“Compression of morbidity”

"While the average life span of patients didn’t change much depending on their lifestyle, the rates of morbidity — that is, affliction by chronic disease and disability — varied greatly between those who exercised and ate a healthy diet and those who overate and exercised infrequently, if at all.

Put differently, exercise and a healthy diet don’t help you live longer, but they can help you postpone the onset of debilitating disease until close to the end of your life, a phenomenon that is called “compression of morbidity.”

Interesting hypothesis based on this fact: There is some biological clock that determines our longevity. We do not know how to manipulate this biological clock yet.