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5 Ways to Increase Your Healthspan - E76
27 Plays6 days ago
Mindfulness and meditation can not only decrease stress and anxiety, but can even alter the perception of pain. With the right type and amount of practice, you can train your brain to respond to situations thoughtfully, instead of purely with emotion.
But this is just one way in which you can increase and improve your healthspan - allowing you to live a longer and healthier life. There are many more.
Closing this gap between how long we live and how long we thrive can feel overwhelming, especially with endless advice promising quick fixes but delivering little real change.
This episode is the third in a micro series diving into what healthspan actually means. Join me to learn about the fundamental five pillars of healthspan. You’ll learn how simple, daily actions - not expensive hacks or brutal overhauls - build resilience and fight aging at its roots.
In this episode you will learn:
- Why healthspan matters and how it differs from lifespan.
- The five key pillars for living longer and stronger: nutrition, fitness, mindset, sleep, and social connection.
- How daily habits and small steady changes create lasting health results.
- What whole foods, meal timing, and proven diet frameworks do for your body.
- Simple ways to add exercise, stress management, and sleep habits to your day.
- Why strong social ties and community support help boost both health and happiness.
Resources
- Connect with Andrew on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mandrewmcconnell
- Follow Alively on Instagram for regular updates and insights: https://www.instagram.com/alively_official
- Learn more about healthspan from Andrew’s blog: https://www.mandrewmcconnell.com/blog
This podcast was produced by the team at Zapods Podcast Agency:
Find the products, practices, and routines discussed on the Alively website:
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Transcript
Introduction to Healthspan and Its Importance
00:00:00
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So there's no pillar that's bigger or more important than the others, but research shows that exercise more than any other single intervention really does help.
00:00:13
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This is the Home of Health Spam podcast, where we profile health and wellness role models, sharing their stories and the tools, practices, and routines they use to live a lively life.
00:00:26
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Welcome back to the Home of Healthspan and this the third part of our five-part series on the concept of Healthspan. In our first two episodes, we laid the groundwork.
00:00:37
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We started by defining Healthspan as the years of life free from disease or disability where you maintain high physical and cognitive function.
Understanding the Longevity Paradox
00:00:50
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Then we established the urgency of the longevity paradox, the widening gap between how long we live and how long we live well. The healthspan gap is real and it's daunting.
00:01:04
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But the good news today is the science overwhelmingly shows that you control more than you think. Your daily habits and actions are the most powerful levers you can pull to close these gaps.
The Five Pillars of Healthspan
00:01:20
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Today we're not just giving you a list of tips, we're giving you a complete framework. The five pillars of HealthSpan. So let's build your foundation for a longer, healthier life.
00:01:35
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The most powerful HealthSpan interventions aren't necessarily expensive drugs or complex technologies. They are the foundational lifestyle behaviors accessible to nearly everyone.
00:01:47
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Today, we're going to structure our approach around a simple, holistic model for improving healthspan. The five pillars. So what are they? First, let's start with nutrition.
00:01:58
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What you put into and onto your body. Second will be fitness. How you move your body. Third, we'll get into mindset.
00:02:11
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What you put into your mind. Fourth, we have our sleep and recovery. How do you rest and restore your body and your mind? And fifth, social connection. It's not just about us.
00:02:25
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What do we put into the world? The key message is that these pillars are interconnected and synergistic. Like the Alively Five Pillar logo, they build on each other to support the foundation that is your health, the home of HealthSman.
00:02:44
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Improvements in one area often lead to benefits in others. The most effective way to build these pillars is through micro actions, small, consistent habits that are far more sustainable than drastic, short-lived changes.
00:03:01
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Our goal is to reframe these common sense actions within a powerful scientific context. Instead of just telling you eat your vegetables, we'll explain that every colorful vegetable you eat sends antioxidant signals to reduce oxidative stress at the cellular level.
00:03:21
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We want to give you the motivating why to go along with the what. So let's go through each pillar in turn.
Building Resilience through Fitness
00:03:30
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Nutrition, what you put into and onto your body.
00:03:35
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This isn't about restrictive dogmatic diets. It's about broad evidence-based principles. And it starts with principle one, prioritizing whole foods.
00:03:49
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This is the most straightforward and effective nutritional advice there is. Avoid highly processed foods, which are often loaded with unhealthy fats, refined sugars, and chemical additives.
00:04:03
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The foundation of a healthspan-promoting diet is one rich in the intake of fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and lean proteins.
00:04:16
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These foods provide the raw materials, the vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients that your cells need to combat inflammation, which is the root cause of so many chronic diseases.
00:04:29
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Principle two is adopt a proven framework. Rather than jumping on the latest fad you picked up on TikTok or Instagram, we can look at dietary patterns with strong scientific backing.
