How to Get Your Partner Involved in a Healthy Lifestyle Change
This is the first article in a new healthspan series. Stay tuned for more detailed advice on how to improve or maintain quality of life as you age, even when you’re chronically ill right now.
“And they lived happily and healthily ever after…” That sounds like a fairytale, but as someone living with a heart condition, MS or inflammatory bowel disease, you know living a long, fulfilling life is not that simple.
With an aging population and cases of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s rapidly rising, new research about how to live longer in good health seems to make headlines every month right now.
Sadly, the statistics on aging well are pretty sobering. Across the world, our life expectancy has steadily increased over the past 200 years thanks to better hygiene and medical advancements. But during the last decade of our lives, many people struggle with serious health problems and require assistance with daily living.
In other words, we live longer, but those extra years are often defined by poorer health. There’s a gap between our life span and our healthspan that influences our quality of life when we get older.
No matter how fit you are now, everyone’s physical and mental health gradually declines as you age. You don’t see and hear as well as you used to, your skin loses its elasticity (hello wrinkles) and your metabolism slows down, possibly leading to weight gain.
But that’s not all: both your muscle mass and bone density start to decrease, which may affect your daily functioning and mobility. What’s more, your immune system becomes less powerful, making you more prone to both infections and chronic diseases, while your heart also has to work harder to pump blood around as your blood vessels and arteries become stiffer.
Now these facts aren’t fun to hear when you’re a healthy adult, let alone when you’re currently chronically ill, with no certainty that you’ll ever by fully well again. You already know what it’s like to live with pain, fatigue and cognitive problems, and to depend on others for your basic needs, and it isn’t fun. More so, when your current baseline isn’t great, a further decline in fitness level, daily functioning and overall health is not really something to look forward to.
With all that in mind, should you be supporting your healthspan, even if you are sick right now?
Let’s take a closer look at the science of healthspan – without too much fear mongering – and why it still matters to chronically ill people.
This article contains some affiliate links to resources you may find useful, at no extra costs to you. All opinions are my own.
What exactly does ‘healthspan’ mean?
Whereas lifespan refers to how many years you end up living, healthspan describes the period of time during which you’re in reasonably good health. Healthspan is not as easy to measure as life expectancy: your health fluctuates over time, plus everyone has a different view on what it means to be in “reasonably good health”. But it is a valuable medical concept to focus on the quality of life instead of just on the length of it.
It might sound strange to talk about healthspan when you’re dealing with chronic illness at the moment, but hear me out.
Firstly, to me, improving your healthspan does not necessarily mean that you’re completely free of illness. Since we’re talking about quality of life, aspects like getting or maintaining restful sleep, a little more energy, improved range of motion, a good mood, a calm but alert mind as you age all contribute to your overall wellbeing.
Second of all, because all kinds of physical and cognitive markers like muscle mass, bone density, immunity and cardiovascular health gradually decline in all of us – health or chronically ill – boosting your healthspan could help prevent worsening of your symptoms over time. As a result, it’ll become easier to keep a sense of independence in daily living as you get older.
Obviously, there are no guarantees in life: Sometimes you do everything ‘right’ health wise and your overall fitness and functioning still deteriorates. But personally, I always find hope in striving, and it feels easier to accept a tough situation when I’ve done all that was in my control.
Finally, focusing on your healthspan even though you’re sick right now may stop common comorbidities like hypertension, respiratory problems, metabolic disorders, anemia, cognitive impairment and depression from happening.
More importantly, according to dr. Peter Attia, author of Outlive, any improvement in health span will likely also have a positive impact on your lifespan, as that probably lowers your chances of developing the four biggest killers in Western societies, namely cardiovascular disease, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases like dementia and type 2 diabetes.
Now I hate fear-inducing health messages, especially when you already find yourself in a difficult starting position, with more limited options to improve your health than healthy adults. That’s why I prefer to look at what you can still do, given your circumstances.
So now that you understand the ‘why’, in next week’s article we’ll dive into how you can boost your healthspan, even when you’re living with chronic illness now. Not with the goal to live in perfect health until you’re a 100 years old, but support your daily functioning and quality of life, now and into the future.
How do you feel about trying to boost your healthspan despite being sick at this time?
Stay tuned for more articles in this healthspan series, take a look at why it’s still worth it to try to get 1% better and see which lessons I’ve learned from working on my recovery from chronic illness.
