A research-based
guide to healthspan.
Plain-language answers to the longevity questions that actually matter — how to train, eat, sleep, supplement, recover, and screen for a longer healthspan. Every claim is graded by how strong the evidence behind it is.
A distillation of thousands of peer-reviewed papers, meta-analyses, and landmark trials — assembled with AI-assisted deep research and edited for clarity. Every claim is graded by evidence strength and links back to its source.
How this site was made →The nine pillars
Start with whichever is most relevant to you.
Sleep
Foundational: short, fragmented, or misaligned sleep predicts CVD, dementia, metabolic disease, and all-cause mortality.
Read →Exercise
VO₂ max is the single most powerful clinical predictor of all-cause mortality — outperforming smoking, hypertension, and diabetes.
Read →Nutrition
Dietary patterns (Mediterranean, MIND) outperform individual nutrients. Protein adequacy matters more in midlife than people realize.
Read →Supplements
A short list has convincing human evidence. Almost everything else rests on animal data, surrogate biomarkers, or short-term industry trials.
Read →Clinical Care
What your doctor can do that lifestyle can't — testosterone replacement, GLP-1 receptor agonists, and the screening cadences worth running. Lifestyle first; clinical interventions where they outperform on absolute terms.
Read →Recovery
Sauna has the strongest mortality cohort data of any wellness intervention. Cold plunging gives acute physiology with no longevity outcome data.
Read →Brain Health
Up to ~45% of dementia risk is attributable to modifiable factors. The MIND diet shows the strongest dietary association with reduced cognitive decline.
Read →Beverages
Coffee at 2–4 cups/day shows neutral or favorable associations. Tea adds smaller benefits, including a 2026 JAMA dementia signal. Alcohol's J-curve has largely collapsed under Mendelian randomization.
Read →Foundations
The biology behind everything else: the twelve hallmarks of aging, what Blue Zones can and cannot teach us, and the bile-microbiome axis.
Read →A pragmatic short list
If you only read one thing on this site — start here.
- 01
Don't smoke. Drink as little as possible.
The largest preventable-mortality lever in modern medicine. Alcohol's J-curve has collapsed under Mendelian randomisation — the minimum-risk dose is at or near zero. Smoking and nicotine sit in their own category: no safe dose, at any age.
- 02
Train both ways — and lift heavy.
2–3 resistance sessions (30–60 min/week is enough for mortality; load heavy enough to matter for bone), 150+ minutes of zone 2, and some VO₂ max work weekly. VO₂ max is the single strongest clinical predictor of all-cause mortality.
- 03
Move every hour. Aim for ~7,000 steps.
Structured training doesn't undo 9–11 hours of sitting — the LPL biology resets within hours of stillness. Break up sitting every 30–60 min; 7,000 steps/day associates with ~47% lower all-cause mortality vs. 2,000.
- 04
Protect your sleep.
7–8 hours, regular schedule, dark and cool room — see the sleep pillar and circadian rhythms. Short, fragmented, or misaligned sleep predicts CVD, dementia, and metabolic disease.
- 05
Screen yourself for sleep apnea.
The most underdiagnosed CV risk factor in midlife. Severe OSA carries HR ~2 for all-cause mortality. Take STOP-Bang; if ≥3, get a home sleep study — especially if you snore, have hypertension, AFib, or any cardiometabolic risk factor.
- 06
Eat Mediterranean-pattern.
Vegetables, legumes, fish, nuts, olive oil. The pattern outperforms any single nutrient and shows 2–3 years of life-expectancy gain in the top adherence quintile.
- 07
Cut ultra-processed food.
Each 10% rise in energy from UPF raises all-cause mortality by ~10%, surviving adjustment for nutrient content and even for Mediterranean adherence. The single largest dietary lever after the overall pattern.
- 08
Eat enough protein — and add creatine.
1.2–1.6 g/kg/day protein in midlife (the 0.8 g/kg/day RDA is inadequate for older or active adults); plant sources and fish score better than red and processed meat. 3–5 g/day creatine monohydrate has the best evidence-to-cost ratio of any optional supplement — meaningful gains in strength, possibly modest gains in cognition.
- 09
Know your numbers — and treat hypertension hard.
Target systolic <130 in midlife (SPRINT-MIND): the most aggressively treatable single dementia and CV modifier. Also worth testing: vitamin D, B12 if at risk, iron in premenopausal women, omega-3 if you don't eat fish, lipids/apoB (see the core supplement stack).
- 10
Sauna 2–4× per week.
≥19 min at ≥80 °C captures most of the Finnish cohort benefit (4–7×/week associates with ~40% lower all-cause mortality vs. 1×/week). The strongest mortality cohort data of any wellness intervention — see sauna.
- 11
Treat hearing loss; brush twice a day; get your eyes checked.
Hearing is the single largest modifiable midlife dementia risk factor — get audiometry in your 50s and use aids if prescribed (ASPREE 2026: RR 0.67 for 7-year dementia). Top-quintile oral hygiene associates with HR 0.25 for CV mortality; don't skip vision screening either.
- 12
Stay socially connected; find purpose; manage chronic stress.
Blue Zones' most replicable insight, and one of the best-validated psychosocial mortality levers — purpose maintained through ages 63–70 is the protective window. For chronic insomnia, CBT-I is first-line over any drug; for everything else, stress management basics outperform every gadget.
Everything else on this site adds nuance. None of it overrides this list.