It’s that morbid question we’re all desperate to answer: When will we die?
But now a longevity expert claims to have developed a tool that could provide the answer…
Dr. Paul Savage, who runs a health clinic in Chicago that focuses on helping patients live longer and has spent decades researching the aging process, created a 38-point quiz to get a snapshot of a person’s health.
The answers are fed into an algorithm, which generates a ‘longevity score’ – a person’s life expectancy – based on their health habits, family history and social activity.
Scores below average should encourage people to take action to “improve their health and longevity,” Dr. Savage said.
Scores below average should encourage people to take action to “improve their health and longevity,” Dr. Savage said. The average life expectancy for men is 79 years in the UK and 73 years in the US, while women are expected to live up to 83 years in the UK and 79 years in the US.
Other multiple-choice options cover the frequency of exercise, alcohol consumption, smoking and drug use – known factors that influence health
The average life expectancy for men is 79 years in Britain and 73 years in the US, while women are expected to live up to 83 years in Britain and 79 years in the US.
Dr. Savage, founder of MDLifespan Longevity Clinic, told MailOnline: ‘I designed the Longevity Score as a method to inspire people to evaluate the impact of their environment, lifestyle and the impact of their family history on their longevity.
‘As my grandfather says, “If you don’t look, you can’t see it, and if you don’t measure, you can’t fix it.”
Dr. Savage, a former emergency room doctor who spent 25 years sifting through the latest research on longevity, noted that there is a long list of studies focusing on aging, but said none of them have been turned into a ” practical tool for human use’. the layman’.
His quiz, which can be accessed by clicking hereis based on thousands of studies on the factors shown to influence aging, such as blood pressure, weight and diet.
Dr. Paul Savage, who runs a health clinic in Chicago that focuses on helping patients live longer, created a 38-point quiz to get a snapshot of a person’s health
First, users enter their gender, age, weight and height, as well as the size of their body frame and how much of the day they spend sitting.
Dietary questions include how many servings of fruits and vegetables someone eats and how long they fast per day. The quiz also asks how often someone consumes olive oil.
Time-restricted eating has been found to benefit blood sugar levels, cholesterol levels and blood pressure. But scientists say long-term trials are needed to confirm these effects.
Meanwhile, olive oil is a staple of the Mediterranean diet – considered the gold standard for health.
Other multiple choice options relate to training frequency, alcohol consumption, smoking and drug use.
People are also asked how long they sleep, whether they snore, how often they are tired and worried and how stress affects them.
Getting too little sleep has been linked to a range of conditions, obesity and poor mental health, while snoring is a sign of sleep apnea, which is linked to poor heart health.
It also asks about how often someone reads and interacts with others, and whether they floss – both of which have been linked to dementia.
Routine measurements of cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar, among other things, take into account family history of heart attacks, strokes, cancer and dementia.
People are also asked whether they take a NAD (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) supplement. This molecule occurs naturally in the body and is essential for converting the proteins and fats in food into energy.
However, levels decline with age and proponents claim that supplements slow the aging process and boost energy – although there is no concrete data to support this.
The tool then provides an estimated life expectancy based on the answers and directs people to make an appointment at the clinic if they want to improve their longevity score.
However, the lifespan score calculated by the tool is only an estimate.
The questions are tailored to take into account factors that increase the risk of the top 30 causes of death, including heart disease, cancer and dementia.
However, not every preventable cause of death is taken into account and fatal accidents cannot be taken into account.
Dr. Savage admitted that it is “difficult to determine the accuracy of the quiz,” but its purpose is to help people assess the risk factors that affect their life expectancy so they can consider how to reduce those risks.
“I want people to use this score so they can take actions that will improve their health and longevity,” he said.
‘Many, if not most, of the risk factors people have for their health and longevity can be mitigated through early detection, targeted prevention and intervention.’
He added: ‘A good longevity score can be defined by any score over an individual’s expected lifespan.
“So basically, any score over 73 is a good score for a man, and any score over 79 is for a woman, because you’ve beaten the odds.
‘Personally, I currently have a score of 86, which I am very happy with, as most men in my family die at the age of 70 and only one uncle has lived to be 82 years old. I’m out to break our family record.
“I have faith in medicine, research and our increasing ability to detect disease earlier, intervene with more therapies than ever and prevent my untimely demise.”
The longevity expert offers treatments at his clinic tailored to increasing life expectancy – from weight loss aid to plasma exchange therapy, which the clinic claims removes ‘toxins’ from the body.
While the treatment offered by Mr Savage uses only the patient’s own blood, a similar treatment was adopted by billionaire biohacking guru Bryan Johnson.
The 45-year-old tech mogul, who spends $2 million a year on the quest for eternal youth, traded blood with his teenage son in the hope it would shorten his biological age.
Although the results showed there was no benefit to the treatment, alternative methods of plasma exchange “hold promise,” he said.