Extending Your Health Span

Changing Your lifestyle to Live Longer?

We only take actions that make sense to us, based on our values, and what we believe about the world. If we believe that becoming obese, and losing mobility and putting up with pain is "normal aging" we're in trouble before we start.

What you Eat Matters

What you eat profoundly affects your long-term health. Your body will adapt to whatever diet you choose to feed it, but not without long term adverse results, if you choose your diet badly.

Sadly, there is strong commercial and political pressure to sell you FOOD of various kinds.

Much of the well-known information about food, even "official recommendations" are propaganda, and not science based.

Take an interest in food, and slowly you will learn how food is used in the body.

If your health is good on a mixed diet, that's an easy diet to follow. If you keep sugar to a minimum and carbohydrates quite low, that should serve your well for a lifetime. However, historically people have not had the control over food that most modern people have. The body doesn't expect to get the same diet, year after year for 70+ years. Until recently, that wasn't even possible, and it might not be good for us.

If the mixed diet, a little bit of everything, is starting to give you problems, there are other choices. Over time, whatever is the "best diet" for you will probably change.

Prof. Scott Fulton (8 minutes)

In a study of 140,000+ people across 17 countries, researchers discovered this 3-second grip strength test predicted heart attack, stroke, and early death better than blood pressure measurements.

It subsequently was found to be the earliest predictor of healthspan.

What you'll learn:
How to perform the standardized grip strength test at home
Why grip strength reveals your entire body's aging process
The connection between grip strength and sarcopenia (muscle loss)
The neuromuscular connection—it's not simply muscle strength
How to interpret your results using age-specific percentile charts

Your grip contains 34 muscles connected to your entire neuromuscular system. When grip strength declines, it signals that muscle mass, bone density, and nervous system function are all declining together.

Published by: Whealthspan - 4 Mar 2026

Diseases Are Connected

You should already know that metabolic syndrome is caused by your lifestyle, and can easily be resolved. Obesity and Type 2 diabetes can be overcome.

Heart disease, has an unknown "cause" but they now think that "inflammation" is the problem. Inflammation is closely related to lifestyle too. As is your cardio-vascular fitness.

Cancers derive from pre-cancers, that have to find a metabolic pathway to grow and develop. If your body is healthy, that's very difficult. Cancers need glucose to grow, and most cancers find oxygen toxic. This provides two opportunities to attack cancers long before they become tumours.

Strokes are less common if you eat saturated fats.

Alzheimer's is a lifestyle disease. It's suggested the nutritional ketosis is protective.

Your Intention to be Healthy

If you don't intend to be healthy, your chances of success are small. Everyone can improve their health with better knowledge.

However, setting goals and good intentions are not enough. That doesn't work in the long run.

It does help to put your intention in writing.

It also helps to keep a health diary, even if the entries in it, are occasional.

Make time for the things you intend to do, like exercise, or spending social time with friends. Put it on the list.

Prof. Scott Fulton (7 minutes)

In studies tracking thousands of adults over decades, researchers discovered this 45-second balance test is the most powerful predictor of falls, mobility loss, and cognitive decline years before symptoms appear. It detects balance deterioration sooner than most medical exams.

What you'll learn:
How the single-leg balance test reveals brain-body integration
Why balance predicts future mobility better than strength tests
The connection between balance and cognitive decline
How proprioception and neuromotor function decline with age
How to interpret your results using age-specific percentile charts

Your balance system integrates input from your eyes, inner ears, and proprioception—your body's ability to sense where it is in space. When this integration declines, it signals that brain-body communication and neuromotor efficiency are declining together.

Published by: Whealthspan - 9 Mar 2026

Your Work and Activity

We were made to be active and working and thriving. You need a "work" to do. Preferably a task you love to do. You might also need the sort of work that earns you a living. If so expect to get paid.

Voluntary work, keeps you involved with others, and upgrades your skills. So long as you love to do it, being a volunteer is a healthy thing to do.

Your Family and Friends

We all need the company of other people. Other people give us good models to live up to, and ways to keep our social and intellectual skills alive.

Other people give us feedback on how we are progressing ourselves.

Your Capacity to Learn

Abandon trying to be healthy one disease at a time. Most of us have, or are developing "lifestyle" causes, for the diseases we have. metabolic syndrome, Alzheimer's, heart disease and rheumatoid arthritis, are all examples.

The solution is to keep your whole body healthy, not just parts of it. New information provides the building blocks for fresh concepts and different behaviours. However, trust in the new information has to be built. Do small low risk experiments with your new things you are learning.