Longevity
Longevity is not about living longer. It is about how you live those years
The word longevity has become a label on everything from coffee to mattresses. What it actually means — and what it cannot mean.
Lifespan versus healthspan
The literature distinguishes two things. Lifespan is the number of years a person lives. Healthspan is the number of years they live in good shape — without chronic limitations, with the energy for what they enjoy. For most people these two numbers diverge, and by quite a lot. Extending the first is largely outside our control. Influencing the second is, on the contrary, largely a matter of what a person does every day.
When we talk about longevity, we mean healthspan. Not adding years, but the quality of how you live them.
What a food supplement can and cannot do. A food supplement is not a medicine. It cannot treat or prevent disease, and anyone who tells you otherwise is not telling the truth. What it can do is top up the nutrients you are short of in your diet — and even that only if the basics, namely sleep, movement and food, are holding together.
The three pillars it rests on
Sleep. The cheapest and most underrated tool you have. No supplement replaces a regular seven to eight hours.
Movement. It does not have to be marathon training. Walking, stairs, work in the garden — anything that keeps the muscles and the circulatory system running.
Diet. Varied, with enough vegetables, protein and fibre. A food supplement comes after this, not instead of it. That is why the pack and these pages say it is not a substitute for a varied and balanced diet — it is not a formality, it is a description of how this works.
Where micronutrients come in
Even on a decent diet, some people still end up short — typically on vitamin D in the winter months, on vitamin B12 on a plant-based diet, or on magnesium under heavier strain. And this is exactly where supplements have their place.
European law defines precisely what may be claimed about each nutrient. For example, magnesium contributes to the reduction of tiredness and fatigue and to the normal function of muscles. Vitamin D contributes to the maintenance of normal bones and to the normal function of the immune system. Vitamin C contributes to the protection of cells from oxidative stress. These are authorised health claims under Regulation (EU) No 432/2012 — not marketing phrases.
With plant and mushroom extracts the situation is different: the European Commission has not yet authorised any health claims for them and their assessment is on hold. So about ashwagandha, reishi or lion’s mane we write only what is in the formulation and in what amount — and nothing more. Anyone promising you a specific effect from them is going beyond what is permitted in the EU.
What to take from this
Longevity is not a product you buy. It is the sum of the decisions you make every day, and a food supplement is one item in that sum — not the main one. We build our formulations so that they simplify that one item for you: one daily dose instead of a drawer full of boxes, put together according to the stage of life you are in.
Exactly how the composition changes with age is discussed in the article At twenty, at forty, past sixty. What exactly is in the daily dose you will find in the article Seven groups of substances or on the page Ingredients.