Assets

To build health consciously, we first need to know what it is made of.

A good investor doesn’t make decisions based on “gut feeling” – they analyse specific assets, their value, trend and impact on the whole portfolio.

Health works in a similar way.

First: what you measure – you can improve.

If you know how much muscle mass you have, what your VO₂max is, what your glycaemia looks like, what your stress level is, how your bones or memory are functioning – you can develop, optimise and protect these areas. If you don’t measure them, you are acting in the dark.

Second: every asset affects the others.

The body is a system of communicating vessels. One asset strengthens or weakens the rest:

• muscle mass affects bone density, metabolism and injury resistance,
• VO₂max improves metabolic health, brain function and recovery,
• mobility affects strength, technique and injury risk,
• metabolic health influences the heart, brain and inflammatory processes,
• cognitive functions affect emotions, stress and the quality of everyday decisions.

Strengthening one asset strengthens the entire portfolio. Neglecting one weakens the whole.

A neglected asset doesn’t just “deteriorate” on its own – it also accelerates the degradation of the others.

• Losing muscle leads to poorer posture, weaker metabolism and more joint problems.
• Low VO₂max reduces your energy levels and limits your ability to recover.
• Stress and lack of sleep wreck your hormonal balance and metabolism.
• Weakened bones limit movement – and that makes everything else worse.

That’s why the health portfolio is so demanding – one weak asset drags the rest down.

Fourth: health assets allow us to predict:

• lifespan,
• healthspan – healthy years of life,
• disease risk,
• functional capacity in late old age.

Assets are the foundation of the Longevity Investment Strategy. They tell you where you are, where you’re heading and what you need to do to live the way you want at 80 – not just the way biology would otherwise allow.

To consciously accumulate health, we need to know what this capital is made of. That’s why in the Longevity Investment Strategy we use a clear three-level structure of biological assets – from the most general level to the most measurable.

This hierarchy allows you to:

• bring order to the chaos of information,
• understand the connections between different health domains,
• identify the weakest links,
• plan development consciously and logically,
• track progress like capital growth.

Categories: the highest level of the health portfolio

Three broad domains in which we accumulate biological capital:

1. Physical health
2. Cognitive health
3. Emotional health

Each category includes distinct aspects of how the body functions and forms a separate pillar of longevity.

Asset classes within each category

Each category contains specific asset classes – areas that can be developed and strengthened separately.

Physical health:

• Body composition
• Strength and power
• Bone health
• Cardiorespiratory fitness
• Metabolic health
• Mobility and balance

Cognitive health:

• Memory
• Processing speed
• Executive functions and attention
• Cognitive reserve and learning capacity

Emotional health:

• Emotional resilience
• Stress regulation
• Sense of meaning and purpose
• Social relationships

This is a structure that lets you see health not as one whole, but as a set of distinct, interdependent domains.

Assets within asset classes

At the lowest level of the hierarchy we have biological assets – that is, specific metrics, also called biomarkers, that we can measure, monitor and develop. These are what show whether your health portfolio is growing, staying flat or beginning to shrink.

It’s worth emphasising that:

• there are very many biological assets,
• each asset class can have dozens or even hundreds of possible biomarkers,
• different metrics have different predictive power and practical usefulness.

Below you’ll find example assets (metrics) for each class. For now I’ll show you only a few to start with, and then we’ll gradually introduce more. We’ll discuss each of these metrics and its significance in detail in later lessons.

Physical health – example metrics

Body composition

• body fat percentage (BF%)
• visceral adipose tissue (VAT)
• fat-free mass

Strength and power

• one-rep max (1RM)
• vertical jump height
• grip strength

Cardiorespiratory fitness

• VO₂max
• resting heart rate
• heart rate recovery speed

Metabolic health

• fasting glucose
• fasting insulin
• HOMA-IR index
• ApoB

Bone health

• bone mineral density (BMD)
• T-score

Mobility and balance

• range of motion
• gait speed

Cognitive health – example metrics

Memory

• results of verbal and visual memory tests

Processing speed

• reaction time

Executive functions and attention

• Stroop test
• working memory tasks

Cognitive reserve and learning capacity

• indicators of learning efficiency

Emotional health – example metrics

Emotional resilience

• heart rate variability (HRV)

Stress regulation

• Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)

Sense of meaning and purpose

• validated psychological questionnaires

Social relationships

• frequency and quality of social interactions

Biological assets are the measurable foundation of the Longevity Investment Strategy. They allow you to turn health from an abstract concept into a concrete numerical portfolio that you can grow, monitor and protect throughout your life.

Thanks to assets, the strategy becomes:

• objective – based on data, not opinions or trends,
• measurable – it lets you track progress, identify weak links and optimise your actions,
• scalable – it works regardless of your starting point, age or level of advancement,
• aligned with your goals – every asset supports your personal “why” and your vision for life in later decades,
• implemented through the protocol and your path – assets define what should be in your daily plan and how your long-term progression should evolve.

Understanding assets is the first step to building a health portfolio that will pay you biological dividends for the rest of your life.