Longevity Medicine & Geriatric Medicine

Healthy aging

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The goal of healthy aging is not simply to extend lifespan but also to extend health span. Population-based studies have shown that older adults spend the majority of the last 5 to 11 years of their life living with multiple chronic diseases and poor health, burdened with disability and reduced quality of life for most of these years. However, this life trajectory does not have to be the inevitable case.

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Research using modeling has predicted that as life expectancy increases, most of the years gained will be spent with four or more diseases, underscoring the importance of prevention and proactive strategies to extend health span and reduce disability and frailty. This is where the power of an integrative medicine x functional medicine x lifestyle medicine approach that we practice at Wisdom Health and Wellbeing comes in.

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Dr. Wang has witnessed and helped countless patients stay healthy long into the eighth, ninth, and tenth decades of life. The journey to healthy aging, however, starts at any age. While the term “longevity medicine” is relatively recent, the concepts and principles have long been practiced and researched in the fields of integrative medicine, functional medicine, lifestyle medicine, and geriatric medicine.​

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Longevity medicine

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Longevity medicine is considered an emerging field focused on the early detection, prevention, and personalized management of aging-related processes to optimize healthy lifespan and promote healthy aging. Its integration of advanced diagnostics, lifestyle interventions, and targeted therapies are part of the core principles and practice of functional medicine. Longevity medicine takes advantage of the knowledge gained from molecular biology, geroscience, and translational research to address the underlying mechanisms of aging, with the goal of maximizing years lived in good health.

 

Lifestyle interventions have the strongest evidence for extending health span and reducing multimorbidity (the presence of two or more chronic diseases or conditions). Combining healthy diet with other lifestyle factors (such as physical activity, weight management, smoking cessation, and low alcohol consumption) can extend disease-free life expectancy by 8 to 10 years. Reducing inflammation, improving insulin sensitivity, supporting mitochondrial function, and optimizing the gut microbiome are some of the integrative and functional medicine strategies that are linked to delayed onset of age-related diseases.​

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Geriatric medicine

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In addition to providing care for adults of all ages, Dr. Wang, as a board-certified geriatrician (geriatric doctor), provides geriatric care to older adults, with a focus on whole-person healing and reduction of chronic medication use whenever possible. The practice of good geriatric medicine emphasizes attention to whole person health, akin to the practice of integrative medicine and functional medicine.

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As a result of physiologic changes with aging, older adults deserve special clinical attention when it comes to the management of multimorbidity and optimization of functional status to ensure the highest quality of life. Reducing and minimizing the number of medications is crucial, because medications are more likely to cause adverse effects in older adults, dosages need to be tailored, and meticulous attention is needed to recognize potential interactions among medications and supplements. This attention is particularly important in situations where many medications are being used—a phenomenon called "polypharmacy," prevalent in the current health care system.

 

By using a holistic medicine approach faithful to the principles of geriatrics, Dr. Wang sees older adults enjoying a high quality of life as they age well and exhibit successful aging.

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​Dr. Wang was formerly on the full-time medical faculty in the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and in the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Aging at Columbia University Medical Center.​