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'Longevity' May Only Deliver an Extra 5-7 Years · Doctor Turned Health Coach

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  Welcome to Doctor Turned Health Coach Podcast. My name is Dr.
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  Ashori, and one of the topics that I always discuss in depth with every one
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  of my clients is their definition of health,
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  especially because my practice is centered around healthy aging.
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  In a previous podcast episode, I talked about the difference between healthy aging and longevity.
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  Now, what is the field of longevity? What claims does it make and what promises can it make us?
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  The best longevity experts, those who are vetted experts, who are genuine,
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  who do the research, who stand behind their work.
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  What can they promise a patient? Well, at best, it seems that they can promise
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  a patient an extra five to seven years of good quality years.
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  Five to seven good quality years tacked on at the end of the average lifespan of a person.
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  And that's still an incredible achievement.
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  But maybe stepping back as a patient,
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  especially my patients who come to me, sometimes expecting a little bit more
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  of that longevity care, wanting to catch a cancer,
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  very, very early to have aggressive interventions to hopefully prevent any downstream
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  effects from that cancer.
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  We have this discussion to really uncover what is their biggest fear and what
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  is their expected life longevity, their life expectancy. What do we expect?
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  What year could we guess that they might die?
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  And the good news is that there are actually really well-established actuarial
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  tables that can help us guess when a person might die,
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  given whatever kind of health condition that they have, family history that
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  they have, lifestyle, etc..
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  The next important question is, how do you define health and how do you define
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  healthy living? What do you enjoy? What do you like doing?
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  Would you be willing to cut out your daily one cigarette or your nightly two
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  beers or sitting down and playing video games?
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  Would you give that up if I told you that you could maybe get an extra two and
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  a half years, three years?
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  Right because we're saying in the optimum in the
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  perfect situation we can get an extra five
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  to seven years in the longevity space
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  if that longevity patient does everything right does all the screening does
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  all the interventions follows the right lifestyle follows the right diet on
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  average you get an extra five to seven years at best right seven on the top
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  end five on the low end. Okay, that's not bad.
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  But what are we willing to sacrifice? What are we willing to do?
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  And what does living mean to us? What does it mean to wake up in the morning
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  and then make those decisions? What am I going to eat?
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  Well, if I don't like oatmeal, why would I eat oatmeal? If I really love eggs,
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  I'm probably going to eat eggs.
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  Now, that's very different from the conversation of, well, I really like sweet
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  Froot Loops with some honey on top and a Jack Daniel.
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  Well in that sense unfortunately on
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  the day-to-day basis you develop so many
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  side effects so many problems that you actually start
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  suffering that health that you enjoyed will leave you so there is that balance
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  there is absolutely that point at which your belly gets so big when you bend
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  over you feel pressure acid reflux at night you just can't sleep good but when
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  you're in that other phase of like oatmeal versus eggs?
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  Should I add olive oil to my food or not? Should I use a little bit of butter to cook?
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  Those are such important questions. And if we miss these conversations,
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  if we ignore these conversations, and if we just focus on the hype of longevity
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  and what it can give us, what it could deliver,
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  then we miss the subtleties of life, the beauty of living, the fun of living,
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  the fun of creating this awesome dish that's rich and heavy but amazing and
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  you share it with all your wonderful friends.
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  So each one of us has to ask ourselves, what does health mean to you?
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  What does living well mean to you?
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  What does aging well mean to you? At what point can you identify physical and
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  emotional suffering and decide that actually I need to do something about this.
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  This is when I need to step in, make some minor changes so that I can enjoy
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  a better quality of life.
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  I hope this content is of value to you guys as always I try to approach health
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  from so many different angles,
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  and I always appreciate your feedback you can go to my website drashori.com
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  for more information you can email me hello at drashori.com information is in
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  the description in the show notes thanks for listening.