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The Economist Sep 28th 2023

Unlocking the Path to a

Healthy Old Life
Last week, The Economist captivated us with the prospect of
Living to 120 thanks to 21st Century life science extending
human longevity.

Longevity Leap: Mind the Healthspan Gap; Armin Garmany, Satsuki Yamada, Andre Terzic

Over the past century, scientific progress has significantly

increased life expectancy, however, the healthspan-lifespan gap
is surprisingly wide with people now spending more years in
poor health than at any time in history.

While lifespan extension grabs the headlines, it's more vital than
ever to build on breakthrough, inter-disciplinary research that
reframes life course and healthy longevity and collectively deploy
this know-how with enabling technology and business model
innovation to meaningfully reduce this healthspan-lifespan gap.

In this quest, visionary leaders such as Peter Attia, Andrew J

Scott, and institutions like the McKinsey Health Institute,
Stanford Center on Longevity, US National Academy of
Medicine, and UK National Innovation Centre for Ageing are
seeking to reshape the future by advocating for proactive
prevention, an alternative ageing narrative, intergenerational
dividends and ecosystem collaboration, while purpose-driven
entrepreneurs rise to the challenge, to help steer humanity
toward a future of vitality, resilience, and flourishing across all
dimensions of health.

As highlighted below, humanity is at a very promising horizon to

harness this latent opportunity to add billions of years of better
quality life, improve social cohesion and increase economic
productivity.

Track 1: Own the Healthspan-Lifespan

Gap

Squaring the Curve - Reverse Engineered Approach to Human Longevity, Peter Attia -
Nov. 25, 2017

My early inspiration was Peter Attia (above) when he presented

pathways to square the healthspan curve, now shared in his best
selling book, Outlive. Attia's objective of reducing suffering and
alleviating what's becoming an unsustainable financial burden
starts by challenging the historic patriarchal and interventionist
medical model with an approach driven by prevention and
personal agency to steward our own health, wellness and
resilience into old age:

...Continuing to ignore healthspan, as we’ve been doing, not

only condemns people to a sick and miserable older age but is
guaranteed to bankrupt us eventually.

...longevity as a concept is really only meaningful to the extent

that we are defying or avoiding all these vectors of decline...
cognitive, physical, and even emotional deterioration can all be
slowed and even reversed in some cases with the application of
the proper tactics.

...Medicine 3.0 demands much more from you, the patient:

You must be well informed, medically literate to a reasonable
degree, clear-eyed about your goals, and cognizant of the true
nature of risk.

T2: Embrace an Aspirational Ageing

Narrative

The New Long Life - Andrew J Scott &

LBS Professor of Economics, demography guru and longevity

KOL, Andrew J Scott, is equally inspiring with a thoughtfully
optimistic perspective on rethinking healthy ageing by explaining
its benefits for individuals and society at large:

…if you look at (ageing) from that longevity point of view, not in
terms of time passed, but in terms of time to go, and the
malleability of age, we can make the most of these longer lives
and seize an advantage, but we have to focus on changing how
we age.

…You’ve got to try and think, what would I like in the future?
You’re going to want to be healthy. You want to have some
money. You want to be in a good relationship. And you want to
have options about other things to do.

…achieving healthy longevity (is) a key individual, social, and

policy priority. Aside from the potential benefits to individuals..,
if longer lives are also healthier then employment at older ages
can rise, thus boosting GDP… Similarly, improvements in health
at older ages can reduce the costs associated with age-related
diseases and care… Combined, these effects point to the multi-
billion-dollar benefits of achieving healthy longevity.

T3: Understand Health across all

Dimensions

Four Dimensions of Health & Influencing Factors - McKinsey Health Institute

The McKinsey Health Institute (MHI) in Adding Years to Life

and Life to Years underscores the foundational need to take a
modern, whole-of-life and integrated perspective of healthy
ageing across its physical, mental, social, and spiritual
dimensions and the numerous influencing factors beyond
genetic traits.

These include an individual’s behaviour and lifestyle (nutrition,

activities, sleep), their access to resources (education, training,
care giving, health, pharmaceuticals) and their environment
(housing, technology, cyber safety, transportation) all
underpinned by their financial situation.

MHI says six material shifts in societal mindsets and actions are
needed to reach the full potential for human health:

Investing disproportionately more on prevention and

promoting optimal health…

Improving measurement and data collection

Scaling what already works

Innovating more and quickly, focusing on the intersection of

digital, technology, and services

Unleashing the full potential of all industries given the

fundamental relevance of health to every business

Empowering individuals to steward their own health

T4: Embark on a Life Course Approach

Stanford Center on Longevity - The New Map of Life

Healthy longevity requires both behaviour changes across the life

course as well as major shifts across education, work,
relationships and community. The Stanford Center on Longevity
says that we are not ready for the new normal 100 year life.

