Wellness: Where Healthspan equals Lifespan

What is happening in healthcare today?

Let me start with an assertion: the inadequacy of clinical education is a consequence of the failure of health and medical education to adapt to two related transformations in the last 50 years that are central to good health care today.

The first transformation is: chronic disease is replacing acute disease as the dominant health problem. Chronic disease is now the principal cause of disability and the use of health care services, and consumes the majority of healthcare expenditure.

The second one is that chronic disease dramatically transforms the role of the patient.

Accelerated ageing will eventually present as chronic disease unless we take care of ourselves. Ageing is accelerated when tissue breakdown exceeds tissue repair.

So, how can we monitor the ageing process?

The established biomarkers are all measurable, objective and can be improved.  They include the following:

• muscle mass
• muscle strength
• basal metabolic rate
• body fat percentage
• aerobic capacity
• blood glucose and insulin levels
• total cholesterol/HDL ratio
• blood pressure
• bone density.

Vitality, Longevity and Healthy Ageing, or VLA for short, is a  program where various measurements are taken in order for muscle mass, fat mass, cellular health and biological age to be assessed.

It’s a fascinating insight into “how we are travelling” as we age, and allows us to watch the improvements or otherwise as we modify or change a number of lifestyle issues.

Simple things like exercise, adequate hydration and appropriate protein intake have significant effects on reducing the ageing process.

VLA is an empowering tool and I support this wholeheartedly.