WRITTEN BY KATHRYN ABBOT
Everyone, in one way or another, wants to live a good life. Whether it’s as grand as being the most successful person in your field or as simple as just enjoying the little things in life, it’s no surprise that we want to make the most out of our time here on Earth. And we can best achieve that when we can, i.e., when we are at our peak health.
This is where our health span comes in.
Health Span: What It is, Why We Should Care, and What to Do Next
Just in case you couldn’t catch our last entry on the topic, health span is the total estimated time in our lives when we live in our best health and free from any serious illnesses. It is often used as a measurement of how well we live our lives, especially in a holistic medical sense. And sadly, while people can live longer nowadays, they don’t stay as healthy for long.
According to a 2020 study on health spans and healthy aging, this is usually because either people don’t have the resources for healthier diets and living habits and/or are suffering from lifestyle diseases that need long-term medical treatment. You can see this in the common trend of health spans being shorter than lifespans, as shown in the gap between life expectancy vs. healthy life expectancy in the World Health Organization’s life tables data on multiple regions in the world, with its updated page on the Philippines as an example.
That’s why many groups and professionals in the field of health sciences and medicine are working to bridge or even just shrink the gap between lifespan and health span as much as possible. With that said, why don’t we start with one of the biggest ways to help our health spans improve: having a healthy body age?
Healthy Body Age: A Key to Improving and Prolonging Health Spans
Body age, also known as metabolic age, is the difference between the minimum number of calories your body burns while at rest (i.e., your basal metabolic rate or BMR) and the average BMR of others within your age group. Though not a complete representation of your health, it helps you be aware of where you are health-wise in comparison to your peers. And since BMR does play a role in weight management, it would not be surprising that knowing your body age would be especially helpful if you are looking for other ways to get into shape aside from just exercising alone.
Now, a healthy body age is usually lower than a person’s actual age, since it means that you burn more calories than your usual intake. So, if you are looking for a way to sustainably manage your weight for the long term, you can match or lessen the number of calories you take in versus the amount your body burns at rest. This, of course, can be achieved by a healthy, balanced diet, regular exercise, enough rest, and other healthy living habits.
- It helps reduce the risks of developing lifestyle diseases, especially those that come with obesity.
- It provides several health advantages that help keep your body healthy and functioning well in the long run.
Now, you may be wondering: how does having a better metabolism (and, in turn, having a healthy body age) help with making health spans longer? Well, it helps in two ways:
Since many lifestyle diseases pop up more often with obesity, as pointed out by the World Health Organization (WHO), a healthy metabolism can help you lessen the risks of getting them via sustained weight loss or management. If there are fewer unused or excess calories to store away, there are fewer chances for you to gain too much weight and get sick.
Its other health benefits include improved energy levels, reduced cravings, enhanced muscle mass, and more. For a related example, you can see this in people who have managed to remain healthy and active even into their old age due to being physically active for the majority of their lives. This is usually because constant exercise triggers the natural repair mechanisms of the body, which helps both rejuvenate and make your body stronger.
In short, having a healthy body age gives you better chances of avoiding lifestyle diseases while boosting your overall physical health. The only question now is: how do you achieve it?
Good Weight and A Healthy Heart Can Go a Long Way
As mentioned earlier, you can get a healthy body age with pursuing an overall healthier lifestyle, diet, habits, and exercise included. All these together points toward sustainable weight loss, which aligns with how our bodies burn calories and the mechanics behind our metabolism.
Along with that, though, you must also take care of your heart. While there is a loose correlation between heart rate and metabolism, it’s still important to care for it since it provides oxygen and nutrients to all parts of your body that enable it to function. That also includes your metabolism and the processes that enable it. Switching to a more heart-healthy diet and also regular exercise helps keep your heart healthy and functioning well.
So, having a healthy heart and a manageable weight goes hand in hand with attaining a healthy body age. But the increasing amount of nutrients, healthy practices, and information you would need to successfully achieve both can feel intimidating, especially if it’s your first time entering a serious wellness journey.
Thankfully, NUTRILITE™, with its effective and traceable plant-based products, may have the solutions that can help.
