Osteopathy, Movement, and the Pursuit of Healthspan

If there’s one thing the longevity research keeps coming back to, it’s that movement is the number one population wide lever for a longer, healthier life.

Not supplements.
Not biomarkers.
Movement.

• Even small increases in physical activity lead to meaningful reductions in all-cause mortality. A 2019 meta-analysis found that the most active individuals had a 40–53% lower mortality risk compared to the least active groups (Ekelund et al.).

• The NIH–AARP study of more than 315,000 adults showed that meeting basic exercise guidelines (150 minutes/week) was linked to a 31% lower risk of mortality, with even greater benefits as activity levels increased (Matthews et al.).

• A JAMA Network Open study reported that participants with the highest levels of cardiorespiratory fitness had an 80% lower risk of mortality compared to those with the lowest levels—highlighting VO₂ max as one of the strongest predictors of lifespan (Barlow et al.).

• Research published in The Lancet estimated that physical inactivity contributes to 6–10% of major noncommunicable diseases, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers (Lee et al.).

• A systematic review in the American Journal of Epidemiology demonstrated a clear dose–response pattern: as physical activity increases, all-cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality decrease (Kyu et al.).

As thought leaders like Peter Attia remind us, longevity-based medicine is built on preserving strength, aerobic capacity, balance, stability, and independence. Your ability to move consistently, confidently, and without pain is the greatest predictor of both your lifespan and your healthspan (the number of years you live well).

Osteopathy as a tool for maintaining movement quality and capacity in order to improve healthspan. Movement is not just how much you can deadlift, your VO2 Max, or your grip strength, it’s how your body moves at every anatomical level. From how your joints articulate with one another, how superficial fascia supports or constricts the muscles it encases, how passive lymph fluid moves throughout the body, to how arterial supply access and nourishes tissues to ensure the health of the cells.

Osteopathy helps you:

• stay pain-free so you can keep moving

• maintain joint health and range of motion (to move through the ranges of motion needed in an activity)

• optimize circulation and recovery (for tissue healing, inflammation reduction and improved performance)

• reduce compensatory patterns that lead to injury

• support the body systems that underpin physical performance (muscularskeletal, circulatory, nervous system and equilibrium)

• sustain your ability to train (increasing intensity and duration across a lifespan)

This is why osteopathy is such a powerful tool for expanding healthspan. It operates at the level beneath your training, influencing how your body functions so that you can keep moving, keep training, and keep participating in your life now and in your later decades.

Osteopathy enhances movement quality.
Movement quality supports movement capacity.
And movement drives healthspan.

This is the philosophy that guides every session in my practice.