The Healthspan Code: How to Reverse Biological Age

by Prof Camillo Ricordi, Eve Herold (Editor)

Why Camillo Ricordi, a pioneer in cure-focused research and director of a leading Diabetes Research Institute, is now working also to improve healthy lifespan (Healthspan) and prevent the accelerated aging associated with diabetes and other pandemics of our century. This is in fact a challenge that affects us all, not just patients with diabetes. In the last three years, the longevity has decreased, and for the first time the lifespan of children born now could be inferior to that of their parents' generation. Unhealthy (sick) longevity could in fact be considered the most serious pandemic of the 21st century. However, we can defeat this trend. It is possible to prevent or reduce the phase of physical and mental decline associated to the last decades of life, and prolong Healthspan improving our biological age.

We thought that modern medicine would continue to help us extend and improve the lifespan of humankind. This belief has recently begun to waver. In the United States, over 90% of the population over the age of 65 years old has at least one degenerative disease, and over 75% of subjects has two co-morbidities. The increase in chronic degenerative diseases linked to unhealthy aging, and it’s not just a problem of Americans, but affects every continent. The 21st century is facing at least two other pandemics besides unhealthy aging and autoimmune diseases affecting 20% of the population with 100 disease conditions.

What can we do to reverse this trend?

First, I will discuss the contributing risk factors predisposing us to age-related chronic degenerative conditions, viral and autoimmune diseases. Recent studies have allowed us to discover that some of the factors that contribute to the increased risk of these conditions are the same that contribute to severe progression of Covid-19 and age-related chronic degenerative diseases. Novel biological markers now allow us to identify these risk factors, develop personalized Healthspan interventions, and evaluate the effectiveness of such strategies to rejuvenate or at least slow down biological aging.

I will then outline strategies that could help us fight and defeat the greatest pandemics of our time, including healthy nutrition, physical activity and exercise, integrated with protective molecules, such as polyphenols, activators of sirtuins (the longevity molecules), omega-3 fatty acids, and vitamin D3, to name a few. We have now several natural weapons that will help us prolong the healthy lifespan, but there is no single magic bullet or anti-aging supplement. It takes an integrated approach focused on preventive strategies and Healthspan medicine.

Healthcare expenditures are becoming unsustainable. Increasing healthy lifespan (Healthspan) represents a ethical, moral and mandatory objective that any modern and responsible society should pursue, not only to avoid preventable human suffering, but also because every year added to the Healthspan could save $37 trillion to the global health care economy, and 10 years of improved Healthspan could save over $375 trillion.

I hope this book will be of assistance to understand how the evolution of our lifestyles, unhealthy diets and insufficient protective anti-aging molecules have reduced our Healthspan potential, and how to reverse this trend.

I will anticipate some of the exciting research that could lead to a real reversal of the aging clock, and discuss the future of Healthspan Medicine, to avoid or at least minimize the phase of decline now associated with the last decades of life, and arrive to the end in good physical and mental health.

A commitment to preventive Healthspan medicine is now mandatory and requires integrated efforts at multiple levels of our society, but it is imperative that we start with our personal choices. I'll explain you how.

281 pages, Paperback

Published November 24, 2022