By Mark Quirk MSc CertLM, Healthspan Coach and Registered Health Coach

Healthspan is the part of life we spend in generally good health—able to remain active, independent and engaged with the people and activities that matter to us.

We can’t control everything that affects our future health, but we can influence a great deal. I organise those influences into six interconnected pillars: nutrition, movement, sleep, emotional health, relationships and meaning, and minimising harmful substances. Our physical and social environment forms the foundation beneath them.

These are not six rules to perfect. They are six areas we can assess, prioritise and strengthen over time.

It’s sometimes easy to think that our lifestyle only plays a minor part in our long-term health. But, according to a 2016 review paper by Prof. Stephen M. Rappaport, using published data on identical twins, on average, only 18.5% of later life chronic disease risk could be attributed to genes [1].  If people with exactly the same genes rarely share the same later life chronic diseases, it’s fair to say that genes are not the primary driver. How we’ve lived our lives becomes more impactful on our health the longer we live.

So, let’s start with a quick reference for the six areas…

Pillar	How it supports healthspan	A starting point
Nutrition	Metabolic and cardiovascular health, body composition, energy, and gut health	Build meals around minimally processed foods, with plenty of plants and adequate protein
Movement	Fitness, mobility, metabolic and cardiovascular health, and independence	Move frequently, and combine aerobic with resistance exercise
Sleep	Recovery, cognition, and emotional regulation	Protect a consistent sleep pattern, and use active recovery such as gentle movement
Stress and emotional health	Resilience, behaviour, and wellbeing	Develop practical ways to manage, use, and recover from stress
Relationships and meaning	Connection, resilience, wellbeing, and engagement	Invest deliberately in supportive relationships and purposeful activity
Minimise harmful substances	Reduces avoidable health risks	Avoid smoking and keep alcohol within lower-risk limits

Pillar 1: Nutrition quality, quantity, and timing

There is no single perfect diet. We only have to look around the world to see populations enjoying long lives while eating quite different foods—from traditional Japanese diets to the Mediterranean eating patterns of countries such as Greece, Spain and Italy.

That doesn’t mean all diets are equally good for us. Despite their differences, healthier dietary patterns tend to share important features: plenty of minimally processed plant foods, adequate protein, sources of healthy fats, and relatively few ultra-processed foods.

There is growing evidence that diets high in ultra-processed foods are associated with poorer health, particularly cardiometabolic health.  But most of us already know, broadly speaking, that minimally processed foods are likely to be better for us.  The real challenge is not simply knowing what we “should” eat; it is consistently putting that knowledge into practice.

Food packaging can make that harder.  Claims such as “high protein,” “low fat,” or “supports bone health” may describe one characteristic of a product without telling us much about its overall nutritional quality.  It is therefore helpful to look beyond individual marketing claims and consider where a food sits on the spectrum from minimally processed to ultra-processed.  I describe this as food quality.

We can then combine quality with food quantity.  This does not mean there is a single correct amount for everyone: how much energy and nutrition we need varies with our body, health, and activity.

The third consideration is timing.  Our metabolism follows a daily rhythm, and our bodies generally handle food less effectively during the biological night. Regularly eating shortly before bed, or during the hours when we would normally be asleep, may therefore affect appetite, blood glucose, and metabolic health.  So, timing complements food quality and quantity.

Over time, the combined pattern of what we eat, how much we eat and when we eat can influence our body composition, blood glucose, cardiovascular risk, energy levels, and gut health.  Nutrition may also affect mood and psychological wellbeing.  Getting these three elements broadly right – not perfectly, but consistently – can make a meaningful contribution to our healthspan.

Pillar 2: Movement, Fitness, and Strength

Our bodies function at their best when they get plenty of movement.  That movement doesn’t have to be formal exercise, which, after all, is a relatively recent idea.  Until comparatively recently, everyday life and work required most of us to move considerably more than we do today.

