Do.
Neuroscientists have long argued whether or not we continue to grow new neurons throughout most of our adult lives. A new study of volunteered brain tissue reveals that we do, and it answers questions around how we keep learning. This is raw science—nothing you need to do but enjoy reading about it—that could point the way to better cognition with aging.
I hope we’ve helped make your tomorrow a little better than today. Until next Friday, be wise and be well.
Cheers,
Rob