Longevity is a real trend topic - not only in America, but increasingly in Europe too. However, while trends usually die down after a short time, Longevity is here to stay. And that's because it affects each of us - more than you would expect.
The term longevity originally comes from America and at the time was synonymous with a long life. Over the last few decades, the topic has found its way into science and research – at a rapid pace. Studies on supplements and dietary habits that have a positive impact on health and longevity are mushrooming. The knowledge surrounding the topic of longevity is growing rapidly. This development is so positive because trends are usually not evidence-based. Longevity already.
The big challenge in the molecular longevity jungle is that the groundbreaking results also find their way to the general public. Not least because of best-selling books like Lifespan by Dr. David Sinclair, or Outlive by Dr. Peter Attia this is already the case. While science often cannot manage the balancing act between experts and average consumers, Longevity is already in the middle of life.
The term from ancient Rome
The term Longevity is derived from Latin, like so many important words. In ancient Rome, clever minds combined the words longus, from the adjective long, and vita, from the noun life, into the new expression longaevitās. This meant an individual who lived for a long time. Longevity is defined accordingly as “long life” or “a long lifespan”. What is our current lifespan??
Life expectancy put to the test
Life expectancy has increased significantly over the last century. While a boy or girl who was born in Germany shortly before 1900 has an average life expectancy of just 40.6 or 44 years old, a baby today can expect to live almost twice as long.
According to the Federal Statistical Office, the current life expectancy of a newborn is 78.5 (men) or 83.4 years (women). In countries like Japan, this number is even higher. Nevertheless, with these numbers, Germany is in the top international field. This seems small compared to the Greenland variety, which can live for over 200 years, but the rapid increase in life expectancy in humans is outstanding.
It is above all indicative of the rapid progress in the areas of medicine and technology. In addition, changes in everyday life and the world of work have contributed to our life expectancy being turned upside down.
What initially appears to be a quantum leap still has a catch. The tunnel vision of curative medicine led to people always thinking about new ways to heal, but neglecting prevention and maintaining health. Illness, disability and frailty now dominate some of the newfound lifespan and have an immense impact on the quality of life.
Healthspan versus Lifespan
While the lifespan self-explanatory reflects the total number of years we live, healthspan how many years of our life we stay healthy, free and away from diseases. The global increase in life expectancy in the past was followed by a parallel increase in health span - but it was not able to keep up completely.
The gap between lifespan and healthspan is even scientifically recognized and, according to research, is estimated to be around 9 years. But that's not enough. The World Health Organization (WHO) predicts that a child born in Germany today will only spend 71 (70.89) of the 82 (81.72) years of life healthy. The sober realization: 11 years of loss of quality of life. This discrepancy declares war on Longevity.
Longevity – the revolution in health
In the past, immortality visionaries in research consistently strived to extend life to 150 years or more. But what good are additional years of life if they are characterized by illness?
“Longevity is only desirable if it prolongs being young, but does not prolong being old.“ – Alexis Carrel
The advocates of health promotion and maintenance adopted Alexis Carrel's principle and gradually pushed out the immortalists. The new resolution is to reach the same age but fitter, more vital, healthier and more self-determined. If that also leads to an extension of life, that's a nice side effect. These considerations shaped the terms healthspan and lifespan .
It is also important to know in this context that the influence of our genetic makeup on life expectancy is relatively small. According to scientific studies this accounts for a maximum of 20-30 percent . All the rest is determined by our behavior, attitude and environment. These affect our epigenetics . To put it simply, you can think of epigenetics like volume controls. Epigenetics can therefore make genes louder (the gene is read more strongly) or turned down (the gene is read less). To better understand all the molecular processes behind aging, scientists have defined the Hallmarks of Aging . These address the hallmarks of aging at the molecular and intercellular levels. There are now 12 of these Hallmarks.
Let's take a look at where the modern longevity concept has its origins.
Blue Zones – where Longevity is at home
Before Dan Buettner published the article “The Secrets of Long Life” in the journal National Geographic in 2005, the blue zones of our planet were mostly meaning the oceans. Today the Blue Zones are five longevity strongholds.
Buettner and his team went looking for places where there were not only an above-average number of centenarians (Centenerians) but also groups of people who had grown old without health problems such as heart disease, obesity, cancer or diabetes. The American researcher found what he was looking for in the following five places:
- Ikaria in Greece
- Okinawa in Japan
- Ogliastra in Sardinia
- Loma Linda in California
- Nicoya in Costa Rica
What do these places actually have in common? Of course, this question also concerned Dan Buettner. First, his team noticed that people in the Blue Zones live in some ways quite isolated - be it on islands, peninsulas, mountainous regions or small towns. Despite all the local separation, they have access to modern medical care.
The Blue Zones are also located in sunny subtropical to tropical areas, making vitamin D deficiency a rarity. This is advantageous because researchers suspect that a deficiency in Vitamin D can shorten lifespan.
In addition, the residents consistently maintain a lifestyle that is characterized by tradition and responsibility towards the community . They live mainly on their own farms and work as shepherds and fishermen. This means constant movement and a lot of time outdoors. Their diet consists mainly of local, unprocessed foods, while processed foods are rarely or never on their menu.
Even if our modern living conditions don't really allow for a similar way of life, we can still learn a lot from you.
