Longevity
Healthspan in the UK: what it means, and the four blood markers that track it
Reviewed by a qualified clinician · analysed at UKAS-accredited UK labs (ISO 15189)
Last reviewed September 20266 min read
Every Helvy guide is written by our health editors, then checked by a qualified clinician before it goes live and re-checked as the science moves. We name clinical roles, not individuals, until each reviewer has agreed to be credited publicly. This is wellness guidance to help you understand your own data, not a diagnosis.
QUICK ANSWER
Healthspan is the number of years you live in good health, not the number you live. In the UK it is about 61 years, against a life expectancy of 79 to 83. No blood test measures healthspan directly. Four markers track the risks that shorten it: ApoB, Lp(a), hs-CRP and HbA1c.
Find the panel that reads all four →As of September 2026. Healthspan has become the longevity word of the year. A Mintel report in March 2026 found that 44% of UK adults would be interested in supplements that support healthy ageing. The podcasts use the word. The shelves use it. Almost nobody defines it.
Perhaps you have watched a parent spend their last decade managing conditions rather than living. Perhaps you are fit at 45 and want to know what is quietly building underneath. This guide explains what healthspan means, why no test can hand you a number for it, and the four blood markers that track the diseases that cut it short.
1. What is healthspan, and how is it different from lifespan?
Lifespan counts your years. Healthspan counts the good ones.
The UK measures both. The Office for National Statistics calls the second one healthy life expectancy: the years a newborn can expect to live in “good” general health. For 2022 to 2024 it was 60.7 years for UK men and 60.9 for UK women, the lowest since the series began. Men are expected to spend 77% of their lives in good health, women 73%.
Set that against life expectancy for the same years, 79.1 for men and 83.0 for women, and the gap is stark. Roughly 18 years for a man and 22 for a woman are spent in health the person themselves would not call good. That gap is what the healthspan conversation is about.
It is not a British quirk. A December 2024 study in JAMA Network Open looked at 183 countries using the World Health Organization's stricter measure. The gap between how long people live and how long they live well had widened to 9.6 years worldwide. Women carried a gap 2.4 years wider than men. The United States was worst, at 12.4 years.
“This expansion of the period in ill health is not inevitable; compression of morbidity so that people spend less time living with ill health is entirely realistic.”
Professor Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer for England, annual report 2023
Compression of morbidity is the medical phrase for a longer healthspan: the same lifespan, with the illness squeezed into a shorter stretch at the end. The Chief Medical Officer's point is that the diseases doing the squeezing arrive later when their risk factors are caught early. Most of those risk factors are in your blood.
2. Can a blood test measure your healthspan?
No. It can measure the things that shorten it.
Healthspan is a population statistic, worked out from surveys after the fact. No blood test can tell you how many good years you have left, and no honest one gives you a “body age” either. Our biological age guide explains why those scores are estimates built on the same routine markers, dressed in a number.
What a blood test does well is measure the risk factors for the conditions that end healthspan in the UK: heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes, with chronic inflammation running through all three. Those risks build for decades without symptoms. A marker that moves at 40 is a marker you can do something about at 40.
The standard NHS cholesterol check is a start, and our cholesterol blood test guide explains what it reads. The four markers below go a step further. Each is on a home finger-prick panel, and each has trial or cohort evidence linking it to the diseases in question. Our longevity blood tests guide covers the wider list if you want it.
3. Which four blood markers track healthspan?
ApoB, Lp(a), hs-CRP and HbA1c. One each for particles, genes, inflammation and sugar.
- ApoB, the particle count. Apolipoprotein B is the protein on every particle that can lodge cholesterol in an artery wall. Each particle carries exactly one, so the ApoB number is a count of how many such particles you have. A review in Circulation puts it plainly: the ApoB measurement “provides a measurement of the total number of atherogenic particles in plasma”. Standard cholesterol tests weigh the cargo, not the lorries. Our ApoB guide has the ranges.
- Lp(a), the inherited one. Lipoprotein(a) is a cholesterol particle with an extra sticky protein attached. Your level is set almost entirely by your genes and barely moves with diet or exercise. The 2022 European Atherosclerosis Society consensus calls it a causal risk factor for heart disease and recommends “testing Lp(a) concentration at least once in adults”. Once is usually enough. Our Lp(a) guide explains the units.