However, in The New Map of Life it envisions a future in which

everyone can make the most of the 100-year life opportunity by
following its guiding principles which include the economic
value of acting early and investing strategically to meet the
challenges and make the most of the longevity:

Celebrate age diversity as a net positive for societies - and

the bottom line

Align health spans to life spans

Build financial security from the start

Invest in future centenarians to deliver big returns

Create longevity-ready communities

Harness technological breakthroughs to transform the

future of aging

Distribute advances equitably, across the entire population

Embrace life transitions as growth opportunities, not

disruptions.

Learn throughout life

Work more years, with more flexibility

T5: Drive Intergenerational Longevity

Dividends

National Academy of Medicine - Global Roadmap for Healthy Longevity

The US National Academy of Medicine formed an international

commission of experts from multiple domains to develop its
evidence-based roadmap to advance healthy longevity around
the globe. The commission's 2022 Global Roadmap for Healthy
Longevity foresees a virtuous cycle (above) that drives greater
equity and social cohesion.

...With an all-of-society effort to improve healthy longevity,

based on the evidence, the commission concluded that the
future of aging societies could be optimistic, with older
people contributing to family, community, and society and
living lives with meaning and purpose. Societies could thrive
with a strong social compact, intergenerational cohesion, and
strong economies with plentiful work and volunteer roles for
people of all ages.

The commission's evidence for this vision includes:

Healthspan can equal lifespan

All generations benefit when barriers to older people’s full

participation are eliminated

There is proven return on investment (ROI) for:

- Investments in social and physical
infrastructure - Improving health at
all ages -
Enabling older people to work and volunteer in ways they
value

Workforce participation among older people is positively

correlated with workforce participation among younger
people; intergenerational teams (are) more productive
and innovative

T6: Effect Quantum Systemic Change

 Quantum Healthy Longevity: Healthy People, Planet and Growth

The UK National Innovation Centre for Ageing and Collider

Health launched Quantum Healthy Longevity for Healthy
People, Planet, and Growth presenting a bold and enlightened
blueprint for change:

...Health-care systems based only on response to illness are

no longer affordable, and economies need a more productive
workforce. The current model, which focuses on reactive sick-
care alone, must be shifted to a new one based on proactive
prevention, with the ever-growing recognition that the wealth of
nations is not possible without the health of populations.

...We need to radically reimagine short-term, medium-term, and

long-term responses at a global, societal, and individual level and
significantly invest in an interdependent ecosystem for
science and innovation to accelerate healthy longevity at
quantum scale and pace.

...Take an Exposome approach (capturing) the complex

exposures humans face that cumulatively affect lifelong health...
(and) create a bank of biomarker data and an atlas of
geroprotective interventions based on larger and more diverse
datasets than hitherto possible..

...It is now time to be bold and accelerate the urgent system

changes needed to achieve healthy people, planet, and growth.

MHI also makes a similar case for greater ecosystem

collaboration:

...Dramatically improving our health requires an ecosystem

approach - exchanging ideas, aligning around standards,
working across multiple stakeholder silos. It will require
unprecedented collaboration to shift society’s mindsets and
actions enough to realize possible gains in life expectancy and
quality of life.

T7: Back Purpose-led Tech Founders

2022 AgeTech Market Map -

In recent decades, entrepreneurs have played a demonstrable

role in the creative disruption and transformation of industry after
industry. A broad recognition of the massive opportunity to
improve the quality of life for older adults, is attracting an
inspirational generation of purpose-led tech entrepreneurs
believing the way to do well is to do good.

These high-impact entrepreneurs will be essential to bring the

needed creativity, accelerate innovation and deliver customer
solutions at affordable scale. Many of these mission-driven
startups have additional inherent advantages to help them
succeed in this new environment, notably talent access and
retention.

The growing number of pioneering players providing focused

support, capital and other acceleration resources to this sector
include the AgeTech Collaborative™ from AARP, Techstars
Future of Longevity Accelerator, a2 Collective |
a2PilotAwards.ai, NIA’s Research and Entrepreneurial
Development Immersion (REDI) program, Primetime Partners,
Third Act Ventures, Ziegler Link•age Funds, Cake Ventures,
1843 Capital, CEOc's Aging Innovation Fund, Centre for Aging +
Brain Health Innovation, Ontario Brain Institute, envisAGE,
Birdhouse Ventures, Longevity Venture Partners...

Vivre, c'est vieillir, rien de plus. Simone

de Beauvoir

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