What is longevity? In a nutshell human longevity can be defined as the ability to live beyond the average one’s life expectancy. However, longevity should not be confused with “lifespan”, the number of years we live, it should be intended more like the “health span” since it refers to a longer than average life but with an emphasis on maintaining both physical and mental well-being. In recent years, longevity has become also a field of medicine and biology which focuses on studying how to...

Sarcopenia is a clinical condition that is often overlooked; consequently, it can easily lead to a cascade of events that seriously compromise the general health and independence of the affected individual. The word "sarcopenia" originally derives from the ancient Greek and is formed by the combination of two words: sarx (σάρξ), meaning "muscle" or "flesh," and penia (πενία), meaning "poverty" or "deficiency." Thus, when we speak of sarcopenia, we are referring to a condition characterized by...

During a recent trip to the Greek island of Kos, the birthplace of Hippocrates, I rediscover some of the reasons why its most famous son is considered a giant not only for medicine, but for human civilization. Born around 460 BC, he is typically considered the "father of modern medicine" because he was the first one to separate medicine from religion. He transformed healing from superstition into a rational, evidence-based type of science. He was a revolutionary for his time since in his...