00:04:42
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Evidence overwhelmingly suggests that frameworks like the Mediterranean diet, highly researched, or the MIND diet, or the DASH diet, which is a hybrid of Mediterranean and DASH diets, are incredibly effective at reducing the risk of chronic health problems and supporting long-term cognitive health.
00:05:04
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And these are a lot of acronyms and names, but really what they come back to is the same as principle one. Eating whole foods, a mixture of plants and lean animals.
00:05:15
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Principle three is to consider your meal timing. The science is now clear that it's not just what you eat, but also when you eat. Strategies like intermittent fasting or time-restricted eating work by consolidating your eating window.
00:05:31
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It gives your body a prolonged break from digesting food and allows it to focus on critical cellular repair processes. Most notably, one called autophagy.
00:05:43
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Think of autophagy as your body's internal housekeeping service. It's where your cells clean out damaged components to make way for new healthy ones. This process is a practical application of the principles learned from caloric restriction.
00:05:59
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Which, caloric restriction remains the single most robust intervention known to science for increasing health span in animal models. just not easy to do in humans.
00:06:14
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That's nutrition, mostly whole plants and thinking when you eat.
Cultivating a Healthy Mindset
00:06:19
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Pillar two is fitness, how we move our bodies. A powerful way to frame the benefits of exercise is through the lens of resilience.
00:06:31
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While disease prevention can feel passive and distance, building resilience is active and it's empowering. It enhances our body's capacity to handle physical and mental stressors both today and decades from now.
00:06:48
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Based on guidelines from organizations like the CDC, we can simplify exercise into three essential components. First is aerobic fitness, the cornerstone of cardiovascular health.
00:07:03
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The recommendation is at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity, like a brisk walk, or 75 minutes of vigorous activity, like jogging each week.
00:07:17
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Second, and don't sleep on it, is strength training. It is absolutely crucial for maintaining muscle mass, metabolic health, and bone density as we age.
00:07:28
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It's not just for football players and bodybuilders. Preserving muscle is preserving your functional independence. the guidance is to engage in activities that strengthen all major muscle groups at least two days per week.
00:07:46
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The third is one that a lot of people overlook because it seems so silly or maybe less fun, and that's our balance and stability. This is especially critical for older adults to prevent falls, which can be a major cause of disability and turning point in someone's healthspan.
00:08:07
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We find that healthspin doesn't decline gently over time. Typically, it's big drops with things like injuries that you never quite get back from. So if we're going to work on our balance activities like yoga or Tai Chi or simply exercise like standing on one foot while you brush your teeth. I got it from a guest on a Huberman podcast. That's what I do. Stand on one foot.
00:08:29
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I brush my teeth to make sure I constantly work on my balance. JJ Virgin was doing a episode with her and also got to do some workouts. And she pointed out that working on that balance and stability at the end of a workout is the best time. You're a little tired. And so it makes your mind and your body really focus on that stability and that balance, which is so crucial as you age.
00:08:52
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Research consistently shows that exercise more than any other single intervention, improves our resilience against stressors like infections, surgery, and the onset of frailty.
00:09:05
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So there's no pillar that's bigger or more important than the others, but research shows that exercise more than any other single intervention really does help.
The Role of Sleep in Healthspan
00:09:16
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Pillar three, our mindset. What do we put into our mind?
00:09:21
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This emphasizes your mental and emotional well-being are inseparable from your physical health span. Chronic disease isn't just a feeling, it has profound physiological consequences.
00:09:35
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When you're constantly stressed, your body is flooded with hormones like cortisol, which over time can increase your risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, and a host of other conditions.
00:09:48
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One thing we can do is mindfulness and meditation. These practices have been shown to decrease stress, anxiety, and even the perception of pain. They work by training your attention and awareness, helping you to respond to situations thoughtfully rather than reacting out of pure emotion.
00:10:09
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A tool you can use anytime and anywhere is deep breathing exercises. A simple technique like box breathing. Inhale for four.
00:10:21
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Holding for four.
00:10:24
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Exhaling for four.
00:10:29
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Holding for four can instantly calm your nervous system by activating the vagus nerve, which tells your body it's safe to relax. Another is the physiological side, the double inhale with a slow exhale.
00:10:47
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Research has shown that five minutes of doing that pattern can have a better impact on reducing your stress in the same amount of time meditating. Finally, there's the idea of spending time in nature.
00:11:02
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It's a proven method to promote relaxation and enjoyment. The Japanese even have a term for this, shinrin yoku, or forest bathing.
00:11:13
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It's not about the hiking or the exercise. It's about simply being out and in nature and connecting it through all of your senses. You have to remember that the concept of being inside versus outside is a relatively new one for humans.
