Living and longer and living well are not the same thing. Here’s why ‘healthspan’ matters more

I’ve spent more than three decades studying how exercise and diet keep us healthy. But one thing keeps showing up in the data: living longer and living well are not in sync. While we’ve partly solved the first one, we are lagging behind at the second.

Over the past century, the average Canadian’s life expectancy has increased by 22 years, to roughly 80 for men and 84 for women. Medical and scientific research may push those numbers higher. However, the number of years we can expect to live in good health has been declining, and in Canada it now stands at about 67, down from a peak of about 70 years.

That means a lot of us are on track to spend close to two decades, sometimes longer, living with chronic illness, cognitive decline or lost mobility. That gap, not lifespan itself, is the real crisis. And almost nobody treats it like one.

Longevity is the wrong score

Longevity is the word on everyone’s lips, with influencers discussing the possibility of three-digit lifespans. One wealthy biohacker was investing millions into his goal of 160 years of life, and inviting others to spend as much as US$1 million a year to join him. He recently announced he has developed an autoimmune condition.

Life has become...

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