When we hear the term “anti-ageing”, our first thoughts often turn to appearance: smoother skin, fewer wrinkles, firmer facial contours, or simply looking five or ten years younger. There is nothing wrong with wanting to look good as we grow older. Feeling comfortable and confident in our appearance can be an important part of psychological wellbeing and self-esteem. But anti-ageing can mean something much broader than appearance alone. The more important question is not simply what we will look like at 50, 60, 70 or 80, but how we want to feel and live at those ages, how independent we want to remain, and how fully we want to continue enjoying our lives. I believe that increasingly, people are looking for much more than simply being able to say, “I want to look younger.” We want to preserve, for as long as possible, the feeling of waking up in a body that is “not so different from the one we used to know”: having enough energy to start the day, remaining physically agile, being strong enough to carry our own shopping, climb stairs, manage everyday activities, and continue enjoying things such as travelling. There are many other things we hope to preserve as well: sleeping well, thinking clearly, remaining curious about the world around us, maintaining meaningful relationships, and continuing to make our own decisions about how we live.
To me, maintaining health, independence and confidence as we grow older lies at the heart of healthy ageing. And importantly, we can begin building the foundations for this long before old age – while we are still healthy, and often well before the age of 50. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines healthy ageing as the process of developing and maintaining the functional ability that enables wellbeing in older age. Importantly, healthy ageing does not mean remaining completely free from disease. A person may live with one or more chronic conditions and still remain active, independent and engaged in society when those conditions are well managed through lifestyle measures, appropriate medical treatment and supportive therapies. The meaningful goal, therefore, is not simply to “stop ageing” – something modern medicine has not achieved – but rather to extend the years of life we spend healthy, capable, independent and able to enjoy a good quality of life. If we also happen to maintain a youthful appearance along the way, that is certainly a welcome bonus, but it is not the essence of healthy ageing.
Although healthy ageing matters to both women and men, midlife is a particularly important period for women because it includes a major physiological transition: menopause. Menopause is far more than the end of menstruation. The hormonal changes associated with this transition can affect bone and muscle health, sleep, cardiovascular health, and the development or progression of other health conditions. Cardiovascular risk increases with age, particularly after menopause, and cardiovascular disease remains one of the leading causes of illness and death among women. Bone and muscle health also deserve particular attention. The decline in oestrogen after menopause accelerates bone loss, while muscle mass and strength can also progressively decline. Later in life, fractures and loss of muscle function can directly threaten mobility and the ability to live independently. This is why our 40s, 50s and 60s should not revolve only around the question: “How can I look younger?” A more useful question is: “What do I need to build today that my future body will need?” Research points to several key areas that deserve particular attention:
1. Muscle strength: one of our most valuable health assets
Muscle strength is one of the most valuable health assets we can preserve as we age. The WHO recommends that adults undertake 150–300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity each week, or 75–150 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity, together with muscle-strengthening activities involving the major muscle groups on at least two days per week. Strength training becomes increasingly important with age because muscle helps preserve mobility, balance, metabolic health and the ability to live independently. A large 2026 analysis following 147,374 adults over approximately 30 years found that people who performed around 1.5–2 hours of strength training per week had a 13% lower risk of death from any cause and a 19% lower risk of cardiovascular death compared with those who did no strength training. The practical message is not that we all need to become athletes, it is rather, muscle strength is a form of “health reserve” for the future.
2. What we eat matters
What we eat directly affects both digestive health and our health more broadly. Yet despite the abundance of marketing around miraculous “longevity foods”, supplements, nutritional powders and fasting regimens claimed to extend life, there is little convincing scientific evidence behind many of these dramatic promises. A scientifically sound eating pattern maintained consistently over many years matters far more than briefly consuming a handful of ingredients marketed as extraordinary. A 2024 study followed 25,315 initially healthy women for approximately 25 years and found that women with greater adherence to a Mediterranean-style diet had a 23% lower risk of death from all causes. A diet that supports healthy ageing therefore does not need to be exotic or complicated. It can simply be rich in vegetables, fruit, legumes, whole grains and nuts; centred largely around minimally processed foods; include good sources of protein and healthy fats; and, most importantly, be sustainable over the long term.