But we cannot escape the reality that far fewer of us need to move very much to earn an income, travel somewhere, find food, or complete everyday tasks.  That makes it increasingly important to create opportunities for movement rather than relying on daily life to provide them.

We consistently see that fitter and more physically active people tend to develop the health challenges associated with ageing later and live longer.  Maintaining muscle strength, balance and mobility also helps protect our ability to perform everyday tasks and reduces the risk of falls [2,3].

Perhaps just as importantly, being fitter and stronger allows us to continue participating in life on our own terms.  That might mean remaining independent, doing our own shopping, driving, enjoying holidays, friendship, or being actively involved in the lives of our children, grandchildren or great-grandchildren.  Fitness is not simply about performing well in a gym; it helps preserve our ability to do the things that matter to us.

If we assume that getting older means we should exercise less, the UK physical activity guidelines may be surprising [7].  For adults aged 19 and over the guidelines suggest being active every day, aiming for at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity (increased breathing, able to talk but not sing), or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity (breathing fast, difficulty talking).  Plus, do activity to build strength on at least two days per week.  For older adults, the guidelines additionally emphasise activities that improve balance and flexibility on two days per week to improve balance (yes, additionally, not instead of).

Activities can be combined, of course.  Carrying heavy shopping bags, for example, could involve strength, balance, and some aerobic effort.  Though we probably wouldn’t do activities like this frequently enough to meet our activity guidelines.  So deliberate exercise helps us build the capacity when everyday life calls upon it.

So, move frequently, sometimes quickly, and sometimes with heavy things.

Pillar 3: Sleep, rest, and recovery

People quote the Bon Jovi song – “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.” It’s an interesting idea, all the wasted time sleeping when we could be enjoying ourselves or finishing an important project.  But it’s a terrible idea if you want to perform optimally and live well.

Sleep is a critical part of our body’s overall repair and recovery strategy, as well as memory consolidation. It’s heavily influenced by an internal timing system synchronised with our 24-hour day and night cycle.  It’s called the circadian rhythm and runs at its best when the timings are consistent.

While sleeping, our body removes waste products, repairs, and consolidates so our body and mind can operate more efficiently.  When we don’t give it this opportunity, we will eventually reap the cost of sleep disruption.

But what if we struggle to sleep?  It’s a widespread problem, and we look to sleep science for understanding while focusing on your situation – and hopefully, restore some normality because it is worth the investment for a good night’s sleep.

Pillar 4: Stress and emotional health skills

Have you ever:

• Said something you wish you hadn’t said?
• Done something you wish you hadn’t done?
• Thought something you wish you hadn’t thought?
• Felt in a way you didn’t want to feel?

If so, welcome to the human race.

Emotion is a powerful driver of thoughts and behaviour, and sometimes leads to pleasure and delight, but can also lead to the all the too common experiences of stress and anxiety.  I often say that resilience is not the absence of stress or discomfort; there is no need for resilience if something doesn’t feel difficult.  And we learn resilience.

How we engage in the physical and mental processes of daily life is based on skills we have learned, from our earliest days in the playground right through to the experiences we have today.  And given how impactful emotion can be, it’s worth proactive practice to build the skills of emotional resilience.

Pillar 5: Supportive relationships and meaning

We’re social creatures.  Even those of us who would describe ourselves as more introverted, enjoying our own company, are still fundamentally social.  This isn’t about our preference for social engagement, whether we enjoy parties or a bath with a good book; it’s about biological processes that lead us to connect with others – whether from afar, with one other, or a hundred others.

One of the longest-running social science studies. The Harvard Study of Adult Development, intended to examine what leads to success in life.  It started tracking 268 Harvard University 2^nd-year men in 1938, and more recently expanding to include women [4,5].

For more than 40 years, George Vaillant has been the project director.  In an interview, from his experience and the enormous amount of data they had gathered over 71 years, he was asked to summarise what they had learned made a good life [6].  His summary:

“The only thing that really matters in life
are your relationships to other people.”

