There is something fascinating happening in the way we talk about ageing. For much of human history, living to an advanced age was itself the aspiration. Now, as our understanding of biology becomes increasingly sophisticated, the conversation has shifted. We don’t just want to live longer. We want to influence how we age.

And I think there is something incredibly hopeful about that. But I also wonder whether, somewhere among the wearables, biomarkers, supplements, protocols and increasingly detailed attempts to optimise our biology, we risk losing sight of what we are actually trying to achieve. Because longevity, in and of itself, is just time – the more interesting question is what we hope to be able to do with it.

When I think about ageing well, I don’t picture a number on a laboratory result or candles on a birthday cake. I think about capacity. Being able to get down on the floor with your grandchildren and get back up again. Carrying your own groceries or wheelbarrows of mulch for your garden. Walking through an unfamiliar city on holiday. Remembering the conversation you had yesterday as well as one from decades ago. Having the energy to accept an invitation rather than feeling that life has become something you increasingly need to conserve yourself for.

Remaining curious, useful , learning and connected. Still feeling like you.

This is why I think the distinction between lifespan and healthspan matters so much.

Lifespan asks: how long did you live?

Healthspan asks: how much life was there in those years?

Have we made longevity too complicated?

There is extraordinary research happening in the biology of ageing and I find much of it fascinating. Yet, there is also a very human tendency to become captivated by what is new, sophisticated and measurable. We search for the intervention that might move the needle. The supplement. The protocol. The technology. The latest piece of information that promises to help us optimise something we weren’t even measuring a decade ago.

Yet many of the things most fundamental to our health remain remarkably ordinary.

Nourishment, movement, muscle mass, sleep quality, sunshine, water, metabolic health, connection, how we respond to and recover from stress – none of these feel particularly futuristic. Perhaps that is why they can be so easy to underestimate. Yet, I don’t believe we can optimise our way around the foundations and they’ve been part of preventative health for a long time.

What are you building now for the person you’ll be later?

Perhaps one of the most useful ways to think about longevity is not as something we pursue in old age, but something we are shaping throughout our lives. The muscle you build and preserve now influences what your body may be capable of later. The way you nourish yourself provides the raw materials your body needs for the countless biochemical processes that keep you functioning. Your metabolic health influences far more than the number on the scales. Sleep isn’t time lost from your day. It is part of the biological work that allows you to have another one.

And then there are the parts of health we can’t capture neatly on a blood test. Relationships, purpose, belonging, contribution, joy. Feeling that your life still asks something of you. I think these deserve a place in the longevity conversation too. Because there would be something deeply ironic about becoming so preoccupied with extending and optimising life that we forgot to participate fully in the one we already have.

Maybe longevity needs a different question

I’m not suggesting we stop being curious about ageing. Quite the opposite. The science is giving us extraordinary insights into the ways our choices today may influence our health decades from now. There is enormous value in understanding that. Yet, perhaps the goal isn’t to collect the greatest possible number of years. Perhaps it is to arrive in those years with as much of ourselves intact as possible.

Our strength. Our independence. Our curiosity. Our relationships. Our ability to contribute. Our appetite for being here on this planet. So alongside asking how can I live longer?, perhaps there is another question worth asking every now and then.

What do I want those extra years to be for?

Because once you know the answer to that, looking after your health stops being about chasing longevity for longevity’s sake. It becomes about protecting your capacity to keep living the life that matters and is meaningful to you.