Healthier aging

Turn on your TV, open a newspaper or women’s magazine and you’ll be bombarded with advertisements for anti-aging products. While a miracle cream may deal with a wrinkle or two, healthier aging is not just about the surface.

RATHER it’s about a combination of factors that can increase the healthspan – that period of life before the trials and tribulations of old age catch up with us. We look at the latest research and statistics to see how holistic therapists can help their clients enjoy a longer healthspan…

Aside from a blip caused by the pandemic, there has long been a trend towards more people living for longer. Almost a quarter of the UK population is aged sixty or over, with 3.2 million over eighties and 600,000 over 90. Fast-forward to 2041 and official forecasts suggest that there will be 3 million people aged 85 or over.

As we age, we become more susceptible to disease and wear and tear, yet many people are remaining healthy and active for longer than ever before. Figures for England show that a sixty five year old man can expect to live, on average, a further 8.9 years in good health, before the problems associated with old age, such as frailty, disease or dementia kick in. For a sixty five year old woman, the average healthspan is 9.8 years – just under half their average remaining lifespan. Unfortunately, the pandemic and its associated social and health problems, combined with economic hardships mean that the average healthspan has started to decline. Around 4 in 10 people aged 65 and over have a limiting long-term illness or disability, and it is estimated that this will rise to over 6 million older people by 2030.

Current research

It’s tempting to think that healthspan may be entirely down to genetics, but this is not the case. Rather a combination of factors – everything from where you live, your socioeconomic status, whether you live alone, smoke or drink, your education level, nutrition, mental outlook and physical activity – all influence how long an individual’s healthspan is likely to be. Unlike genetics, many of these factors can be modified and holistic therapies have a role to play in facilitating changes in support of a longer healthspan.

Previous research has shown that low physical activity and greater time spent sitting are associated with a higher risk of death and hence a curtailed healthspan. University of California researchers recently reported that higher levels of light physical activity and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity were associated with lower risk of death. Higher sedentary time was associated with higher risk of mortality. These associations were consistent among women who had different levels of genetic predisposition for longevity. This demonstrates that lifespan can be extended by engaging in positive lifestyle behaviours such as regular exercise and sitting

less. Ref: 10.1123/japa.2022-0067

Similarly, the American Academy of Neurology has concluded that education, job, and social life may help protect from cognitive decline. They found that factors such as taking part in clubs, religious groups, sports or artistic activities, along with educational attainment by age 26, occupation and reading ability, may affect the brain’s cognitive reserve. The study suggests that continuing to learn over a lifetime may help protect the brain, which is true even for people who have lower scores on cognitive tests in childhood. Previous studies have shown that people with low scores in childhood are more likely to have a steeper cognitive decline in old age than people with high scores. Ref: 10.1212/

WNL.0000000000200928. Other studies such as have shown that meditation, Kirtan Kriya and spiritual wellbeing also help preserve cognitive function in aging. Ref: 10.3233/JAD-

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An important piece of research from Japan shows that taking ownership of your health by making healthy lifestyle choices relating to diet, exercise, alcohol intake, smoking status, sleep duration, and weight management result in a longer lifespan. The researchers found that adopting five or more healthy lifestyle behaviours increased life expectancy even for individuals over 80 years of age and, importantly, including those with chronic conditions. The lifetime gains were highest for reducing alcohol intake, not smoking, losing weight, and increasing sleep, adding up to 6 years of life for healthy 40-year-olds. Ref:

10.1093/ageing/afac080

Previous research has shown that low physical activity and greater time spent sitting are associated with a higher risk of death and hence a curtailed healthspan.

Another issue as we age is the loss of muscle mass, but research from the University of Basel suggests that a combination therapy could delay the onset of sarcopenia, which often puts an end to an autonomous lifestyle for many elderly people, who must then rely on family or the healthcare system for daily support. By the age of 80, we have lost about a third of our muscle mass, but experiments in mice suggest that both calorie restriction and the drug rapamycin have a positive effect on

aging skeletal muscle. Ref: 10.1038/s41467-02229714-6

How can holistic therapists help improve healthspan?

The NHS spends remarkably little of its budget on measures and programmes designed to improve health and wellbeing. Only around 4% of the UK health budget is spent on preventions designed to reduce preventable ill health. Even these paltry amounts are being reduced as funds are switched to short-term solutions. This represents a huge opportunity for many forms of holistic therapy as there are modalities available which can tackle many of the underlying behaviours and health choices that shorten healthspan.

Healthspan improvement may be best tackled with a co-ordinated approach. A combination of exercise programs designed to improve strength and suppleness, yoga, mindfulness and meditation, nutritional and supplementation plans, talking therapies or hypnotism to reduce stress and reliance on tobacco, alcohol or eating badly, group sessions to encourage an increase in social interaction and generate a feeling of purpose and belonging, alongside treatments such as massage or bodywork to counter chronic pain and relaxation treatments could be packaged as a mid-life to later life healthspan overhaul. This would work best in a spa as an intensive holiday programme or in a holistic centre as a series of weekly sessions.

That said, many people are not in a position, or of a disposition, to tackle every poor health behaviour in one go, so there are plenty of opportunities for single-modality specialists or those who offer a combination of treatments to specialise in helping with any of the underlying factors affecting healthspan. How this is implemented will depend on understanding the needs of this client group and what will appeal to them. n