How is it possible to increase life expectancy? To find out, we spoke to longevity experts Michael Geer and Peter Ward. They gave tips on extending your lifespan—and how technology can help you increase longevity.

At Humanity, we're using techniques like machine learning and AI to help us measure your rate of chronological and biological ageing. We’ve wrapped it into a superpower and brought it to the masses in a way that’s easy to understand, and could show us ways to increase life expectancy.

Chronological age vs. biological age 

Chronological age is the measure of how much function or lack thereof you have based on comparing you to someone of average function at your age. 

For example, you could be chronologically 40 but biologically 50 if you haven’t looked after yourself. This will show up in a number of biomarkers.

What is ageing? 

• It’s a combination of two processes- one that goes on throughout life, and one that happens late in life. 

• The first process starts the second you’re born. As you go through life, inexorable changes occur to the molecular and cellular structure and composition of your body. This is natural, but the problem is that they accumulate over time. 

• The second process kicks off when the amount of these changes exceed the threshold that your body is set up to tolerate.  

What do you do at SENS Research Foundation? 

• We repair the damage by going in and restoring the molecular structure and composition to how it was at an earlier age. 

• We don’t slow down ageing- we postpone it. 

• The idea is to postpone it indefinitely by continuing to do damage repair. 

Is sleep the best way to avoid illness?

• Sleep has a tremendous effect on your health span, and there's been a huge amount of research that's validated that.

• However, it's so contextual. You need to assess the other aspects of your life in order to find the best way to prevent illness.

• As Peter Drucker said, ‘What gets measured gets managed’. I think apps like Humanity that work on improving quality of life and reducing health risks is the future. 

Are wearables effective for tracking health?

• People need help in interpreting the data that they're obtaining.

• The data is built for scientists to understand, not for the people wearing the devices. 

• Therefore, the data has to be fed back to the customer in order to help them understand what to do about it.

How to increase life expectancy

Many factors contribute to your life expectancy. Things like diet, sleep and exercise are major factors, while you'll want to give your body the tools it needs to increase logevity and live a healthy, long life.

How to extend your lifespan

Diet, exercise, and sleep are major contributers to lifespan. Lifestyle factors, such as smoking, drugs and alcohol will also have a major effect. By tracking biometrics and learning from body measurements, you can begin to understand how to extend lifespan through lifestyle changes.

Resources

• Our Vitals⁺ for ageing.

• Read the 6 tips on how to get more deep sleep for long-term brain care here. 

• Find out how you can slow down the ageing process naturally here.

• Read about the nutrients you need for healthy ageing here.

• For parents: Dr. Craig’s ‘It’s Never Too Late to Sleep Train: The Low-Stress Way to High-Quality Sleep for Babies, Kids, and Parents’.  

• David Sinclair’s ‘Lifespan: Why we age and Why We Don’t Have To’

• SENS Research Foundation