Why is Longevity so Fundamental and Critical to the Existing Medical System?

Once again curiosity drove me back to the 30th annual convention of longevity which I have been attending consistently for the past decade. Longevity scientists, researchers, and many clinicians across the world reunited, bringing emerging science and a new way to understand human health.

Insights from the Longevity Convention

I had the opportunity to hear from luminaries in various fields pertaining to longevity and quality of life. It was an educational experience from presentations about stress resilience, neuro inflammation, immuno regeneration, and understanding cellular senescence and cellular stress responses.

While I continue to meet educational and professional needs and increase knowledge, competence and practice performance in patient care with evidence-based content, it enhanced my clinical horizons as a healthcare provider and brought better insights into the signs of longevity.

Aging: A Malleable Process Challenging the Paradigm

Over the last 10-15 years, there has been an incredible understanding of the aging process. This has led to the identification of mechanisms and potential medication targets. Today we have over 10 pharmaceutical medications which are known to increase lifespan, and perhaps even healthspan in a variety of animals studies.

Living better [healthspan] and living longer [lifespan] with this new concept and approach of extending life, challenges the conventional medical paradigm on aging. Aging and longevity are “far more malleable” than we think.

Humans have long been fascinated by the aging process and find answers for many questions. So why do we age? Or why does aging happen? What do we really know about you managing your age and health? How to age well? How to age better? Why do we not have to age? These are the questions that spark an interest and conversation amongst the scientific community and all of us.

The Need to Treat Aging as an Actionable Target

Aging is a programmed biomedical/biological cellular process and now we have actionable information and results that are showing life extension, healthspan expansion. Given this fact, aging is still not considered a disease by the current healthcare system. Our current healthcare system has largely invested into a disease management system. Aging is being neglected by the healthcare system, not considered as a disease, and also being accepted by all of us as inevitable. Promoting health, as opposed to marketing disease should be the goal we desire.

The increasing life expectancy has been a tremendous achievement. First, we broke the cycle of infectious diseases, then we had improved sanitation, and then we learned about behavioral factors like smoking and higher education.

Focus on Function Across the Lifespan

Improving health span happens by improving human function, which leads to fitness and better performance both physically and cognitively. Fitness is our responsibility and is the best doorway to health.

Humans have long been fascinated by the aging process and complexity to find answers for many questions surrounding the aging process and chronic illness. We have made enormous strides in our ability to address many of the hallmarks of aging. We are at a turning point in the medical history and are beginning to understand how to control our biology, and how to optimize our bodies during:

• EARLY LIFE
• MIDLIFE
• AND CERTAINLY LATE LIFE, extending and expanding lifespan and healthspan.

A common misconception is that aging happens when we are old. Aging happens over your entire life span even before birth. It does not happen when we are old. In fact, when we are young, we age faster than when we are older.

We can improve our health and our long-term survival at any age to improve our chances of being healthy at any age: function optimally, feel good, as well as look good.

In these incredible times, particularly the beginning of the new year, it is our wish and desire to bring in emerging science and changing paradigm.

2023 and beyond, KMI Community Desires Longevity and Healthspan