Figure 1. Aging and Healthspan.
Aging is the primary risk factor of the majority of chronic diseases and frailty. As a result, the period of life in good health and relatively free from the burden of disease, disability, and frailty, termed healthspan, progressively declines (A). Interventions that target the underlying biology of aging, as opposed to individual diseases, have the potential to delay the onset of age-related conditions as a group. This would have a profound impact on extending healthspan and dramatically compress the period of morbidity at the end of life (B).