Longevity & Healthy Ageing for Indians: A Complete Guide

A: Lifespan is how long you live. Healthspan is how many of those years you spend in good health — free from chronic disease, functional decline, and dependence. In India, the gap between the two is around 10 years. Most longevity research now focuses on extending healthspan rather than just lifespan, because adding years of chronic illness is not the goal. The two are related but require different interventions to optimise.

A: NAD+ (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) is a coenzyme your cells use to produce energy, repair DNA, and regulate proteins involved in ageing. It declines significantly from your 30s onward because the enzymes that consume NAD+ — particularly PARP enzymes activated by DNA damage and CD38 enzymes triggered by inflammation — become increasingly active with age, breaking it down faster than the body replenishes it. By your 50s, NAD+ levels can be half what they were in your 20s.

A: NMN (Nicotinamide Mononucleotide) is a direct precursor to NAD+. Your body converts it into NAD+ more efficiently than other precursors because it bypasses a rate-limiting step in the biosynthesis pathway. Human clinical trials have shown NMN supplementation raises NAD+ levels measurably, with downstream effects on cellular energy, metabolic function, and markers of biological age. It is most effective when combined with resveratrol, which activates the sirtuin proteins that NAD+ powers.

A: Several factors compound: higher baseline rates of insulin resistance (which accelerates cellular ageing), widespread protein deficiency (which impairs cellular repair), high chronic stress levels (which elevate cortisol and inflammation), vitamin D and B12 deficiencies, and a healthcare system oriented toward treating disease rather than preventing accelerated biological ageing. The result is that many Indians in their 40s have the biological age of someone considerably older — but this gap is reversible with targeted interventions.

A: Five habits have the most consistent support across the longevity literature: maintaining muscle mass through regular strength training, keeping fasting insulin low through diet and movement, sleeping 7–9 hours with good sleep quality, sustaining meaningful social connection, and not smoking. Of these, muscle mass is the most underappreciated — it is the single strongest predictor of functional independence and survival past 75 in every major cohort study.