But they don't have to, argued Deepak Chopra in a new talk on the future of wellbeing.

And, if we lived with health and wellness into our old age, instead of being a burden with a poor quality of life, "elders become caretakers of society".

"The healthier you are, the healthier communities and societies will be and that is the only way we can ultimately create a more peaceful, just, sustainable, healthier and happier world," Chopra said at Aspen's Festival of Ideas.

"You as a person have to take responsibility to be the change you want to see."

In the panel discussion, Chopra, along with Dr Paul Mills, a professor of integrative health at the University of California, and technology entrepreneur Poonacha Machaiah, said a healthy future called for "radical wellbeing".

"I would like to introduce a new phrase 'radical wellbeing' which means extraordinary wellbeing, way beyond what we think is possible," says Chopra, a doctor, best-selling author and wellness advocate.

"Radical wellbeing", he says, is the wellness equivalent of being an elite athlete – someone who is dedicated and achieves the extraordinary. In the case of wellbeing, this equates to long-term health, and not just in the physical sense of the word.

"When I was in medical school, and this was a long time ago by the way, WHO [the World Health Organisation] came out with their statement that health is not the absence of disease or infirmity but a state of physical, emotional, mental and spiritual wellbeing," Chopra explains. "That was almost 40 years ago."

Yet "health" and "wellbeing" levels have not progressed. Far from it.

We are experiencing with lower levels of workplace wellbeing, one in four feel severely stressed and our health is a growing concern.

One in two Australian men and one in three Australian women will be diagnosed with cancer by the age of 85.

Behind family and financial issues, concerns about our own health and the health of those we love are our main causes of stress.

So where does that leave us?

Only about 5 per cent of cancer causing gene mutations are inherited, Chopra says.

That means about 95 per cent of our genes can be influenced by the five pillars of wellbeing.

1. Sleep. "Is when the body renews itself," Chopra says. "Sleep is a very important component of wellbeing ... but, much overlooked."

2. Manage stress. Australians tend to watch TV, hang out with the family or try to focus on the positives to manage stress. The experts say the most effective strategies are doing something relaxing – meditation of any kind is Chopra's preferred method, being with friends and family, taking time out for a hobby or being physically active.

3. Move. Exercise is not just good for stress but general physical and mental wellbeing. "It includes physical movement and aerobic competency," Chopra says. "But in our case we also emphasise yoga asanas [poses] and pranayamas because the asanas have very specific effects.

"The word asana actually means the seat of consciousness. So as we practice the asanas our consciousness evolves too. The pranayama, the breathing techniques, they stimulate the vagus nerve, they have many effects on our biology – we can see how that affects everything from our heart rate variability, to our brain waves to our microbiome. The traffic from the gut to the brain in terms of peptides or proteins that regulate our moods, modulate our immune system."

4. Quality emotions. Good feelings naturally make us feel good. Positive emotions are also related to lower levels of inflammation in the body, says Dr Mills. In a recently completed study, Mills says that patients who journalled about gratitude, "pushed their biological and mood markers to even greater states of wellness and wellbeing".

Chopra, in a line that will be a little out there for most, takes this idea a step further.

"When you have joy and love and compassion and empathy and equanimity – which are called divine emotions – your body goes into a state of homeostasis or self-regulation," he says.

5. Nutrition. "Our food is so poisoned with pesticides and insecticides, contaminants of all kinds, refined, processed, antibiotics, hormones, steroids, you name it," Chopra says. "It's like putting napalm into our bodies ... we need to really pay attention to what we put in our body."

In Michael Pollan's simpler terms, pay attention to nutrition by eating food. Not too much. Mostly plants.