‘Aging Isn’t Inevitable’: The co-author of 100 Year Life on how to live well longer

Thirty-year-olds should start planning their retirement. Fifty-year-olds need to make younger friends and sixty-year-olds need to go back to school.

This is in a book that explores how we can prevent one of humanity’s greatest achievements from turning into a nightmare.

Andrew Scott, the co-author of The 100-Year Life, will publish a paper on March 14: The Longevity Imperative. In it he argues that our longer lifespans are leading to a new era of humanity. “Get ready for a fundamental change in what it means to be human,” he says.

Scott’s call has sparked a political and health debate: James Bethell, a Conservative former health minister and peer, called it “the most important book of the year.”

He added: “It highlights that the current government has no vision or commitment to solving these problems. It’s sloppy, lazy and doesn’t take the health of our children seriously.

“The public gets what needs to change – it is the political leadership that is the stumbling block, by which I mean the Prime Minister, doctors, policy makers and the Treasury and Office for Budget Responsibility, which are unable to keep up with developments. impact of public health measures.”

Scott argues that without fundamental social transformation, we will slide into a dystopian near future of rising healthcare costs, a pension crisis, mass dementia and overwhelmed nursing homes.

We’re already part of the way there, he says. The retirement age will rise to 67 in April 2026, against the backdrop of a continued rise in the number of unemployed due to illness, and only 9% of men and 16% of women born today can expect to reach state pension age in achieve good health.

There are 2.8 million people who are not looking for work due to health problems – an increase of a third from the 2.1 million before the Covid pandemic.

But if we approach it differently, our longer lifespans could be the greatest gift humanity has ever received, Scott says.

“This could be a starting point in human history,” he said. “Aging is not inevitable. It can be delayed and even postponed. Better aging is about increasing healthy life expectancy, so that the life expectancy gap is closed.”

The retirement age should be linked to healthy life expectancy, not life expectancy, says Scott. But we must prepare for our longer lives at an increasingly younger age. Instead of focusing resources on supporting the elderly, we should help young people become the healthiest old people ever.

“If life expectancy continues to rise, but healthy life expectancy and productivity also increase, there is no need to increase the retirement age,” he said.

Scott takes a closer look at the government’s response to longevity by simply raising the retirement age, cutting pensions and raising taxes.

He claims that the NHS focuses on keeping people alive, but not on health – only 2.5% of total healthcare spending in high-income countries is on prevention rather than intervention. He wants science to stop trying to eradicate individual diseases and instead focus on slowing aging.

Scott also says people don’t plan far enough in advance to avoid later decades being plagued by ill health, loneliness and poverty.

Dr. Penny Dash, responsible for improving the health and healthcare of 2.5 million people in her role as chair of the integrated care system in North West London, said that over the past two decades the NHS has tried to shift resources from hospitals to primary care . , community care and social care.

“However, change is not always popular, and traditional perspectives on healthcare are what keep hospitals in business,” says Dash, who has advised local, regional and national healthcare systems worldwide.

“But with at least a third of hospital beds occupied by people who don’t need to be there, and who are at risk of losing muscle mass and independence in the process – and large numbers of people with undiagnosed and/or undertreated long-term conditions, such as high blood pressure or diabetes – we clearly need to make more substantial changes in the coming years if we are to achieve improvements in health and quality of life.”

How to live a multi-stage life

1. Mix it

Create multi-stage careers to match the multi-stage lives that come with longer lives. We have more years to use – in our twenties, when we discover who we are, in our thirties, when we have small families, and in our forties, when you want to retrain because you you still have thirty years of work left.

2. Be prepared

A multi-stage life will have many ups and downs. We need to think about our finances, networks – professional and personal – and our identities. We need to build a wide range of options for different transitions at different times.

3. Back to school

We must develop a lifelong focus on healthcare and education. Stay informed about the future and continuously scan for what you need next.

4. Diversify for the future

Consider what your current role is teaching you that could be useful for later transitions. Do you work in a shrinking sector? Is your current job age-friendly? Do you have portable skills? Can you imagine convincing a potential employer of this?

5. Go beyond a peak

With a multi-stage life, continuous progression to a higher salary is not the only goal. Think about what you need at different ages.