Health & “Joie de Vivre”
JC’s Newsletter #203
Dear friends,
Every week, I’m sharing an essay that relates to what we are building and learning at Alan. Those essays are fed by the article I’m lucky enough to read and capitalise on.
I’m going to try to be provocative in those essays to trigger a discussion with the community. Please answer, comment, and ping me!
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Health & “Joie de Vivre”
I recently shared this podcast with Peter Attia on the Portfolio to Live Longer. It is also the time of the year for resolutions.
I agreed very much with “the name of the game is living longer without chronic disease, not living longer with chronic disease.” Another important concept out there is "Biological age" as opposed to the "Chronological age".
It is clearly our objective with Alan and it encouraged me to think a bit further on what is the medical doctrine of Alan.
While reading many articles on the topic, seeing the trends in measuring everything, reading into Tim Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Body, or reflecting on my own experiences (stopping drinking for 2 years, tests on alimentation, measuring a lot of things), I have been contemplating the most effective approach to a medical doctrine for prevention & a longer, happier life.
Taking my own experience, I enjoyed the time I didn’t drink at all (the amazing impact on my sleep for example), but I feel a lot happier now that I drink very little, but also I know I can drink when the occasion makes sense (two or three times a month).
Performance vs. pleasure of life
A lot of healthcare tools pride themselves on medical absolutism and a relentless pursuit of optimal health outcomes. They insist on "performance" over "pleasure of life".
There's an argument to be made for a European approach that marries medical excellence with "joie de vivre".
I propose to embrace both high-quality medical care and a quality of life that embodies zest for life.
This doesn't mean compromising on the quality of care but recognizes that sometimes the best outcome isn't necessarily the longest life, but a life lived well.
Marrying Excellence with Joie de Vivre
“Joie de vivre”
"Joie de vivre," a French term meaning "joy of living," captures the essence of a life lived with enthusiasm, pleasure, and a deep appreciation for the world. By incorporating this philosophy into healthcare, we can achieve a balance between medical rigor and living life to its fullest.
We define health beyond medicine, recognizing that health isn't just the absence of disease but includes emotional, mental, and social well-being.
How does it translate concretely?
We commit to take our members to a healthier lifestyle one step at a time and at their own pace, with joie de vivre always in mind.
Our goal is to optimise for long-term health while ensuring current happiness. We maximise the combination of pleasure and increased longevity. We emphasize quality of life and wellbeing. We consider both physical health and mental/emotional health, happiness, and ability to enjoy life. We don't just focus narrowly on measurable health metrics.
We empower our members to be in charge of their health.
We thrive to build an integrated healthcare model, ensuring that primary care, specialty services, sport, nutrition, sleep and mental health services are interconnected, leading to more comprehensive and coordinated care.
We promote personalised, customised care. We take into account each person's unique needs, preferences and values. We don't take a rigid one-size-fits-all approach. We enable people to make informed choices.
We focus on sustainability and lifestyle changes rather than quick fixes. We support healthy changes people can maintain lifelong, not short-term diets/detoxes. Instead of promising to lose weight in 3 weeks, we build programs that make a transition over 6 months to a year.
We focus on moderation rather than absolutism. We encourage healthy behaviors in moderation rather than outright bans or strict limitations. For example, recommend limiting alcohol intake to maximise joy at the right time rather than abstaining completely.
We use incentives and nudges rather than mandates. We make the healthy choice the easy and default choice through environmental design, social nudging, rewards etc. But allow for flexibility and individual choice.
We measure what matters to our members. Instead of asking members to measure everything, we understand with them how they react to more data, and build the right level of information to make them feel good towards their goals.
We embrace the 80/20 rule: perfection is not required for good health. An 80% healthy approach is more sustainable long-term for most people. We don’t push our members to be perfect, just to be the best version of themselves.
We allow for sensual pleasures: enjoyment of food, wine, intimacy, leisure etc. can be part of a balanced healthy lifestyle.
We ensure access and affordability. Healthcare and prevention should be accessible to all, and we leverage technology in order to achieve this.
We curate, assess and share findings so that members make their own choice. We look at the scientific papers, thought leaders on the topic, existing methodologies.
We build scientific models to support it and define the unique impact of Alan. We publish papers about it. We have data-backed insights on what we achieve.
Some good articles I have read this week
👉 What I Wish Someone Had Told Me (Sam Altman)
The key ones are in my perspective:
Optimism
Do not let the org chart get in the way of people working productively together.
Outcomes are what count; don’t let good process excuse bad results.
Spend more time recruiting. Take risks on high-potential people with a fast rate of improvement. Look for evidence of getting stuff done in addition to intelligence.
Inspiration is perishable and life goes by fast. Inaction is a particularly insidious type of risk.
Plans should be measured in decades, execution should be measured in weeks.
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Let’s talk about this together on LinkedIn or on Twitter. Have a good week!
Completely love this vision, which is alligned to the need for personalization. But what about the notion of time?
Social interactions play a crucial role in human well-being. They not only contribute to emotional and mental health but also can have a significant impact on physical health.
Why not adding :
"We foster community and social connectivity by creating opportunities for social engagement, supporting groups and community events that promote interpersonal connections and a sense of belonging."