In this compelling episode of Next Act Ninjas, host Rachael Van Pelt delves into the emerging science of longevity and healthspan optimization, uncovering how breakthroughs in anti-aging and geroscience may soon make living to 100—and thriving while doing it—a real possibility. Discover the difference between lifespan and healthspan, and learn how artificial intelligence, cutting-edge biotech, and the latest in aging research are paving the way for a healthier, more vibrant future.
In this compelling episode of Next Act Ninjas, host Rachael Van Pelt delves into the emerging science of longevity and healthspan optimization, uncovering how breakthroughs in anti-aging and geroscience may soon make living to 100—and thriving while doing it—a real possibility. Discover the difference between lifespan and healthspan, and learn how artificial intelligence, cutting-edge biotech, and the latest in aging research are paving the way for a healthier, more vibrant future.
Rachael explains the biological "glass ceiling" that limits human lifespan, why increasing life expectancy doesn’t guarantee quality years, and how the “four pillars” of health—exercise, sleep, nutrition, and stress management—are crucial for combating cellular aging. She also addresses the impact of living longer on financial planning and retirement, emphasizing the importance of preparing both health and wealth for an extended life.
If you're ready to take control of your longevity journey, improve your healthspan, and build a sustainable retirement strategy for the future, this episode is essential listening. Don’t miss out on this deep dive into longevity science, AI-driven healthcare, and practical steps to age well and extend both your lifespan and healthspan. Tune in, subscribe, and share with fellow longevity enthusiasts.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Living to 100
00:44 The Myth and the Math of Living to 100
02:12 The Biology Behind Aging and Lifespan Limits
03:59 A New Focus: The Role of Healthspan Science
06:49 The Future of Longevity and How We Prepare in the Meantime
09:05 The Social and Economic Dimensions of Longer Lives
11:14 The Road Ahead: Proactively Preparing for Longevity Breakthroughs
Hey, hey, welcome back to Next Act Ninjas, the #1 podcast for mastering your health and wealth longevity. I'm your host, Rachael Van Pelt, and today we're diving into a fascinating, albeit somewhat mythical topic, extending our lifespan to 100 or more. For some of you, that might sound like a blessing. For others, it raises big questions about long-term health and wealth and whether we're prepared mentally and emotionally for what it means to live that long.
Are we on the brink of a longevity revolution? If so, do we even want that for ourselves in society? That's exactly what I want to explore today.
But first things first, let's get clear about the difference between life expectancy and lifespan. When we talk about life expectancy, we're talking about averages. And averages can be misleading, can't they? You may hear that the life expectancy for a child born today is around 80 years of age, but that's not a promise. It's just a statistical probability, right? Sure, life expectancy has increased dramatically over the past century, but those gains came from reducing deaths at younger ages. Antibiotics, better hygiene, public health initiatives to improve sanitation, all of these advances meant fewer early deaths. So life expectancy went up. But it's not the same as saying that we're all suddenly built to live past 100, is it? It isn't the same as extending lifespan. It simply means we're now avoiding or surviving things we used to die of at younger ages, such as childbirth and pneumonia and TB, even bad stomach bugs.
To extend lifespan, we need actual breakthroughs in anti-aging science. In fact, leading researchers in aging call a lifespan of 100, a kind of "glass ceiling". Yes, we're living longer than our predecessors, but we're bumping up against biological limits. Without a major breakthrough, we're pushing up against that ceiling, not breaking through it.
But let's talk a bit about why that ceiling even exists. Aging isn't just about counting years. It's a biological process. Every part of our body ages - our cells, our organs, our physiologic systems, and as those parts age, they wear down. That of course leads to frailty, to the onset of chronic diseases, and eventually to the end of life. Now if you want to learn more about why we age, just go back and listen to episode #18 The title of that episode is Unraveling the Secrets of Longevity. In that episode, I cover the biology of aging in great detail.
Recent research though, it suggests that there's a kind of biological "cap". Now that "cap", it's not set in stone, but it's clear that pushing much beyond certain ages becomes hard because of what's going on at the cellular level. Even with the best healthcare, we are constantly fighting against the wear and tear that comes with age. We're fighting against repeated cellular damage, reduced regenerative capacity, and progression of chronic underlying diseases like cancer, diabetes, and atherosclerosis. This has led researchers to shift their focus from simply extending lifespan to extending healthspan, or the number of years that we live in good health. Clearly, none of us really want to make it to 100 unless we have a high quality of life right up to the end. But to do that, we need to figure out how to reduce the number of years that we spend in frail, declining health.
Here's where things get exciting. There's a relatively new field of research called geroscience, what I prefer to call healthspan science, which is all about intervening in the biological process of aging. The goal is to slow down or even alter those processes, not just to treat diseases as they come. It's about addressing the root cause of aging rather than playing "whack-a-mole" with each individual disease that pops up.
This is why most promising new therapies target cellular aging directly rather than the age-related disease. In animal studies, anti-aging interventions like this have shown promising results. They extend both lifespan and healthspan. Now, human trials are underway and if they're successful, they could be game changers for how we age. They might even bring us closer to living past 100, breaking through that ceiling. Importantly, if we can close the gap between healthspan and lifespan, living to 100 wouldn't just mean more years, would it? It would mean more robust, healthy years.
