We’d all like to live longer; at least, I would. But what about enjoying the time we have while we’re here and living healthier? Over the past century, human life expectancy has dramatically increased for a variety of reasons. Chief among these are our advances in sanitation, public health, nutrition and medicine that have reduced mortality, especially in young people. As a result, many more people are able to reach older age.
According to Statistics Canada, in 2021, Canadians had a life expectancy of 81.6 years, which is a astonishing increase of 24.5 years since 1921. By the year 2050, it is projected that the number of people aged 85 years and older will triple.
The extension of life expectancy in the 20th century and beyond is one of humanity’s greatest achievements. However, it is crucial to draw a distinction between lifespan — the amount of time between birth and death — and healthspan, which is the amount of time during which a person is healthy within their lifespan. Older people are spending more time in poor health, and this represents a major individual and public health burden.
At an advanced age, the ability to maintain an independent lifestyle largely defines a person’s quality of life. As such, it’s not enough to merely extend life without a sufficiently long healthspan to accompany it. Our goals should therefore be to bring lifespan and healthspan as close together as possible. The idea of extending healthspan is important because it challenges the idea that age-associated diseases are inevitable and can’t be mitigated or ablated.
