Road to 100
Retaining Deep Health into Your 90’s And Beyond
Recently my Deep Health co-author Rob Kowal shared a video of a 99-year old gentleman, Nat Hines, a WWII veteran who works out at the gym every day. Nat, now 100, attributed his longevity to “keeping the body active.” I had to look no farther than my father, who recently turned 91 and does what Nat does in that he also keeps active.
Rob and I wrote “Deep Health: Using Artificial Intelligence to Live Longer & Healthier” (Amazon.ca) after we experienced health scares and started using smart technology to inform ourselves and alter our behaviors for a richer, more active, and healthier lifestyle. Deep Health refers to the use of technology in alignment with fitness, nutrition, supplements, sleep patterns, water intake, and more to improve one’s health and longevity. By leveraging new tools powered by artificial intelligence, the user can be hyper-aware of their body, use that information to diagnose their strengths and opportunities, customize or personalize their health regimen with more significant impact and share that data with their healthcare practitioners,
Early on, we discovered the difference between one’s chronological age (your age according to your birth certificate) and one’s biological age (your age based on a myriad of physiological factors). One look at Nat Hines, and you will understand. His birth certificate may say he was born in 1920, but his physiology would suggest a man decades younger.
The Over 90 World Today
Over the last 65 years (1955–2020), life expectancy in the world has increased from 47.0 years (both sexes) to 73.2 years, with the highest proportion of those over-65 (19%) in Europe. Of the 7.7 billion global population in 2020, the population aged 65 and older was 9.3 percent. The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs says those over aged-90 will grow to over 23,000,000 by 2030 from 16,700,000 in 2020. According to the US Census Bureau, “Because of increases in life expectancy at older ages, people 90 and older now comprise 4.7 percent of the older population (age 65 and older), as compared with only 2.8 percent in 1980. By 2050, this share is likely to reach 10 percent.”
Nat’s advice for people of his age group? “Get started,” he says. We agree. When my doctor told me, I had to stop working immediately after years of travel, hotels, back-to-back meetings, and stress, I had to start from the very beginning. My health had become so poor, I could only make it halfway down the street, I was 30 pounds overweight, and my skin color was a sickly shade of grey. But I got started, and today, four years later, my biological age is about 20 years younger than my chronological age.
One 2018 US study titled “Trajectories of Nonagenarian Health: Sex, Age, and Period Effects” by Odden et al. in the American Journal of Epidemiology found that “As the nonagenarian population in the United States continues to grow, it is important to consider these age-related declines (cognitive) when planning for the health-care resources needed to support this population. Interestingly, depressive symptoms and self-rated health did not worsen with age. These data suggest that although health may be declining, mental health and the perception of health are relatively consistent in older age”.
Centenarians and AI
Can centenarians (all older people, for that matter) benefit from artificial intelligence? The answer is yes — in so many ways.
First, do nonagenarians have access to the technology? Increasingly so. The 2016 US census reported over 71% living in a family household, and over 64% in a non-family household had internet access. Alexa-type voice-activated home services are more popular than ever. Can they use the technology available to them? Some sources argue, that due to covid, seniors have needed to become more tech savvy than in the past due to isolation.
Smartwatches are becoming a commodity and can monitor heart rate, the number of steps taken, sleep patterns but can identify a fall and offer, at a push of a button, to call for emergency services. Powered by AI algorithms (software instructions) that can collect, analyze and summarize vast amounts of data, smartwatches provide seniors with insight into themselves they would not otherwise have.
Given the increasing life expectancy of humans and growing access to the internet, commoditization and commercialization of artificial intelligence-powered products and services (i.e., smart tech) will provide hyper-personalized information, keeping active nonagenarians leveraging AI, giving them a chance at a better quality of life.
If you live alone in Korea, you can benefit from an Alexa-like solution called Aria. Manufactured by SK Telecom and marketed as SK Telecom’s AI Care, speakers powered by AI reduce loneliness, prevent dementia, improve cognitive function through brain exercises, share a funny story, ensure immediate emergency care, and offer health safety tips to the user. Keeping you safe and healthy.
Seniors who don’t feel comfortable visiting their healthcare practitioner have options now. According to the CDC, “during the first quarter of 2020, the number of telehealth visits increased by 50%, compared with the same period in 2019, with a 154% increase in visits noted in surveillance week 13 in 2020, compared with the same period in 2019.” Adopting smartwatches in combination with smartphones, glucose meters, etc., seniors can transmit their data to their healthcare practitioners without w visit and provide more trend data versus single visit data. Augmenting telehealth visits with the transmission of personal healthcare data can transition the effectiveness of a patient “visit” to new levels with not just single-point data but trend data over extended periods. This is where digital or deep health comes in.
Five Things to Do Today Towards Deep Health:
1) Take the time to get to know yourself better, especially as you age and fit into that category your pharmacist says is “senior”, to relish in your good health.
2) Invest in a smart scale (we use the Etekcity version — under $US 50 in most cases) to learn about 11 health factors other than your weight
3) Talk to your healthcare practitioner about what information they believe is relevant for your unique health and start tracking.
4) Comparison shop for a smartwatch that fits your price range and needs (Rob uses Apple products, and I use Samsung). There are lots available on the market today.
5) Find someone that motivates you (whether to chat for inspiration or get ideas from) to keep progressing on your deep health journey.
If you would like to learn more about successfully navigating the digital health world and embedding the technology into your health regimen, purchase our book on Amazon or see our contact information below.
#digitalhealth #ai #artificialintelligence #healthcare #healthtechnology #fitnesstechnology
Copyright 2021, 2020 Aquitaine Innovation Advisors.com
Brian Lenahan is the author of four Amazon-published books on artificial intelligence, including the Bestseller “Artificial Intelligence: Foundations for Business Leaders and Consultants”. He is a former executive in a Top 10 North American bank, a University Instructor, and mentors innovative companies in the Halton and Hamilton areas. Brian’s training in AI comes from MIT, and he writes extensively on artificial intelligence and quantum computing.
Email: ceo@aquitaineinnovationadvisors.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-lenahan-innovation/
Aquitaine Innovation Advisors: www.aquitaineinnovationadvisors.com
