People around the world are living longer than ever. It’s time to shift our focus away from lifespan, or chronological age, to a new concept: healthspan – the period of life spent in good health, free from chronic disease and disability. We all want to enjoy vibrant health for as long as possible and empower ourselves to improve our quality of life. Essentrics® is just the ticket for extending our healthspan!
Lifespan is simply a number, and it does not capture the quality of our years that healthspan provides.
While medical advancements have increased our lifespan to an average of 73.2 years, the average person’s healthspan is only about 64 years, leaving a 9.2 years – almost 20% of our life – spent dealing with disease and disability. The World Health Organization (WHO) emphasizes that healthspan is more than just the absence of disease; it’s a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being.
Research shows you can take a significant role in expanding your healthspan through these 4 ways:
– Physical activity
– Eat a whole food plant-based diet
– Stay mentally active
– Proactively deal with stress
Let’s explore how physical activity like Essentrics® can help improve your healthspan on a cellular level.
Physical Activity
Physical activity is the best behavioral medicine to improve our healthspan. Movement impacts various parts of our total health: cardiorespiratory, musculoskeletal, neurological, endocrine and immune systems.
It is also one of the most effective ways to promote psychological well-being, enhancing our cognitive functioning, memory and learning. We improve our mobility and posture as we decompress our joints and keep our organs healthy. The bottom line: we feel better and want more!
Let’s look at the impact of physical activity on our skeletal muscles. Our muscles make up a significant proportion of our body mass and are highly metabolic: not only using energy but giving us energy. Essentrics® can help prevent sarcopenia, the loss of muscle mass associated with aging. Loss of muscle has been shown to decrease motor function and metabolism and increase the risk of falls, fractures, insulin resistance, diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease. But sarcopenia is not inevitable as we age! By using all our muscles and becoming stronger, Essentrics® can bump up our healthspan.
Healthspan at the Cellular Level: Myokines & Mitochondria
If we dig down deeper at the cellular level, myokines are just one of the beneficial proteins released during muscle movement. Myokines improve brain function, memory, sleep, mood, heart and muscle strength. Another boost is its impact on immunity by decreasing inflammation, as well as decreasing the number of harmful rogue cells such as cancerous cells. There is also an increase in bone density as well as a bonus of lowering our body fat.
To move our bodies, we need to power up muscles cells with energy produced within the cell’s mitochondria (our energy-burning furnaces). Essentrics enhances mitochondrial functioning by using all 650+ muscles, helping reduce the risk of metabolic disorders, heart disease, and neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s.
To live a vibrant, healthy life, we need to create and maintain consistent healthy habits and mindsets. By doing Essentrics® workouts daily, we can challenge ourselves and stay motivated while enhancing our quality of life. We have more energy to be socially engaged and connect to others. Essentrics® can help us do more of what we love, like gardening, hiking, and moving outdoors – improving our everyday experiences. Let’s focus on expanding our healthspan and enjoy a life of good health and vitality!
Contributing writer Dr. Nanette Tummers, Level 4 Essentrics® Instructor
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