We’re living longer than we did 100 years ago –the global life expectancy has doubled₁! By face value, this statistic is fantastic.

However, modern medicine and technology keeping individuals alive longer isn’t necessarily helping individuals live better. Many of us are suffering from chronic diseases and not getting the optimal life experience. This truth is revealing a new way to look at longevity. Now, we reflect on what is lifespan, healthspan, chronological age, and biological age.

The definition of lifespan is the yearly span an individual lives.

The definition of healthspan is the number of years an individual was free from disease.

The definition of chronological age is the number of years an individual has been alive thus far.

The definition of biological age is an individual’s cell age (this can decrease!).

We can’t change the day we were born. But our biological age and healthspan can improve with foundational health practices, functional testing, NAD, ozone therapy, improved metabolic health, and balancing hormones.

In this blog, we’ll give you six tips on how to improve your healthspan.

#1 Practice Foundational Health

Your healthspan begins with how you approach your day-to-day life.

Before diving into programs, supplements, and therapies, it’s important to evaluate your foundational health. Foundational health refers to the classic pillars for overall health: nutrition, sleep, exercise, toxin exposure, and mental health.

Reflect on your foundational health and how you’re fitting in within these categories:

• Achieve 7-8 hours of quality sleep per day
• Practice moderate exercise 5x a week for 30 to 60 minutes
• Avoid vegetable and seed oils
• Eliminate added sugars (Replace with natural sugars when needed)
• Minimize processed carbs
• Eat an adequate amount of protein
• Practice stress reduction
• Identify and improve key nutrient deficiencies
• Measure, adjust, and repeat as needed

Exploring healthspan solutions without these pillars won’t produce optimal results because your body won’t support other integrations. For example, NAD integration for a metabolism boost cannot replace the effects of poor diet or lack of exercise.

#2 Include Functional Testing

Functional testing is a method for gathering a holistic view of biochemical and physiological functioning. These tests reveal genetic dispositions, precursors to chronic illness, vitamin deficiencies, and hormone imbalances.

Each one of us has a unique genetic makeup that affects our body’s functionality. With that makeup, our body works as an interconnected system. The connectedness highlights the value of managing whole-body health.

How is Functional Testing Different than Conventional Testing?

Conventional testing follows a simple approach. Lab results are analyzed to see whether numbers fit between the range of “normalcy” for our age and sex demographic in the US. Plans for change only occur when the lab flags for a disease.

This type of testing is a reactive solution, whereas functional testing is a proactive solution.

How Does Functional Testing Affect Healthspan?

Functional testing equips you with information to make educated decisions that prioritize your unique needs. For example, you may discover that you have a genetic predisposition to getting cardiovascular disease. From this, you may now choose to prioritize cardiovascular disease prevention in your lifestyle.

Utilizing functional testing also gives you the opportunity to monitor and track your body’s changes as you try new healthspan practices. The functional test results reveal if new implementations are benefiting you, or adversely affecting other systems.

#3 Implement NAD

NAD (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) is a naturally occurring bodily chemical sourced from NMN (nicotinamide mononucleotide). NAD is central to metabolism and has a few roles in the body: converting food into energy, maintaining DNA integrity, and ensuring proper cell function.

How Do NMN and NAD Relate to Healthspan?

NNM production declines with age, but NMN’s powering of NAD is imperative for DNA and muscle functioning.

NAD activates sirtuins—signaling proteins involved in metabolic regulation—which promote DNA repair when DNA is damaged. If DNA is damaged but not repaired, it can result in mutations that cause cancer and other genetic diseases. Thus, having active NAD is vital for disease-prevention and longer healthspan.

NAD also supports aging muscles that start to slow down muscle function and endurance with age. By supporting these muscles, NAD improves general muscle health and prevents difficulties with exercise.

How to Increase NAD

A slower production of NMN isn’t a disease sentence! There are plenty of ways to integrate NAD back into your body, regardless of your age, including:

• Aerobic exercise
• Well-balanced diet of macro and micronutrients
• Fish, mushrooms, yeast, green vegetables, whole grains, chicken, and dairy milk₂
• Sauna / Cold plunge
• NAD shots
• NAD IV therapy
• NAD supplements
• EB02 IV Ozone Therapy

#4 Add Ozone Treatments

Ozone is a supercharged version of oxygen. Instead of having two oxygen atoms as O₂, ozone has three as O_3.  Ozone is a method for enhancing how the body delivers oxygen to tissues and circulates blood. This utilization contributes to cell regeneration and rejuvenation.