Now what I love about focusing on healthspan is the fact that it really doesn't matter what your lifespan is, does it? Whether you live to 80 or 100, the goal is the same. Stay healthy right up to the very end. In the meantime, advances in artificial intelligence are going to massively improve our understanding of exactly why we age, and AI is going to rapidly advance drug discovery. The breakthroughs that we see in longevity science over the next decade, they're going to be unbelievable. They're going to blow away all of the advances that we have seen in the last century. Which means if you're currently in your 50s or 60s and you're looking at a life expectancy of 80, there's a real possibility of those technological advances helping you reach 100 or more.
When you think about that, when you think about living past 100, how does it make you feel? I know I get a wide variety of responses from people when I ask that question. The knee-jerk for many people is, "Oh hell no, I don't want to live that long". But again, that comes from the perspective of what 100 looked like previously. Our reaction is based on what we see when we look at 100-year-olds, or even 80-year-olds, today. But keep in mind that, that isn't what 100 is going to look like 20 to 30 years from now. Advances in AI and medical technology are going to break through the biological ceiling that we're bumping up against right now, which means in the not-so-distant future, 100 will be the new 60.
Looking to the future, I think there's a lot of excitement around therapeutics that might target the root cause of aging, but we're still in the early days. I don't know how long it'll take AI to break through the ceiling or how long you have left to live, but there are things that you can do to slow cellular aging in the meantime. Right now, healthy lifestyle choices are the closest thing that we have to a "fountain of youth".
You don't need more pills or potions or procedures. All you need is regular exercise, high quality sleep, nutrient-dense foods, and a bit of stress management. Those are the four powerful pillars of healthy aging. Whether you live to 80 or 100, these are non-negotiable if you want to stay healthy right up to the end. And there are no pills or procedures that work as a substitute. You have to do those four things if you want to mitigate nearly all of the underlying causes of cellular aging. Why? Because they improve insulin sensitivity, oxidative stress, inflammation, blood vessel reactivity, nervous system, you name it. As a result, they improve all of your cardiovascular system, your nervous system, your immune system, your musculoskeletal system, your gut microbiome... Every physiologic system of your body is improved when you exercise regularly, get good sleep, manage your stress, and of course, nourish your body with nutrient-dense foods. This is even true in the context of obesity.
One of the biggest obstacles to improving healthspan in America is the obesity epidemic. It's a major factor that shortens lifespan, and it's closely linked to most age-related diseases that we contend with. But treating obesity with drugs, diets, gastric bypass, that doesn't slow aging. Whereas the four pillars of healthy lifestyle I just mentioned can slow aging, even in the context of obesity.
And remember, successful aging is not just about improving your physical well-being, your mental and social well-being matter too. If you want to maintain your quality of life long term, you'll need to stay socially connected and actively engaged with your community.
Which is why I want to zoom out a bit to look at the bigger picture, because living healthy to 100 is going to have major social and economic impacts. Economist Dr. Andrew Scott, who's a leading voice on this topic, he points out that living longer isn't just a health challenge, it brings social challenges as well. Increasing lifespan will impact us each individually, but it's also going to impact our society as a whole.
If we live in a world where most of us start living to 100 and we start staying healthy and engaged, just imagine how that's going to change our culture. What does it mean when an entire generation gets another couple of decades to explore life. Instead of a Next Act that is mostly shrinking and dependent on assisted living communities, imagine most of us continuing to live an expansive, independent life.
In a world like that, we would need to revamp our entire approach to work, retirement, and productivity. And that's precisely why I do this podcast. The future that's before us is going to require that we flip traditional retirement ideas on their head. If we're going to remain healthy another couple of decades, why wouldn't we continue contributing to society? That might mean working part-time, volunteering, or learning new skills, as a way to stay engaged and find fulfillment. Age need not be an impediment to our productivity. An extra 20 years of vibrant life can be more than just a few years on the golf course or worse, sitting alone in a retirement home.
But here's the catch, if we manage to extend our healthspan, we're also going to need to extend our wealthspan. So while we're redefining longevity on one hand, we're also redefining wealth building and financial planning on the other. We need to rethink retirement savings, investments, cash flow, encore careers, as we look towards a future where healthy at 100 is attainable.
So where does all this leave us? It leaves us with an imperative to start working on our healthspan and wealthspan right now. There's no time to waste. As the Age of Intelligence explodes, we're going to see incredibly fast advances in biotech that revolutionize the science of longevity. When we find anti-aging interventions that work, they're going to drastically change everything from how we plan our careers to how we structure our social systems. As people start to live longer, healthier lives, we'll need to reshape healthcare, financial planning, even our expectations of what a "normal" retirement life looks like. Maybe we won't even retire.
While living to 100 is not here yet, it's coming fast enough that we're going to need to start adapting immediately. We'll need to adapt quickly as individuals, as well as a society. In next week's episode, I'm going to dive deeper into what that adaptation might look like. Because, like the great Wayne Gretzky liked to say, we need to skate to where the puck is going, not to where it is. That means looking ahead to the future and proactively playing the long game.
Thank you for joining me for another episode of Next Act Ninjas. If you know you need to reboot those four pillars of health we talked about, hop on my calendar for a free coaching consult. I'd be happy to talk to you about my 12-week Healthspan Mastery Program. And please be sure to subscribe and share this podcast with your longevity-minded family and friends. Until next time, live well, love more, age less, my friends.