Dr. Katrien De Vusser | Anti-aging, longevity, and preventive medicine: what exactly is that, and where are the greatest gains to be made?
Is longevity pure science, or mostly luxury wellness for those who can afford it? Dr. Barbara Geusens speaks with Dr. Katrien De Vusser, a nephrologist at UZ Leuven and founder of Thrive85, about preventive medicine, healthy aging, and what you can do today to remain independent and vital at age 85.
As a nephrologist, Katrien sees daily what chronic conditions can mean for someone's life. Patients who eventually require dialysis due to diabetes or obesity, for example, often lose a significant portion of their freedom and quality of life. That led her to an important question: could we have intervened earlier?
"Investing in your health is like investing in your pension. What you do now determines whether you will still be able to travel and live independently at 80."
That is where she sees the difference between classical and preventive medicine. Modern medicine is primarily reactive: a problem arises and we then try to treat it as best we can. Preventive medicine tries to look ahead.
After all, everyone has a different risk profile. By bringing together factors such as family history, lifestyle, blood values, and other biomarkers, you can look for processes that may not be causing symptoms today, but could contribute to disease in the long term.
Longevity goes a step further. We quickly associate that with billionaires, biohackers, and extreme routines. Think of Bryan Johnson, who meticulously tries to optimize sleep, nutrition, exercise, and hundreds of biomarkers in an attempt to slow his biological aging. But that is precisely what Katrien wants to distance herself from.
"Instead of focusing on whether you’ll live to be 90 or 100, for most people it is very important to ensure that you still have a good quality of life from 65 to 85, can still go traveling, and play with your grandchildren."
The goal is therefore not to accumulate as many years of life as possible at any cost. It is primarily about healthspan: the number of years in which you are healthy, mobile, and independent.
Because that is precisely where Katrien sees an underestimated problem. From about 60 to 65 years of age, many people begin to face chronic conditions that severely limit their daily lives. Think of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer, osteoporosis, and neurodegenerative disorders such as dementia.
On average, we are living longer, but that does not automatically mean that we spend those extra years in good health.
Science is trying to understand aging better and better. To this end, researchers are looking at, among other things, the so-called hallmarks of aging: biological processes that play a role in getting older.
Where, then, is the greatest gain to be made?
Perhaps surprisingly: not necessarily in expensive treatments, supplements, or complicated technology. According to Katrien, a large part of the benefit lies precisely in habits that are accessible to almost everyone, supplemented by insight into your personal risk profile.
Prevention does not, in fact, begin with a universal protocol. What is important for one person does not have to be for another. By mapping out your own health risks, you can determine much more specifically where the greatest benefit lies for you.
Sleep is an important example of this. Deep sleep, in particular, plays a major role in recovery processes in the brain.
"Our brains flush out waste products during deep sleep. That fuzzy feeling in your head after a three a.m. flight? That’s waste products."
Furthermore, chronically poor sleep is associated with long-term health problems and neurodegenerative processes. Wearables like an Oura Ring can help visualize patterns, but ultimately, it is all about what you do with that information.
Chronic stress also deserves attention. Our body is designed to function in a fight-or-flight mode temporarily, but when that state persists, the body does not have enough room for recovery. Exercise, moments of rest, and simple breathing techniques can help to restore balance.
Another important pillar is strength training. Not just to get fitter, but primarily to maintain muscle mass, bone density, balance, and independence in later life. The message is clear: muscle mass is not an aesthetic luxury, but an investment in your future independence.
According to Katrien, nutrition does not have to become a complicated longevity protocol either. The focus is rather on what you can add than on a long list of forbidden foods.
Longevity for the happy few? No, not according to Dr. Katrien De Vusser
That brings us back to the central question: is longevity primarily luxury wellness for those who can afford it?
Extensive biomarker analyses, biological age tests, and personalized medical programs are indeed not accessible to everyone today. There is inevitably an economic component to that.
But the fundamentals of healthy aging are much more universal: sleeping well, exercising, maintaining muscle, eating healthily, learning to regulate stress, maintaining social connections, and detecting personal risk factors in time.
These are not spectacular biohacks. That is perhaps the most important message: the greatest gains do not necessarily have to be the most expensive ones.
For Katrien, therefore, longevity is not a race to reach one hundred at all costs. It is much more about the question of how to ensure that the extra years you are given are years you can actually live.
