About Longevity

Personally, I'm not a fan of the word "longevity" because not only does it fail to capture the essence of the subject, but it can also be misleading.

Most people think that the goal of longevity practices is to extend life, when in fact, that's just a side effect.

The main goal is actually to extend health – that is, to maintain our peak physical and mental condition for as long as possible (in an ideal world, which we're still far from, so that we could enjoy the health of a 20-year-old at the age of 80).

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I suspect that there are very few people who would want to prolong a period of exhausting, painful old age as much as possible.

And I don't know anyone who wouldn't like to feel like a 20-year-old in peak condition while being of retirement age.

With all this in mind, we should use a different word instead of "longevity":

Healthspan

It definitely better reflects the essence of efforts to extend health and vitality.

The first lesson I'd like you to remember is:

That is also the goal of the Longevity Protocols project.

Many of us think that chronological age, which we track on the calendar, is the main determinant of how we feel and function. Nothing could be further from the truth.

And this is where the concept of biological age comes in. This is definitely a more accurate measure of our real state of health. Biological age indicates how our body actually functions compared to the average health of people at the same chronological age.

There are people who are 50 years old on paper, but their biological age is 25 because their body is in excellent shape, has proper performance, and shows no signs of aging. Conversely, there are people who may be 30, but their biological age is higher because aging changes have appeared earlier due to improper lifestyle, lack of physical activity, stress, or poor diet.

Let’s remember: the goal of healthspan efforts is not just to extend the years we live, but above all, to improve the quality of those years. So if your biological age is lower than your chronological age, it means your health strategy is effective. If it’s the opposite, it’s time for changes to improve your vitality and performance.

Understanding the difference between chronological and biological age is the key to making conscious efforts to extend health and vitality.

Remember: it’s not chronological age that determines our health status, but biological age.

The question about our biological age is much more complicated than it might seem at first glance. Many people assume that biological age is a single measurement—that our whole body ages at the same rate. In reality, it's much more complex.

Each of our systems and organs ages at its own pace. Our cardiovascular, muscular, skeletal systems, as well as our skin, liver, kidneys, and other organs—all these parts of the body can have completely different biological ages, even within the same person.

The fact that each system ages at a different pace means that the answer to the question about our biological age is not simple. There isn’t one number that can accurately define it. In reality, we have many “biological ages,” depending on the health of different systems and organs.

That’s why an individual approach is so important. Each of us should treat our health holistically, but at the same time pay special attention to particular systems and organs that may need more targeted actions to respond to their specific needs. This strategy allows you to adjust your healthspan practices to your actual state of health, and not just based on general recommendations.

Unfortunately, this means that there is no universal recipe for improving health and extending life. The key is proper diagnosis, analysis of the condition of individual systems, and precise, targeted actions that address the individual needs of our body.

Remember that health is a complex process—different parts of the body can be at completely different “biological ages,” but with the right interventions, we can improve the condition of the entire body and live longer, maintaining full fitness.

The human body is an incredibly complex system, which we've only just begun to understand in depth.

In addition, this very complex human system interacts with an even more complex external environment (which simply means the ecosystem in which we live), creating an unimaginably large number of potential interactions and resulting consequences.

Given how complex the issue is, we should be aware that oversimplifying and using words as labels can lead us astray.

One of the most common label-words is the adjective "healthy".

In Google searches, you can find queries like:

• "Are nuts healthy?"
• "Is running healthy?"
• "Is sauna healthy?"

Additionally, every day we are bombarded with ads for products that scream at us that they're "healthy."

Most people accept this state and it's understandable—life is complicated enough as it is, so we want simple answers. Unfortunately, when it comes to health, this approach can have unpleasant consequences.

The truth is that for every question about whether something is "healthy," the answer should be: "it depends."

Every action (even the most positive, like physical activity) can be harmful in certain circumstances.

Every food product, depending on the state of our body, can be beneficial or detrimental to our health (and more often—it can be partly beneficial and partly detrimental).

For example—nuts provide many valuable nutrients, so in this respect, they are healthy.

However, they are also very calorie-dense—so if you're struggling with obesity, eating a lot of nuts may be more unhealthy than healthy for you.

Also, remember the old truth—the difference between a medicine and a poison is only the dose—the same substance can help or harm, and the dose can be very individual depending on the person.

Before we get to the essence of this lesson, let's recall the key facts:

• The main goal of longevity is to extend health, not life
• Chronological age and biological age are two different things
• Individual elements of our body age at different rates and require individual approaches
• Our body is too complex a system to use simplifying label-words such as "healthy/unhealthy" about it

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Importantly, one action can have many different effects on different elements of our body.

All this creates a very complicated web of dependencies, which can really feel overwhelming.

And in this situation, modern technology comes to the rescue, such as artificial intelligence and projects like Longevity Protocols, which, based on vast amounts of data that exceed human analytic abilities, allow us to take the most optimal steps and achieve the best results.

But putting this complexity aside, I want you to come away from this lesson convinced that by taking specific actions you decide to accelerate or slow down the aging process of your body.

• Decide to eat at McDonald's? Your aging speedometer accelerates.
• Motivated yourself to get up early for the gym? Your aging speedometer slows down.
• Feel like having a drink on the weekend? Of course that's your decision, but be aware that you’re pressing the gas pedal on your aging speedometer.
• Go to bed early on Friday night to ensure 8 hours of sleep? Congratulations, your aging speedometer slows down.

And this is not about judging whether a given action is good/bad, healthy/unhealthy. The point is to know how each action affects your aging speedometer and to make conscious decisions about whether you want to press the gas pedal of your aging, or rather slow it down.

I'm not going to try to convince you to become a radical like Bryan Johnson, who has shaped his entire life around a single goal—to prevent death.

What I do want is that after reading the content on this site:

You have no illusions

Yes, you read that right. I want you to be aware of how specific actions, like eating processed foods, affect your body and to have a concrete number of years in mind that you could lose as a result of that action.

I want you to no longer be able to tell yourself, "one burger doesn't matter."

Every action matters, because each one accelerates or slows your aging speedometer.

I absolutely don't want to encourage you to give up pleasures that are important to you, but I do want you to:

Make conscious decisions

If, because of this website, you decide to set health and longevity goals for yourself, I want to help you achieve them.

I want you to know which of your actions can knock you off your path toward that goal and what actions, and in what intensity, you need to take to get back on track.

I want you to find your own golden mean that best suits your character, capabilities, and aspirations.

Let me illustrate this with the following example

As I write these words, I imagine a person who loves Italian cuisine and finds joy in eating pizza or pasta. However, if this person doesn't take care of their health and doesn't find balance in their preferences, they will quickly start to develop health problems that will take away all pleasure from Italian food and, ultimately, lead to premature death.

So, they will enjoy their passion for Italian food for a much shorter time than a person who, even though they don't deny themselves their pleasures, also takes steps to minimize the harm from those pleasures and takes actions that support their health.

It's simple math—neither of the above examples gives up their pleasure of eating pizza, but one of them will be able to enjoy it much longer.