Longevity

Not Just Living Longer, but Living Healthy

Humans have dreamed about, and often claimed to have found, the Fountain of Youth for millennia.

It's only now that science has started to identify the mechanisms by which aging occurs and how to begin to reverse it. We are not just wanting to live longer, but to live healthy at the same time.

Today, we are living an average of 20 years longer than Americans lived 100 years ago. Unfortunately, far too many of those extra years are spent in beds, rocking chairs, and nursing homes. As a result of disease, dysfunction, and mental decline, our quality of life fizzles long before we run out of heartbeats.

Not very long ago, our ancestors worked the fields, tended their gardens, repaired their barns, milked their cows, cooked their meals, and made blankets until the day they died. More recently, industrialization created this thing called retirement, making it possible for people to spend more time traveling, relaxing, and taking up new hobbies. Some even try out new careers, where they can enjoy putting their talents to work without having to worry about making a living.

But if we don't have the health we need in order to fully enjoy this next phase of life, we might begin to envy those whose lives are cut short while they still have their get-up-and-go.