We must extend health span, not just life span

All parents fondly wish that their children grow to enjoy a full and fulfilling life. The 20th century saw a marked rise in human life expectancy globally, despite world wars and a host of infectious diseases. However, even a ‘cured’ disease often left behind disabilities that detracted from fulsome functionality and impaired the quality of life, increased dependency on others and carried high financial costs of chronic healthcare. In the second half of the 20th century, maladies of maladapted modernity overtook infectious diseases, nutritional disorders and imperilled maternal and child health as the principal contributors to disease, disability and death. These ‘non-communicable’ diseases included cardiovascular diseases like heart attacks and brain strokes, diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases, cancers and disorders of kidneys, liver, joints, ears and eyes.