Improving Healthspan
Who doesn’t want to lead a long and healthy life? Many experts believe that our healthspan – the period of our lives spent in good health – may be extended if we adopt certain practices. In fact, data suggest that males can add up to 12.2 healthy years to their lifespans and females up to 14 years.
Maui surgeon Irminne Van Dyken, M.D., a featured speaker in the Vegetarian Society of Hawaii’s monthly lecture series, recently discussed how we can live longer and healthier lives.
“When you look back at 1900, lifespan and healthspan were almost the same,” she explained. “We had the dream of living healthy up until the moment of our death. Now, the gap between lifespan and healthspan is widening. We’re living much longer, but the average American spends the last 20% of life in disability.”
Dr. Van Dyken identified five healthy habits for maximizing healthspan: avoid tobacco, maintain a healthy body weight, exercise moderately to vigorously for a half hour a day, drink alcohol in moderation and maintain a high-quality diet. (Circulation, “Impact of Healthy Lifestyle Factors on Life Expectancies in the US Population,” 30 April 2018)
She shared charts, graphs, research findings and a number of concepts like epigenetics, nutrigenomics, microbiome, hormetic stress and synbiotics that may not be familiar to most lay people. The bottom line is that a whole food, plant-based diet is an essential component of a long and healthy life.
How much we eat – or don’t eat – also has a profound impact on our healthspan. Caloric restriction is the reduction of average daily caloric intake below what is typical without malnutrition or starvation. Citing research from the Biosphere II project and the Okinawa Diet, Dr. Van Dyken noted that caloric restriction can result in a number of improved health outcomes that contribute to longer healthspans. However, she recognized that most people love to eat, and caloric restriction can be a “really hard sell.” Some who don’t wish to reduce their daily caloric intake may reap health benefits through intermittent fasting.
It turns out that there’s an even easier way to extend healthspan: methionine restriction. Methionine is an amino acid found in relatively high levels in meat, fish and eggs. Reducing methionine consumption imitates the positive effects of caloric restriction and may be achieved by eating a whole food, plant-based diet.
Improving healthspan may also require rethinking how much and what kind of protein we consume. A research article published this year found that “Lifespan and metabolic health are influenced by dietary nutrients. Recent studies show that a reduced protein intake or low-protein/high-carbohydrate diet plays a critical role in longevity/metabolic health.”
Although decades of dairy and meat industry propaganda has convinced most Americans that high levels of animal protein are necessary for good health, current research suggests otherwise.
“Epidemiological studies show that a high intake of animal protein, particularly red meat, which contains high levels of methionine and BCAAs [amino acids leucine, isoleucine and valine], may be related to the promotion of age-related diseases. Therefore, a low animal protein diet, particularly a diet low in red meat, may provide health benefits.” (EBioMedicine. 2019 May; 43: 632–640.)
A whole food, plant-based diet lengthens healthspan in many ways. For example:
Curcumin, a natural anti-inflammatory found in turmeric, has a number of proven health benefits.
Fruits and vegetables contain phytochemicals that help protect us from a number of major diseases.
Fiber supports a healthy microbiome, which consists of our internal microbes’ genetic materials critical to a long and healthy life.
Once a health educator shares guiding principles, summarizes the best scientific information available and offers practical suggestions, the ball’s in our court. “Everybody’s different,” reflected Dr. Van Dyken. “What it boils down to is it’s your life. It’s your choice. It’s entirely up to you.”
If you’d like to learn more, the video of Dr. Van Dyken’s presentation will be posted to the Vegetarian Society of Hawaii’s website. Don’t forget to check out her website, as well.