Health is an arbitrary thing. We can't really quantify what health is. What we do know is that it's important and we do know what it's like when you're not healthy. There certain things that need to be addressed in order to be healthy and remain there.
The goal of this post is to give you the information to understand how to set your health foundation and give you actionable steps to implement.
Healthspan & Lifespan
The medical community does an incredible job increasing your lifespan, but were not doing a great job at increasing healthspan. Say the average lifespan of a human is 87 we are doing a poor job at healthspan because the average person is living with a chronic health issue by the age of 41.
In order to increase your healthspan you want to pay attention to the following:
Inflammation
Oxidative Stress
Mitochondrial Health
A Decrease in Autophagy
Inflammation - the silent killer
To put simply, when inflammation is controlled, it helps to maintain your body. When uncontrolled, it degrades your body.
How can you stop it?
Limit the unneeded stressors in your everyday like, excess alcohol, sugars, high inflammatory foods.
How can you help your body with inflammation?
Fuel up with anit-inflammatory nutrients ike EFAs, Turmeric, Frankincense oil, anti-inflammatory foods, etc.
Oxidative Stress
Oxidative stress is an imbalance of free radicals and antioxidants in the body, which can lead to cell and tissue damage. Oxidative stress occurs naturally and plays a role in the aging process. Oxygen gives life and speeds up degeneration. My favorite anti-oxidant therapy is molecular hydrogen.
How can you help your body with oxidative stress?
I use Quicksilver Scientific’s H Elite tablets, all you have to do is drop 1-2 tablets in clean filtered water
Mitochondrial Health
Your mitochondria are the little energy factories inside your cells and you want them running at optimum. How do we keep them going?
Pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ) is coenzyme that is purported to help with mitochondria function, for instance, mitochondrial biogenesis. Recent studies suggest PQQ does this by activating genes that oversee mitochondrial protection, reproduction, and repair. PPQ is found in soil, foods such as kiwi and human breast milk.
Anti-inflammatory, nutrient dense nutrition plan
Good fats also help to maintain function
Regular movement high intensity exercise
Reduce stress and improve sleeping habits
There are many more but the above are good place to start
Autophagy
Simply put, autophagy is getting rid of weaker cells and replacing them with stronger more viable cells. If your body accumulates too many weak cells, your body can't handle the rigors of life. Autophagy has the potential to:
Reduce inflammation and protect against inflammatory diseases
Lower risk of neurodegenerative disease like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease
Here is a great way to increase autophagy in your body:
Intermittent fasting
Research suggests that autophagy and fasting go hand in hand, as you can ramp up the autophagic process by limiting your eating window
HIIT
All movement is good movement. It’s about getting in that short-term, acute stress, because autophagy loves the stress of interval training.
Eat a low-carb high fat diet
Consuming fat activates autophagy. Fat needs to be the dominant macronutrient here because it’s different from protein. Whereas protein can turn into a carb and become a sugar, fat cannot
Restorative sleep
Autophagy follows circadian rhythms, and sleep fragmentation—or short interruptions of sleep—seems to disrupt autophagy
Okay, now that you have more information on on healthspan vs. lifespan, this should get you thinking about the quality of your health. I make sure with each client I work with that we focus on improving their healthspan, whatever it may be for them. Everyone is different and requires different a different focus.
If you are interested in improving your healthspan, get in touch today!