When someone says that age “is just a number,” they’re talking about a fact of life that everyone knows: As some people get older, they hold onto a youthful vitality and suffer less from age-related illness, while others feel and show the toll of advancing years.
And with so many of us living longer than previous generations, the measure of lifespan, or the number of years we exist, is increasingly overshadowed by the concept of “healthspan,” meaning the number of years we spend in reasonably good health.
It’s not just how long we live, but how well.
We’re all too familiar with the diseases and conditions associated with aging, from heart attack, stroke, and osteoarthritis to Alzheimer’s and dementia. Roughly 95 percent of people over 65 are afflicted with at least one of these conditions, and nearly four out of five have two or more!
Aging has not only physical and cognitive costs, but financial as well, with the price we pay for health care skyrocketing during our final decades.
And yet we all know seniors who can run a marathon, dance all night, and remain cognitively sharp as a tack. What are they doing differently from the rest of us? And how might we alter our lifestyles to improve our own healthspan?
Are you aging well? Take our quiz to find out.
Doctors and researchers have explored those same issues for years – and the scientific consensus is that while much of the aging process is inevitable, with some natural level of decline, studies indicate that changes in lifestyle and some medical interventions can slow down that process
Indeed, there is evidence that we can even reverse some of the aging biomarkers in our DNA and cells. Science tells us that there are ways to achieve a longer, healthier, and happier life.
It's never too early -- or too late -- to start aging better.
The first step toward improving our healthspan is to understand how well we are aging – and you can do exactly that by completing our quiz. Developed by Aviv Clinics and based on clinical data about longevity, health history, and genetics, its results can help you determine whether you are aging too quickly, aging well, or have the potential to be a “Super Ager.”
Aviv Clinics has revolutionized the aging process with a unique medical program that targets cognitive and physical decline. Aviv’s evidence-based treatment program addresses age-related damage to the brain and body that prevents us from enjoying a high quality of life into our golden years. It’s never too late – and certainly never too early – to start aging better with a customized plan to achieve your goals.
But every journey begins with a first step. Now is the time to take the free aging quiz and get started.
BREAKING: Ted Cruz Still Thinks You’re Dumb
In November, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) told a crowd not made up of Tea Partiers that he didn’t want a government shutdown — and they laughed.
On ABC’s This Week, the senator made the same point and even Jon Karl — a journalist who was nurtured by the conservative movement — didn’t buy it.
“You have had a couple of months to think about this whole government shutdown strategy,” Karl said. “Now that it’s over in hindsight, are you prepared to say that it was a mistake, it wasn’t the right tactic?”
“I think it was absolutely a mistake for President Obama and Harry Reid to force a government shutdown,” Cruz said.
“No, I mean, but come on,” Karl said.
Cruz’s argument rests on the fact that demanding the president defund his signature legislative accomplishment less than a year after that president was re-elected by a margin of millions of votes was a reasonable demand. And the president should have rewarded Republicans for shutting down the government over that demand. Even the Republican leadership in the House didn’t buy that argument, as Speaker John Boehner pointed out before the shutdown and after it — yet he still went along with the strategy.
In the same interview with Karl, Cruz insisted he doesn’t play politics.
Meanwhile he’s made several trips to states crucial to winning the 2016 GOP presidential nomination and is now attempting to renounce his Canadian citizenship.
The senator may find that it will actually be easier to qualify to run for president than to remove his Canadian birthright from his record.