00:11:28
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We were created and born and lived for hundreds of thousands of years out in the elements, out, spent all our days, all our time outside. This idea of we create these structures and we spend all our time now inside is new and unnatural to us. So get outside, spend that time in nature.
00:11:47
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The fourth pillar is our sleep and recovery, how we rest and restore our body and mind. And we need to frame it not as a passive downtime, but as a critical period of active biological repair and regeneration.
00:12:07
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When you're in the deep stages of sleep, your body's hard at work. First, protein production increases to repair the tissues and especially your muscles. Your body releases approximately 75% of its daily supply of human growth hormone during your sleep, which is essential for cellular regeneration.
00:12:31
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Simultaneously, your brain activates its own unique waste clearance mechanism called the glymphatic system. Think of this as your brain's dishwasher. It flushes out metabolic byproducts that accumulate during the day, including beta amyloid proteins, which are the same proteins linked to Alzheimer's disease.
00:12:51
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If you don't sleep, your brain doesn't have a chance to take out the trash. Conversely, chronic sleep deprivation is directly linked to accelerated cellular aging.
The Power of Social Connections
00:13:02
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as evidenced by shorter telomeres. Those are the protective caps on the end of our chromosomes. And a significantly increased risk for chronic diseases. Actionable tips include maintaining a consistent bedtime to regulate your body's circadian rhythm, creating a cool, dark, and quiet sleep environment,
00:13:23
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and implementing a digital sunset. So by turning your screen off at least 30 minutes before bed to protect your body's production of the sleep hormone melatonin.
00:13:34
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Then there's our fifth pillar, social connection. What we now put out into the world. This may seem like the softest of the sciences, but the data is hard and clear.
00:13:47
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Research demonstrates that strong social ties are linked to a longer life decreased physiological stress, and improved immune function. Some studies have shown that chronic loneliness can be as damaging to your health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
00:14:06
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Nurturing your relationships is a potential healthspan intervention. This goes beyond just having friends. It's about having a sense of community, a sense of purpose, and a reason to get up in the morning.
00:14:20
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It's a feeling that you're a valued part of something larger than yourself. There's a common thread found in all the blue zones, the the areas Dan Buettner studied, where people live the longest, healthiest lives in the world.
00:14:37
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They have incredibly strong family and community ties that last a lifetime. So those are our five pillars and it can feel like a lot. So let's try to boil it down to a quick start guide.
00:14:51
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Let's recap the science. You have one micro action you can start with today. So nutrition, the science, a diet of whole foods provides antioxidants that reduce cellular stress and inflammation.
00:15:07
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Your micro action, Swap one processed snack or sugary drink for a piece of fruit or a handful of nuts or a glass of water. Pillar two, fitness.
00:15:18
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The science, regular exercise builds resilience by strengthening your entire system. Your micro action today, take a 10 minute brisk walk during your lunch break.
00:15:31
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this ticks a bunch of different boxes. One 10 minutes of vigorous activity reduces all cause mortality by 24%. Just 10 minutes, not an hour in the gym, just 10 minutes.
00:15:43
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That's number one. Number two, doing it after lunch, after you eat, it lowers the glycemic response to foods. We can flush it. We need to be active after eating. So just a quick, brisk, 10-minute walk after lunch today.
00:15:58
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Pillar three, mindset. What's the science? Stress management techniques lower cortisol and chronic inflammation. So your microaction, take one minute right now, maybe pause this podcast,
00:16:12
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And do that box breathing, the four in, the hold for four, the four out, hold for four, for one minute. Or do that double physiological side, the double inhale, the slow exhale.
00:16:28
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Pillar four, sleep and recovery. The science shows that deep sleep is where your body and brain perform critical repair and maintenance. Your micro action tonight, set an alarm to turn off all your screens 30 minutes before your target bedtime.
00:16:44
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So not a wake up alarm, but kind of a go to bed alarm. Pillar five, social connection. Science shows that strong social connections improve immune function and lower our stress. So remember how these all interplay with each other.
00:17:01
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your micro action, pull out your phone and send a quick text message to a friend or family member just to check in. Better yet, give them a quick call. Just connect.
Taking Action and Looking Forward
00:17:13
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That's it. That's the toolkit. It's not about a total life overhaul tomorrow. It's about choosing one small thing, one micro action, and then doing it consistently.
00:17:28
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We've now built the foundation for a long and healthy health span. But what if we could accelerate our progress? That's what we're going to do next time. We're going to go to the frontier. We're going to explore the cutting e edge tools, molecules, and science from zombie cell killers to epigenetic clocks that aim to hack the aging process itself.
00:17:53
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Thank you for joining us on today's episode of the Home of Healthspan podcast. And remember, you can always find the products, practices, and routines mentioned by today's guests, as well as many other Healthspan role models on Alively.com.
00:18:05
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Enjoy a lively day.