Over the last 2 decades since the start of the millennium, global life expectancy has reached new heights, pushing the boundaries of longevity to an average life span of 73.1 years (WHO, 2024). Over the last century, we have made significant advancements in increasing our life span, possibly doubling it in the coming decades. Impressive, isn’t? 

The proliferation of medical technologies, health services, human literacy and health knowledge contributed to where we are today. Yet, there’s much more to be done, and we are facing a growing crisis beyond longer life span. 

Why? 

There’s a growing inequality in life expectancy versus health-adjusted life expectancy (HALE). HALE accounts for morbidities that affect quality of life due to disability, and is calculated by years of life weighted by health status (Wolfson, 1996). Between 2000 to 2019, WHO (2024) has reported a global life expectancy increase from 66.8 to 73.1 years. HALE has also increased by 9% from 58.1 to 63.5 years. In absolute terms, global average in number of years spent in ill-health has increased from 6.7 to 9.6 years. In short, we are spending the last decade of our lives suffering in certain health conditions that affects our quality of life. 

In addition to the grim reality, the average retirement age hovers around 63 to 65 years old (Khan, 2023). This means that on a global average scale, we enter into ill-health from the moment we retire. 

Expand Health, Expand Life 

In Spand.life, we believe that life goes beyond cancers, cardiovascular and neurological diseases. We shouldn’t be spending the golden age of our lives battling health problems. Especially right after we’ve spent decades of our lives fighting for financial freedom, legacy, and family wellbeing. While it is the mandate of most countries public health policy to battle chronic diseases and improve health span, more can be done to drive preventive medicine and lifestyle changes. Understandably so, it is one of the hardest initiatives to implement as it goes beyond healthcare professionals and medical interventions. Every individual has a part to play, and lifestyle modifiable risk factors hold a big influence over health outcomes.

Action-driven Outcomes

What is uniquely different for lifestyle medicine, that firstly it is largely non-pharmacologic based. There is a call to action for long-term behavioural changes that spur heath benefits; something that it is certainly not an easy feat for anyone to alter and adopt especially when it gets complex or takes time. However, we believe in the old adage that “change comes from within”. We need to gain knowledge about our body and its correlations to health influences coming from environment, diet, sleep, social & mental wellbeing, stress management, physical activity, and habits. A small positive and conscientious change in these factors, could potentially transform our lives. Spand.life anchors on the concept of understanding and community motivation, only then we can give meaning and purpose to any behavioural change that we want to embark.

Setting the baseline, these are the 4 pillars of health that we target:

1. Sleep – An important modulator towards hormonal and cognition health, in which draws evidence even towards bodily immune function and inflammation (You, 2024). Sleep not only is often overlooked, but it is largely intertwined to many other lifestyle factors while it acts as an important factor in our circadian cycle. In our fast-paced societies today connected through technology stimulators, we are sleeping lesser as compared to the past (Sheehan, 2018). This is likely exacerbated through higher stress levels as well.  

1. Diet – Gut health has piqued many interests as we explore gut microbiome and its science behind food and its influence over us. As we are unique individuals with varying diet requirements, there are increasing number of people seeking answers to food intake and intolerances. Diet plays a major role in our health, with evidences pointing towards its influence in autoimmune diseases, endocrine conditions, gastrointestinal disorders, cardiovascular health, and even cancer (Dix & Klein, 2024).

1. Exercise – Very commonly understood, however often poorly executed. Exercise is typically the first step taken when it comes to lifestyle modification. The associated health benefits extend beyond cardiometabolic benefits, it also acts as a neuromodulator as it enhances mood-boosting neurotransmitters (Heijnen, 2016). It is important to note that while generally most physical activities are beneficial, we should aim to uncover other important factors such as body limitations, cardiorespiratory fitness, joint mobility health, and community motivation. It is critical to inculcate exercise on a long-term basis and thus it should ideally be sustainable and manageable without incurring other unnecessary injury risks.

1. Stress management – Arguably one of the broadest topic of all, given that it is prevalent in every individual where stress management differs greatly. When it comes down to stress, it adopts a bell curve where there is an optimal range in which mild stress can improve biological parameters such as stress tolerance and resilience (Bourg & Rattan, 2008). However, chronic stress on the other side of the spectrum may cause health problems through pro-inflammatory responses and worsened cognition health (Shields & Slavich, 2017). Stress can influence our overall well-being through psychological, biological and clinical outcomes. It is therefore important to find that balance through our journey of self discovery along with community & professional help. 

HALE will remain as one of major countries’ national public health goal. Its success rest on our motivation to enable positive lifestyle changes, propagating towards a long-term shift in health outcomes. Active aging and healthy living incentivisation schemes have been adopted in many countries, going as far to also introduce sugar tax to discourage consumption of drinks high in sugar (Thomas, 2024). However, these are just measures created to ease us into positive behavioural changes that is set out through government policies. It does little to influence our innate understanding of overall health and well-being unless we are convinced ourselves. Spand.life encourages everyone to embark on a self-discovery journey through our resources designed to help you gain awareness and knowledge, and what are potential lifestyle changes you can adopt to Expand Health, Expand Life.

References

World Health Organisation (2024). GHE: Life expectancy and healthy life expectancy. Available at:https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/themes/mortality-and-global-health-estimates/ghe-life-expectancy-and-healthy-life-expectancy

Khan, R. & Dander, A. (2023). Retirement age trends around the globe. World Economic Forum. Available at: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/10/retirement-age-trends-around-globe/

Wolfson MC. Health-adjusted life expectancy. Health Rep. 1996 Summer;8(1):41-6 (Eng); 43-9 (Fre). English, French. PMID: 8844180.

You, Y., Chen, Y., Liu, R. et al. Inverted U-shaped relationship between sleep duration and phenotypic age in US adults: a population-based study. Sci Rep 14, 6247 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-56316-7

C. Sheehan et al. Are U.S. adults reporting less sleep?: Findings from sleep duration trends in the National Health Interview Survey, 2004-2017. Sleep. Published online November 17, 2018. doi: 10.1093/sleep/zsy221.

Dix, M. & Klein, E. (2024). Signs of an Unhealthy Gut and What to Do About It. Healthline. Available at: https://www.healthline.com/health/gut-health

Heijnen S, Hommel B, Kibele A, Colzato LS. Neuromodulation of Aerobic Exercise-A Review. Front Psychol. 2016 Jan 7;6:1890. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01890. PMID: 26779053; PMCID: PMC4703784.

Bourg, E. & Rattan, S. (2008). Mild Stress and Healthy Aging Applying hormesis in aging research and interventions. Springer.

Shields GS, Slavich GM. Lifetime Stress Exposure and Health: A Review of Contemporary Assessment Methods and Biological Mechanisms. Soc Personal Psychol Compass. 2017 Aug;11(8):e12335. doi: 10.1111/spc3.12335. Epub 2017 Aug 3. PMID: 28804509; PMCID: PMC5552071.

Thomas, T. (2024). UK sugar tax explained: what is it and has it worked? The Guardian. Available at: UK sugar tax explained: what is it and has it worked? | Sugar | The Guardian