Healthspan

Health­span refers to the num­ber of years a per­son lives in good health and wit­hout signi­fi­cant limi­ta­ti­ons. It is distin­gu­is­hed from life­span, the total length of life. The gap bet­ween the two cor­re­sponds to the years mark­ed by ill­ness or the need for care.

Appli­ca­ti­on

In lon­ge­vi­ty medi­ci­ne, exten­ding health­span is regard­ed as the real goal: not sim­ply living lon­ger, but stay­ing healt­hy for lon­ger. This includes mea­su­res against car­dio­vas­cu­lar dise­a­se, dia­be­tes, mus­cle loss and cogni­ti­ve decli­ne. Based on the same idea, the term skin­span has been coin­ed for the skin.

Good to know

Health­span is not a pre­cis­e­ly mea­sura­ble labo­ra­to­ry value but a con­cept from age­ing rese­arch and health sta­tis­tics. The­re is good evi­dence for the posi­ti­ve influence of regu­lar exer­cise, a balan­ced diet, suf­fi­ci­ent sleep, not smo­king and ear­ly tre­at­ment of risk fac­tors such as high blood pressure.

Matching tre­at­ment at Swiss Der­ma Cli­nic: Skin lon­ge­vi­ty (pre­ven­ti­on)