Soulspan and Medicine 4.0

What is Soulspan? If we contrast it with lifespan (how long you live) and healthspan (how long you remain healthy and functional):

Soulspan is the full arc of a soul’s growth and becoming throughout their lifetime. It is the unfolding of a person's inner life through love, suffering, faith, relationships, self-discovery, and the search for meaning.

A person's soulspan might expand through a profound loss, a spiritual awakening, an act of forgiveness, a new relationship, or the discovery of a purpose later in life. It isn't necessarily linear, and it isn't measured in years.

In his #1 New York Times bestselling book Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity, author and physician Peter Attia, MD, introduces the concept of  “Medicine 3.0.”  He contrasts it with Medicine 2.0, which is the current state of medicine, focused on diagnosing and treating disease when it becomes obvious. He advocates for prevention and medical care that is focused on the identification of health risks early and intervention before disease develops - Medicine 3.0. He suggests identifying the functional capabilities we want when we are 90 years old and work backwards. The goal is to compress the period of illness and disability toward the very end of life rather than spending the last 10–20 years gradually losing function. 

Attia lays out a practical 5-step strategy for enhancing healthspan that we can further expand upon:

01 |  Exercise

Addressing four types of physical capacity:

• Aerobic endurance

• VO₂ max / high-intensity aerobic fitness

• Strength

• Stability, balance and mobility

Attia shifts focus from “exercise to stay fit.”  To train for the physical abilities you’ll need decades from now.

02 | Nutrition

Attia doesn’t believe there is one perfect diet for everyone. Instead, he emphasizes nutrition for optimal metabolic health that will look a little different for everyone:

• Adequate protein

• Maintaining a healthy body composition (body mass index or BMI) 

• Avoiding chronic overconsumption of calories

• Minimizing highly processed foods

• Improving metabolic health

• Choosing a sustainable eating pattern

03 | Medications and supplements

Attia discusses what he calls “exogenous molecules”—medications, hormones, and supplements based upon an individual’s biomarkers. This is one of the areas of Attia’s framework that expands beyond traditional medical guidelines and leans into longevity medicine with a focus on aggressive risk reduction and emerging longevity approaches.

04 | Sleep

Sleep is a fundamental biological process rather than simply something that affects how energetic you feel. Poor sleep can affect:

• metabolic health

• cardiovascular risk

• cognitive function

• emotional health

• exercise recovery

05 | Emotional Health

The final step in Attia’s framework, emotional health is a significant part of his personal healthspan journey. He argues that there is little value in extending your life if you aren’t able to enjoy relationships and meaningfully participate in the lives of the people you love. From his lived experience, he strongly advocates that emotional health cannot be ignored.  

This is the perfect segue to considering healthspan+ soulspan as Medicine 4.0. Imagine approaching your longevity with a conversation about your interior life as often as your physician visits or routine dental exams?!?

Many people regularly consult experts such as Nutritionists, Trainers, and Behavioral Therapists, to enhance their wellness and longevity. But what are we doing about our interior lives? Who is mentoring or guiding us? There’s no right answer here. There are many religions, faith practices, and beliefs about spirituality that we may disagree. Though what we can agree on is we are human beings on this planet at the same time and have no control over most things. Seeking understanding of this cosmic, physical, and spiritual world and our purpose in it is one of life’s greatest mysteries. The right answer is that we actively acknowledge our human limitations and seek relationship with something bigger than ourselves - the force that put us here at this very moment in time. Soulspan is a matter of how well you have learned to journey through life’s joys and suffering as a force for good.  

What’s stopping us from Medicine 4.0? Who can we check in with about our spiritual life? What are we doing to strengthen it? How are we exercising our “spiritual muscles”? Let’s consider adding a 6th step to Attia’s framework for longevity.

06 | Interior Life

This may be the most important concept when considering how we want to live as we age. 

• What is my purpose?

• What am I doing to fulfill my life mission?

• What legacy do I wish to leave? 

Ponder these questions regularly and work backwards by seeking a relationship with God in prayer! 🙏 Support your interior life by joining a faith community and building relationships with others who share your beliefs and support your growth. To ignore our soulspan would be to miss out on the richness of our purpose throughout our lifespan, the grace and peace that carry us through the inevitable times of suffering, and the unconditional love that we are all worthy to receive. 

Feed Your Soul and Be Well ❤️

Kelly

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