A long life is possible...
A simplistic way to think about aging and disease is to use the analogy of 'wear and tear.' As we age, our cells lose their ability to correctly repair and replicate which, over time, cascades into organ dysfunction and eventually death. It was long understood in medicine that this certain, cellular decay was a natural yet unalterable process. However, in the early 1980s, it was discovered that the lifespan of a species of worms could be increased by altering the genes coded within the DNA. This was a revelation that marked the birth of a new field within medicine: longevity and life expansion. Today, a thriving ecosystem of academia and industry continuously seek to unlock and commercialize the biochemical interventions that can one day make us live even longer.
... but is a long life a good life?
If you were born in the early 1900s, you could expect to live a maximum of about 50 years. In the century since then, average lifespan has increased dramatically and now the average American will live to be 77 years old. This is a remarkable, greater than 50% increase in life expectancy! These fantastic results came from addressing the relevant factors that afflicted society in those times: namely our ability to treat infection, implement community sanitation protocols, and feed our population. However, according to The Global Burden of Disease Study, over the last few decades, even as our life expectancy has increased, the years we live in good health have remained relatively constant. This means that the number of years burdened by poor health has increased. As a result, nearly two-thirds of Americans older than 65 suffer from two or more chronic conditions. We may be living longer lives, yes, but those added years are plagued by the pain and suffering of disease and poor health.
As the fields of longevity and life extension make progress, we must demand that efforts to commercialize technologies and pharmaceutical interventions have the aim of increasing healthy lifespan or health span, not just allowing us to live to be 140 years old. We want 140 years of a healthy life: one where we can move freely, think clearly, and love fully.
Our philosophy:
Humanity's next significant increase in health span will come from the elimination or drastic reduction of chronic illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and hypertension. It is undeniably true that over the last few decades there have been countless technological and scientific advances in diagnostics and therapeutics. In this modern society we have gotten very good at avoiding and delaying death-- we can now use machines to act as your surrogate kidneys, lungs, and even heart! Regretfully, we have made very little progress in reversing and curing chronic conditions-- the low-hanging fruit in increasing health span. This trend only increases the proportion of life spent in poor health. That is not the type of life we want to live.
One of the reasons modern medicine is failing at increasing health span is because the progress being made seems to be in the wrong direction. In a healthcare system driven by profits to treat instead of prevent, the ever-expanding pharmaceutical tool-kit seems to be mistaking correlation for causation in many instances. In the healthcare community have found ourselves chasing numbers such as blood pressure, glucose, and weight without fully addressing the underlying causes of disease.
As human beings we have highly complex systems that are tightly regulated and interconnected and still very far from being fully understood. At The Phoenix Project, we view chronic illness as dysregulation of one or more of these systems, an inability to bounce back to balance and return to homeostasis after some external insult to that system.
Our approach is to optimize the homeostatic ability of these foundational systems-- autonomic, metabolic, circulatory, etc., by adopting a curated set of behaviors and interventions showing scientifically sound evidence of specific benefits. We have selected those actions that have an asymmetrical reward-risk ratio and multiple potential benefits. These activities and behaviors present challenges and stresses that, with proper recovery, lead to adaptation and growth, eventually resulting in you becoming the least fragile and most resilient version of your self.
Our intake process helps determine your needs and set goals and actions that are specific to you. This is where we find your why and develop your how. At The Phoenix Project we can show you the way but ultimately…
only YOU can change.
