Health Intelligence for the Long Game: Rethinking Healthspan Planning

Most long-term plans are built on assumptions. We model markets. We model inflation. We model all kinds of risk.

But there is another assumption embedded in nearly every projection, whether we acknowledge it or not: Our health will more or less hold long enough for us to enjoy the life we are building toward.

That assumption deserves scrutiny.

The Growing Gap Between Lifespan and Healthspan

We are living longer than any generation before us. That is the good news. The not-so-great news is that we are not living longer and healthier.

In the United States, average life expectancy is now close to 80 years. Yet estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest that only about 62-63 of those years are spent in good health. The final decade or more is often marked by declining mobility, chronic disease, cognitive impairment, and escalating care needs.

Approximately 60 percent of U.S. adults live with at least one chronic disease, and among adults over 65, nearly 80 percent have at least one, with most managing multiple conditions simultaneously.

From a human perspective, this changes how the second half of life is experienced. From a planning perspective, it introduces a form of risk that is rarely modeled until it becomes unavoidable.

‘Normal’ Is Not Good Enough

Most of us are not intentionally neglecting our health. We are doing exactly what the system tells us to do: annual physicals, routine labs, and reassurance that everything looks “normal.”

The problem is that reassurance is not insight.

In the United States, reference ranges for lab values are based on population averages. When more than 90 percent of the population is metabolically unhealthy, falling within the average range is not ideal.

Being told your results are “normal” does not answer the more important question: Are key systems stable, resilient, and moving in the right direction? Or is risk quietly accumulating beneath the surface?

Many of the conditions that disrupt independence later in life, such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, dementia, and kidney disease, etc, develop gradually over decades. By the time symptoms appear or a diagnosis is made, the underlying process has often been unfolding for years.

Waiting for symptoms is like only looking at your finances after the credit cards are maxed out and the check bounces. By then, your options are already limited.

Health Is a Planning Problem, Not a Medical One

Modern medicine is optimized for diagnosing disease and intervening once something is clearly wrong. That model is essential for acute care, but it is fundamentally misaligned with long-term planning. It does not exist to validate assumptions, monitor trajectory, or protect future optionality in people who feel mostly fine. Expecting it to do so is a category error.

If we want different outcomes, the responsibility for monitoring the long-term trajectory falls to us.

We already understand this in other domains. We do not wait for a crisis to reassess exposure or stress-test assumptions. We monitor early signals so we have room to adjust.

Health deserves the same treatment.

The vitality of your business depends on your health. Visit the Vistage CEO Health & Wellness Resource Center today and discover new ways to sustain and grow your greatest asset.

A Different Planning Lens: Health Intelligence

Health intelligence is not about replacing medical care or pursuing optimization for its own sake.

It is about applying the same discipline we already use elsewhere: early data, pattern recognition, and course correction before outcomes harden.

Health intelligence shifts the focus:

• From isolated numbers to systems
• From snapshots to trends
• From reassurance to insight

The goal is not certainty. It is clarity. Clarity about which systems are compensating. Clarity about which signals matter. Clarity about where early intervention meaningfully changes long-term outcomes.

2 Early Signals We All Need to Track

Insulin is one of the earliest indicators of metabolic dysfunction, yet it is rarely measured unless diabetes is already suspected. Insulin resistance can precede changes in blood sugar or A1C by 10 to 20 years, quietly increasing cardiovascular and cognitive risk. Every annual report should include it, yet few do (Go check your last labs. I’ll wait).

Sleep is another foundational signal we don’t monitor closely enough. Chronic midlife sleep degradation in quality or quantity is strongly associated with insulin resistance, inflammation, cardiovascular disease, and increased risk of dementia later in life. This is not a willpower issue. It is a systems issue.

These are only two of many signals that we track, but they highlight a critical truth: the information that protects long-term agency almost always appears earlier than we expect.

Planning for Life, Not Just the Portfolio

Most of us are not trying to maximize lifespan. We want to remain clear, capable, mobile, and independent long enough to enjoy what we have built: meaningful work, relationships, freedom, and time.

That outcome is not accidental.

It requires examining assumptions early, validating them with better data, and adjusting course while flexibility still exists.

Health, like wealth, compounds quietly.

The question is not whether change is coming. The question is whether we are shaping it intentionally — or discovering it too late.

5 Steps You Can Take Right Now to Secure Your Health for the Long Game

1. Interview your health care team

Ask 2 simple questions: Who wins when I am healthy? Who wins when I am sick? If your health care team only springs into action once something is wrong, and billing only begins when you are unwell, the incentive structure is misaligned with your long-term health.

2. Get real data 

The standard annual physical is designed to detect disease, not to validate health assumptions. Advanced, in-depth blood chemistry provides a clearer picture of metabolic health, inflammation, cardiovascular risk, and early trajectory.

3. Reverse-engineer your future

Decide what you want to be able to do in the final years of your life. Then work backward. Those outcomes require specific levels of muscle, metabolic stability, balance, and cognitive resilience today.

4. Stop eating dessert for breakfast

There is no such thing as breakfast food. Food is simply an input. Starting the day with clean protein, healthy fats, and fiber supports blood sugar stability and sustained cognitive energy.

5. Repeat

Health intelligence is a cycle, not a path. Collect data, assess risk, adjust course, and reassess. This is how we avoid health surprises later in life.

The Real Objective: Options

The goal is not perfection. It is about options.

More time to adjust the course. More ability to remain independent. More control over how health changes over time.

When we apply the same discipline to health that we already apply to wealth, the conversation changes. We stop asking whether something is “wrong” and start asking whether we are on track toward the future we are planning.

Want to learn more? Then check out Jessica’s discussion, Optimize Your Health to Maximize Your Impact. The discussion includes a Q&A session with Vistage Chair Frank Day.

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