- hs-CRP, the inflammation reading. C-reactive protein is a protein your liver releases when there is inflammation anywhere in the body. The high-sensitivity version reads the low, quiet levels that matter for long-term risk. A Lancet analysis of 160,309 people across 54 studies found that a threefold higher CRP went with 37% more coronary heart disease, and about 55% more death from both vascular and non-vascular causes, after adjusting for the usual risk factors. Our inflammation blood test guide covers what raises it.
- HbA1c, the three-month sugar average. Glycated haemoglobin is the share of your red blood cells with sugar stuck to them, which reflects your average blood sugar over about three months. NICE treats 42 to 47 mmol/mol as high risk of progressing to type 2 diabetes, a window where the risk “can be reduced”. Our HbA1c guide has the full range.
All four sit on Helvy's Advanced Heart Health panel (£159), alongside the standard cholesterol breakdown, from a home finger-prick sample. It is the only Helvy panel that carries ApoB, Lp(a), hs-CRP or HbA1c.
Three supporting markers sit on the General Energy & Wellness panel (£149). Vitamin D, which the NHS says everyone should consider supplementing at 10 micrograms a day through autumn and winter. Vitamin B12, which absorbs less well with age. And cortisol, the stress hormone, read in the morning. None of the three is a longevity marker on its own. They are the deficiencies that make the years you do have feel worse.
A blood test measures these markers and offers wellness insight. It does not diagnose heart disease or diabetes, and it cannot see plaque in an artery. A qualified clinician reads the set together, because risk runs on the whole picture rather than one number.
4. How often should you retest?
Once for a baseline. Then yearly, or 12 weeks after a real change.
The value in these markers is the trend, not the snapshot. A single ApoB reading tells you where you stand. The same reading a year later tells you which way you are heading, and that is the question healthspan actually asks. Test the first time before you change anything, so the change has something to be measured against.
The markers move at different speeds. HbA1c reflects about three months, so 12 weeks is the shortest honest interval after a change in diet or training. ApoB and hs-CRP respond over a similar window. Lp(a) is the exception: it is genetic, so one reading in adult life usually settles it, which is exactly what the European consensus recommends.
If you are over 40 and have never had ApoB or Lp(a) measured, that is the gap to close first. Our heart health hub explains each cholesterol marker, and the energy and fatigue hub covers the vitamin D and B12 side.
READY TO TEST?
Put a number on it this year, and again next year
ApoB, Lp(a), hs-CRP and HbA1c sit on one home finger-prick panel with the full cholesterol breakdown. The quiz will confirm it fits your question. Results in around 5 working days from UKAS-accredited UK laboratories.
Frequently asked questions
What does healthspan mean?
The number of years you live in good health, as opposed to lifespan, the number of years you live. The Office for National Statistics calls it healthy life expectancy. For 2022 to 2024 it was 60.7 years for UK men and 60.9 for UK women.
What is the healthspan-lifespan gap in the UK?
Roughly 18 years for men and 22 for women, taking the ONS healthy life expectancy of 60.7 and 60.9 from life expectancy of 79.1 and 83.0 for 2022 to 2024. A JAMA Network Open study using the World Health Organization's stricter measure put the global gap at 9.6 years.
Can a blood test measure healthspan?
No. Healthspan is a population statistic, and no blood test can tell you how many healthy years you have left. A blood test measures the risk factors for the diseases that shorten healthspan, such as ApoB, Lp(a), hs-CRP and HbA1c. It does not diagnose those diseases, and a qualified clinician should read the results.
Which blood markers matter most for healthy ageing?
ApoB for the count of artery-clogging particles, Lp(a) for inherited heart risk, hs-CRP for low-grade inflammation and HbA1c for blood sugar over three months. All four are on Helvy's Advanced Heart Health panel. Vitamin D, B12 and cortisol on the General Energy & Wellness panel support the picture.
How often should you test healthspan markers?
Once for a baseline, then yearly. Retest 12 weeks after a meaningful change in diet, training or medication, because HbA1c reflects about three months. Lp(a) is genetic and usually only needs measuring once in adult life.