What are the Benefits of Ozone?

Cell regeneration and rejuvenation means that your body is better at protecting you from disease. This protection boosts your immune system, reduces bacterial and fungal load, reduces aging effects, reduces chronic pain, and increases endurance.

Types of Ozone Therapy

Ozone IV

IV has two types: Major Autohemotherapy (MAH) Ozone IV and Extracorporeal Blood Oxygenation and Ozonation (EB02) Ozone IV. In both therapies, IVs withdraw blood and mix it with ozone. The ozonated blood is then cycled back into the body for improved oxygenation. EB02 is the more powerful of the two, including NAD promotion and filtering out blood toxins during the process. However, both therapies are beneficial for your healthspan.

Ozone Insufflation

Ozone insufflation is the process of blowing the ozone nebulized oil molecule through different canals in the body including:

• Nasal
• Ear
• Lung
• Rectal
• Vaginal

Insufflation may be beneficial for targeting specific bacteria, diseases, or inflammation in these areas.

Ozone Sauna

Ozone sauna’s steam ozone around the body for introduction into the skin. From this, oxygenation and detoxification occur at the cellular level.

#5 Take Charge of Your Metabolic Health

A balanced metabolic system should mostly burn fat for fuel, and then burn carbs during high intensity movement. An unbalanced metabolic system will lean more towards one than the other, producing a disrupted cellular operation. The disrupted operation means that your body is not breaking nutrients down properly to support your body.

As a result, this could be a precursor to chronic diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or Alzheimer’s.

How Does Metabolic Health Monitoring Benefit Healthspan?

Since metabolic health has a massive role in chronic diseases, monitoring metabolic health can be a prevention tool for disease and benefiting healthspan.

How to Improve Metabolic Health

Lifestyle Choices

Reflecting on your current lifestyle is the first step for metabolic health. Go back to healthspan tip #1, are you following all these pillars of health? In addition, practices like resistance training, regular meals, lots of protein, and drinking more water may improve your metabolic health.

Each of our bodies work differently, so taking charge of metabolic health is a personal journey. Getting functional testing done is one way to highlight challenges in your metabolic health for appropriate lifestyle changes.

Metabolic Programs

Other methods for metabolic control include using a Lumen tracking device or continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). Both programs give lifestyle and diet suggestions while also monitoring progress and tracking results.

#6 Balance Your Hormones

80% of women suffer from some sort of hormone imbalance, which may lead to issues with fertility, metabolism, blood pressure, and chronic illness.

How Does Balancing Hormones Benefit Healthspan?

Estrogen

Balanced hormones, particularly the balance of estrogen, is related to reduced risk of dementia, Alzheimer’s, osteoporosis, and cardiovascular disease.

Estrogen helps protect against plaque build up₃ in the coronary arteries, which reduces the risk of heart disease. It also combats osteoporosis; a disease from low levels of estrogen slowing down bone production cells. Lastly, estrogen supports brain function and blood flow, which reduces the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s.

Progesterone

Balancing your progesterone₄ may alleviate menstrual and menopausal symptoms, support thyroid function, improve fertility, and assist with preventing osteoporosis.

How to Balance Hormones

Every individual has a unique hormone balance that is optimal for their body. The best method for balancing your hormones is using functional testing to show your individualized hormone needs. From your results, your healthcare provider may recommend hormone replacement therapy (HRT), supplements, or lifestyle changes.

Natural methods for increasing estrogen₅ include:

• Vitamin D, B, and E
• Calcium
• Resistance exercise

Natural methods for increasing progesterone include:

• Avoiding overexercising
• Reducing stress
• B6 and Zinc

Start Your Healthspan Journey

Foundational health, functional testing, NAD, ozone, metabolic health, and hormone balancing are all focuses that benefit your healthspan. These targets your inner workings of cells and bodily functions for improving your health and making you feel better equipped to maintain it. It’s never too late to start your healthspan journey. No matter your health, age, or gender, there are solutions available for you.

At Alive and Well, we offer many resources for improving your healthspan. Including functional testing, professional-grade supplements, metabolic health programs, ozone and NAD IV therapies, and hormone therapy.  We equip you with information to make informed health decisions that benefit your healthspan. Contact us today to start the road to a longer healthspan!

Sources:

1. https://www.uvmhealth.org/coronavirus/staying-healthy/life-span-vs-health-span
2. https://satia.com/blog/nad-why-it-matters-and-where-to-find-it
3. https://estrogenmatters.com
4. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/321919#natural-remedies