Mark Hyman writes about it in his book Young Forever:
“Live close to nature. Love deeply. Eat simple food raised sustainably. Move naturally. Laugh and rest. Actually live (And live longer, as it turns out).“
Longevity Escape Velocity – The hypothesis of eternal life
An exciting concept in the longevity scene is “longevity escape velocity”. The term was initially coined by the British biogerontologist Aubrey de Gray, who achieved widespread fame with his book “Never old!”. This means the following:
We all benefit from advances in medical treatment methods and technologies. This is also one reason why, on average, we all live longer than the statistical life expectancy at the time of our birth would suggest. Nevertheless, we still age faster than science advances, for example to slow down our aging process.
Longevity escape velocity (Longevity escape velocity) is reached when life expectancy increases by more than one year per year of research. To put it bluntly, this means that research brings new, useful insights so quickly that it could always provide all the answers to the questions of aging. The result would actually be eternal life. Some experts believe that humanity is either on the verge of this or that we have already reached that point. Let us be surprised by what the future brings.
Medicine 3.0 – the other way to heal
Aside from curative medicine, there are many different approaches to achieving and maintaining health and longevity. Be it Functional Medicine from Dr. Wachner, the preventive approach from Dr. Stoffel or the Biohacking Lab by Andreas Breitfeld.
The Preventive and Functional Medicine, for example, sees the Disproportion between body and environment as a cause of illness and aging processes.
To put it bluntly:
We humans are not designed to be inflamed, stressed, unrested, infected, undersupplied with important vital substances and surrounded by toxins.
What does the functional approach do differently than curative medicine?
Viewing the body as an integrated system instead of a collection of individual organs assigned to different medical disciplines is the focus of the functional perspective. It is dedicated to the entire system and not just the symptoms.
Known Longevity Personalities
Perhaps you have already read Lifespan by David Sinclair or listened to the podcast “The Drive” by Peter Attia . Maybe you have also read Mark Hyman's book “Young Forever” or something by Valter Longo and his fake fasting Diet belongs. People like these are partly responsible for ensuring that longevity knowledge reaches places far away from research. In books, podcasts and series they try to put complicated scientific findings into simple words - with great success.
Dr. David Sinclair
When the book 'Lifespan - Why we age and why we don't have to' was published in September 2019, it was David A. Sinclair, PhD is well known, but not yet the shooting star of the longevity scene that he is today. The rousing and exciting story of the molecular longevity pathways, which is available in German under the title 'The end of aging - the revolutionary medicine of tomorrow' appeared, catapulting the Australian biologist and professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School to the top of bestseller lists in dozens of countries.
Dr. Mark Hyman
Mark Hyman is an American family physician, best-selling author and functional medicine physician. In his recently published bestselling book 'Young Forever' he describes food as medicine to support longevity, energy, mental clarity, happiness and much more. The doctor is an internationally recognized figure in the field of functional medicine and discusses many different topics related to health and longevity in his podcast 'The Doctor's Farmacy' .
Dr. Peter Attia
Peter Attia is one of the most renowned people in the longevity scene. The American doctor and health researcher is known, among other things, for his podcast “The Drive” , in which he and guests discuss a variety of topics for a healthy and Long life discussed. Peter Attia also became known outside the scientific community with his new bestselling book 'Outlive - The Science and Art of Longevity' .
Dave Asprey
On a trip to Tibet, the American computer scientist Dave Asprey enjoyed a tea with typical yak butter and noticed that he felt much better physically and mentally. This experience was, in a sense, the starting signal for a new life for today's entrepreneur and best-selling author of 'Superhuman'. He summarized his findings as the Bulletproof Diet and has set himself the goal of living to 180 years old.
Bryan Johnson
The successful American entrepreneur invests several million dollars annually in his own rejuvenation program 'Blueprint'. You can read about the specific steps he takes and which supplements complement his strict nutritional routine in our article about Bryan Johnson's Project Blueprint. He describes himself as the “most examined” person on earth.
The path to longevity
The strategies for extending health span are diverse and include nutrition, exercise, supplements as well as various high-tech methods. To improve lives, we need to understand aging and the process behind it and focus on slowing it down.
It is extremely important to continue to use time and resources for research in the future in order to open up opportunities to support the pursuit of healing and long-term health with knowledge gain. Regardless of whether the driving force is an individual disease or aging in general.
While some well-known personalities take a very extreme path towards longevity, MoleQlar is about showing interested people all the possibilities. We want to help you improve your life. Whether this happens with supplements, changes in eating habits or other methods is entirely up to you.
After all, good and long-lasting health does not begin with a single test and does not end with a few powders to be taken sporadically. Maintaining health begins with you - with your willingness to learn more about your body and strengthen it.
An epigenetic age test can be a good start to find out where you stand. Based on this, certain nutritional hacks, the right exercise and selected Supplements can support your journey towards a healthy future. A fairly new approach in longevity research is the proteome. Proteomics deals with the evaluation of all the proteins in your cells. This means scientists can use a new approach to get information about your health. In collaboration with the renowned LMU, MoleQlar was able to release one of the first proteomics tests. If you want to find out more about your molecular profile , this is a worthwhile introduction to longevity.
Ultimately, longevity is many things. For us it can be a kind of blueprint for golden times and, in a sense, a tool for self-healing. Research gives us tools – we just have to use them.
Discover your proteome with MoleQlar's Molecular Profile test. Find out more now.
