Health Mar 29, 2022
Get to know our next-generation health metric Healthy Years
Livit’s Healthy Years is the estimated age you are likely to live to before getting a disease that significantly reduces your quality of life. Your lifestyle influences the estimate greatly and the result empowers you to take action to improve it.
Up to 80 % of the common chronic diseases that shorten your healthy life can be prevented by simple actions in your daily life. To make informed, sustainable choices that help you stay healthy longer, you need to measure the state of your current health, and more importantly, find out your future trajectory.
The next generation of consumer health metrics
Currently popular well-being wearables or existing consumer blood tests might measure your heart rate, sleep, body temperature, or vitamin D levels. They might even allow you to monitor your personal progress. But they don’t provide a direct connection to your disease risks or predict future health. Healthy Years is a next-generation consumer health metric that combines two novel aspects: the scientific connection to multiple health and disease outcomes and the ability to predict future healthy years.
Scientific connection to multiple health and disease outcomes
We use real-life data to directly link the Nightingale Kit measurement results to the risk of falling ill with the diseases that most commonly shorten active life. We have analyzed hundreds of thousands of blood samples from international biobanks with our unique blood testing technology. Those blood results have been compared using scientific data analyses to the medical records of the biobank participants. These analyses have found many diseases that are associated with the results of Nightingale Health’s blood test. Livit’s Healthy Years uses these scientific associations when calculating your result.
Predicting future Healthy Years
The blood samples in the biobank studies are from up to 10 years ago. Since we know what happened in those 10 years to the people who gave the samples, Nightingale Health’s blood analysis could find out what common factors were present in the blood test results of the people who were still healthy but became ill during that follow-up period. So, if we could now go back to the time the blood samples were taken, we would be able to identify in advance many of the people who would develop diseases in the next 10 years. Thus, by comparing your blood test results to the hundreds of thousands of samples we have already analyzed, we are able to predict how long you are likely to live healthily.
Understanding your results and what to do about them
A low number of Healthy Years means that among the hundreds of thousands of people sampled, a similar blood result profile often led to falling ill relatively early in life. Similarly, having a high number of Healthy Years means that among the people sampled, individuals with a similar profile often stayed healthy until relatively late in life.
But neither number represents fate. You can make a difference on your future health.
Our lifestyle has a major impact on our health, which is why Healthy Years empowers you to be in the driver’s seat. Among the people we’ve tested, the average female lives 78 Healthy Years and the average male 74. However, people with the unhealthiest lifestyle are expected to have up to 20 Healthy Years fewer than average – and people with the healthiest lifestyle up to 20 Healthy Years more than average. The difference can add up to 40 Healthy Years!
Regardless of how you improve your diet, exercise, sleep, or stress levels, Healthy Years will work as your guide to your future health.
References:
WHO European Region: What is the burden of disease in the Region?
WHO reveals leading causes of death and disability worldwide: 2000-2019
List of publications using Nightingale Health’s blood analysis technology