The Longevity Protein Klotho: A Promising Tool to Monitor Lifestyle Improvements

Abstract

Aging is not a disease; it is a natural evolution of human physiology. Medical advances have extended our life expectancy, but chronic diseases and geriatric syndrome continue to affect the increasingly aging population. Yet modern medicine perpetuates an approach based on treatment rather than prevention and education. In order to help solve this ever-growing problem, a new discipline has emerged: lifestyle medicine. Nutrition, physical activity, stress management, restorative sleep, social connection, and avoidance of risky substances are the pillars on which lifestyle medicine is founded. The aim of this discipline is to increase healthspan and reduce the duration of morbidity by making changes to our lifestyle. In this review, we propose the use of klotho protein as a novel biomarker for lifestyle medicine in order to quantify and monitor the health status of individuals, as no integrative tool currently exists.

Keywords: aging; biomarker; health; klotho; lifestyle medicine.

Figure 1

Graphical representation of two theoretical individuals (violet and orange) on the six axes of lifestyle medicine. The higher a person’s surface area on the representation, the lower the risk of developing a chronic disease. In this example, the purple person is a high performer focusing on physical activity, while the orange person is sedentary with a lot of social connections.

Figure 2

Representation of the four proposed categories of klotho values based on an individual’s baseline situation. Klotho deficiency is associated with a lower healthspan; increased klotho is associated with a higher healthspan, and an inflammatory klotho value indicates a possible stress response.