NUTRILITE: Healthy Solutions for Your Long-term Needs
NUTRILITE™ has recently launched its Healthy Solutions that are specially designed to help you achieve a healthy body age and address any nutrient gaps that you might have in your daily diet. Now, these solutions come into types, whose names already show what they are for: Healthy Weight Solutions and Healthy Nutrition Solutions. And since we are talking about improving your health span via a healthy body age built on good weight management and robust heart health, here are two solutions from each category to help you get started:
*Disclaimer: There are NO APPROVED THERAPEUTIC CLAIMS for the items featured in these solutions. Please consult your doctor before taking any of these supplements and meal replacements, especially if you’re a child under 12-years-old, a pregnant/lactating woman, or anyone with a medical condition.
Composed of BodyKey™ by NUTRILITE™ products, this healthy weight solution is a great foundation for your fitness journey, especially if you are only starting with no prior experience. This solution features the BodyKey™ by NUTRILITE™ Meal Replacement Shakes (in all 3 flavors), which contains 17g of protein, 22 essential vitamins, and 5g of fiber within each 51g sachet in around 200 calories. It is enough for one or two meals in a day and convenient since you only need to add water to prepare it. This solution also comes with the NUTRILITE™ GreenTrim and NUTRILITE™ Chrompic Extra, which supports your weight management diet.
Lastly, this solution isn’t complete without the BodyKey™ by NUTRILITE™ Transformation Journal and the BodyKey™ by NUTRILITE™ Transformation Journal, which are there to guide you on checking where you are health-wise currently and what to do and to help you keep track of your progress, respectively. Combine all these with regular exercise, healthier life habits, and balanced meals, and you have a recipe for an effective, sustainable plan for managing weight. Of course, you still need professional advice for further information on your health.
This healthy nutrition solution ensures that the gaps in your cardiovascular health needs get filled with the appropriate, effective, and traceable supplements that can do the job. It contains the NUTRILITE™ Omega 3 Complex Softgel Capsule, which is chock-full of Omega 3 Fatty Acids that promote your heart’s health and support the core function of your eyes and brain. Next, the solution has the NUTRILITE™ Lecithin-E With Honey Tablet, which contains Vitamin E that is known to protect your body’s cells from damage and lecithin to emulsify fatty foods. Lastly, the NUTRILITE™ Garlic Tablet completes this healthy heart pack with its garlic content’s ability to support heart health.
All three contribute to keeping your heart healthy, functioning, and well-protected, especially when building stamina and strength.
Now, these solutions, just like all the others, are there to give you solid support for the healthy lifestyle you are about to adapt to or are already living. It’s best to pair them with the appropriate diet that supports your heart and weight management, consistent physical activity that fits your fitness needs, and healthier life habits like getting enough sleep, minimizing stress, and more.
After all, the brand NUTRILITE™ and its proven, plant-based, and traceable solutions aim to help you and multiple Filipinos, especially those with lifestyle diseases, live better, healthier lives.
REFERENCES (linked in order of appearance):
- Why Healthspan May Be More Important Than Lifespan | TIME
- From lifespan to healthspan: the role of nutrition in healthy ageing | Journal of Nutritional Science | Cambridge Core
- Philippines (who.int)
- UCI Center for Healthspan Sciences: Evidence-Based Education to Improve Health – UCI School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences
- Lifespan and Healthspan: Past, Present, and Promise | The Gerontologist | Oxford Academic (oup.com)
- Extending human healthspan and longevity: a symposium report - DeVito - 2022 - Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences - Wiley Online Library
- What Is Basal Metabolic Rate? (healthline.com)
- Surprising findings about metabolism and age - Harvard Health
- Noncommunicable diseases (who.int)
- Why people become overweight - Harvard Health
- Metabolic Age: The Truth About Calculating and Lowering It | HealthNews
- The active grandparent hypothesis: Physical activity and the evolution of extended human healthspans and lifespans | PNAS
- Stay active as you age to extend your health span - Harvard Health
- Lifestyle Interventions for Cardiac Metabolism - CVRTI (utah.edu)
_322971_ProductShot_Nutrilite_Healthy_Heart_Pack_amway-WF_Product_1000Wx1000H.png?format=pjpg&quality=70&auto=webp)