3. Sleep is not wasted time
When life becomes busy, sleep is often the first thing we sacrifice. Modern cardiovascular medicine, however, increasingly recognises sleep as an essential component of health rather than simply a period of inactivity. The American Heart Association now includes sleep among its eight essential components of cardiovascular health. Most adults need approximately 7–9 hours of sleep per night, while regularity, consistency and sleep quality also matter. Persistent insomnia or poor-quality sleep should therefore be addressed rather than simply accepted as an inevitable consequence of ageing or menopause.
4. Protecting the brain begins decades before old age
Healthy ageing also means preserving our ability to think, learn, remember and make decisions. The 2024 Lancet Commission on dementia identified 14 potentially modifiable risk factors collectively associated with around 45% of dementia cases globally. These include hypertension, high LDL cholesterol, physical inactivity, diabetes, smoking, obesity, excessive alcohol consumption, depression, hearing loss, social isolation, air pollution and untreated visual impairment, among others. This does not mean that 45% of every individual’s dementia risk can necessarily be prevented. It does mean, however, that several important risk factors remain at least partly within our ability to influence, and improving them may reduce our future risk. Brain health is, to some extent, a lifelong project. Importantly, many of the things that protect cardiovascular health, circulation, metabolism, hearing, mobility and our social lives also help support brain health.
5. Relationships are part of health, too
One of the shortcomings of modern wellness culture is its tendency to turn health into an entirely individual optimisation project. We measure our steps, calories consumed and burned, sleep cycles and an ever-growing collection of biological markers. But human beings are social creatures, and no device can adequately quantify the influence that meaningful relationships have on psychological wellbeing and quality of life. Maintaining family bonds, friendships, workplace relationships and connections within our communities is not merely a decorative addition to a healthy lifestyle. These relationships are an important part of purpose, wellbeing and a meaningful life. Social isolation itself is also among the potentially modifiable factors associated with dementia risk. This is one reason the WHO concept of healthy ageing is particularly valuable: functional ability includes our capacity to build and maintain relationships and to contribute to society. Living for a long time without meaningful connection to other people may not be the kind of ageing we actually want.
Where do healthcare and complementary therapies fit into this picture?
Healthy ageing does not mean receiving as much treatment as possible. Preventive healthcare remains fundamental: assessing cardiovascular risk, managing blood pressure and blood lipids, appropriate cancer screening and vaccination, assessing bone health, managing metabolic disease, and discussing menopausal symptoms and treatment options with an appropriate healthcare professional. Complementary approaches, including acupuncture, may also have a place – but their role should be viewed realistically. Acupuncture should not be promoted as a treatment capable of “reversing ageing”, because there is currently no reliable scientific evidence to support such claims. Its potential value lies in more specific goals, including helping to manage certain types of pain and symptoms, supporting sleep, providing complementary symptom management during menopause, and helping with stress and anxiety.
At VietKimHong Clinic, this is the approach we take. Acupuncture can form part of a broader strategy to support health and manage specific symptoms, but it does not replace medical diagnosis, medically indicated treatment, preventive healthcare, physical activity, good nutrition or adequate sleep.
Not simply looking younger, but living well for longer
The health and beauty industry often encourages us to think of ageing as a problem to be fought and defeated so that we can look younger and more attractive than our chronological age. I believe the future of healthy ageing will increasingly move towards a deeper and more positive question: How can we continue to live independently, autonomously, with good quality of life and a sense of meaning as we grow older? When we look in the mirror, we will always see ourselves – whether the face looking back is young or old. What matters perhaps is recognising someone who remains healthy enough to make their own decisions, live independently, stay connected to others and continue to enjoy their own life. Perhaps that is a far more meaningful goal than simply trying to look younger than our age.