George Vaillant

Success, from this study, is not about material possessions or career highs but about the quality of our connections with others – yes, not the quantity of connections, but the quality of the relationships.

Meaning in life doesn’t have to be about changing the world; it can be simple and is always personal.  As social creatures, it seems that what we find meaningful most often relates to other people.

Supportive relationships and meaning relate to healthspan.  The Harvard study supports this as do other types of study [8,9]. Repeatedly, we see those who live well longer have robust relationships and meaningful lives.

Pillar 6: Minimise harmful substances

The most obvious candidates in this category are tobacco products and alcohol, though I’ll often include ultra-processed foods here too. Minimising harmful substances is a pretty straightforward general argument regarding health.

Tobacco is the clearest example: avoiding smoking is one of the most consequential steps we can take to protect long-term health. Alcohol is more complicated because its risks vary according to both amount and individual circumstances, but drinking less generally means lower risk. UK guidance advises men and women not to regularly drink more than 14 units a week, ideally spread over three or more days—and drinking nothing is also a healthy choice.

With alcohol, we often hear mixed opinions. However, the UK chief medical officers lowered the recommended weekly safe units to fourteen for men and women back in 2016.

The foundation: Environment – micro and macro

None of the six pillars exists in isolation. Our surroundings can make healthy choices easier or harder, from access to nutritious food and safe places to exercise, to working hours, financial resources, social norms, air quality, and the conditions in which we sleep.

Which pillar should you work on first?

You don’t need to overhaul all six at once. The most useful starting point depends on your current health, priorities, circumstances, and what feels realistically changeable.

In one-to-one healthspan coaching, we assess where you are now, identify the areas most likely to make a meaningful difference, and turn them into practical changes that fit your life. There’s good evidence to support each of the pillars, but which is most worthy of your focus and how to apply it to your daily life is rarely so straightforward and often requires experimentation.  If the advice to exercise, eat well, and get enough sleep were enough, fewer of us would have preventable chronic diseases.

So we loop around a process:

Together, the intent is to improve your health and wellbeing for today and extend your healthspan for tomorrow.

Which pillar feels the strongest at present? And, which one, if improved, might make the biggest difference?

Get in touch or book a free introductory conversation with Mark

References

1. Rappaport SM. 2016 Genetic factors are not the major causes of chronic diseases. PLoS One 11, 1–9. (doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0154387)

2.  Lexell J, Taylor CC, Sjöström M. 1988 What is the cause of the ageing atrophy? J. Neurol. Sci. 84, 275–294. (doi:10.1016/0022-510x(88)90132-3)

3. Mandsager K, Harb S, Cremer P, Phelan D, Nissen SE, Jaber W. 2018 Association of Cardiorespiratory Fitness With Long-term Mortality Among Adults Undergoing Exercise Treadmill Testing. JAMA Netw. open 1, e183605. (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2018.3605)

4. Shenk JW, Vaillant G. 2009 What Makes Us Happy? Atl. See http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/06/what-makes-us-happy/307439/2/?single_page=true.

5. In press. Harvard study of Adult Development. Harvard Med. Sch. See https://www.adultdevelopmentstudy.org/.

6. Vaillant GE. 2009 Yes, I Stand by My Words, “Happiness Equals Love—Full Stop”. Posit. Psychol. News See http://positivepsychologynews.com/news/george-vaillant/200907163163.

7. Physical activity guidelines: UK Chief Medical Officers’ report. Updated, September, 2026. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/physical-activity-guidelines-uk-chief-medical-officers-report

8. Zábó V et al. 2025 The role of purpose in life in healthy aging: implications for the Semmelweis Study and the Semmelweis-EUniWell Workplace Health Promotion Model Program. Geroscience. 47, 2817–2833. (doi:10.1007/s11357-025-01625-6)

9. Sutin AR, Luchetti M, Karakose S, Stephan Y, Terracciano A. 2025 Meaning in life and all-cause and cause-specific mortality in the UK Biobank. J Psychosom Res188. (doi:10.1016/j.jpsychores.2024.111971)