How to Age Healthier

Living a long life is a privilege. Getting to truly enjoy it because you feel healthy and energetic is serious #goals. New science is focusing on just this idea - here's what we know so far.

- By Meryl Davids Landau

ASK PEOPLE IF THEY WANT TO LIVE TO 100 AND MANY WILL SAY NO, because they don't want to be a burden to their kids-sick or disabled and requiring lots of care. But what if you could reach very old age and remain fit enough to run a 10K or hike steep trails or at least live independently and keep pace with your great-grandkids as they tear around your house?

Scientists are shifting their attention from simply helping people celebrate many birthdays to making those older years great ones, says Matt Kaeberlein, Ph.D., CEO of Optispan and a former director of the Healthy Aging and Longevity Research Institute at the University of Washington. In other words, rather than simply extending your life span by focusing on better treatments for previously terminal diseases like cancer, heart disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), they want to boost your health span, defined as the number of years you go about your life alert, engaged, and active, says Stephen Kopecky, M.D., a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic and author of Live Younger Longer.

Having a longer health span doesn't mean you'll never get sick or develop a chronic condition, but rather that if you do, it won't put too big a crimp on your later years. The idea is to push off the time when you might need a wheelchair or experience failing memory to only your last days or months.