Longevity: How to Live Longer (Diet, Supplements, Bloodwork & the Science)

Here is what excites me most about longevity science. The things that work best are natural, proven, and largely free. The evidence that diet, movement, sleep, stress care, and connection add healthy years is among the strongest in all of medicine. One landmark study tied a few simple habits to more than a decade of extra life. The one real limit is that the flashier frontier, the drugs and designer supplements, is still unproven and sometimes risky. Master the foundation first, and you capture almost all of the benefit, safely.

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What is longevity?

I want to reframe this topic right at the start, because the culture gets it backwards. Longevity has little to do with obsessing over the number on your tombstone. What counts is the quality of the decades in between. Too many people live a long lifespan with a short healthspan, ending in a final stretch of years marked by disease, frailty, and lost independence. The aim is to flip that, to extend the healthy years and squeeze the decline into as short a window as possible at the very end.

Healthspan is the stretch of life you live in good health. The aim of longevity is to extend it and squeeze the years of decline into a short window at the very end.

And here is the encouraging part. We are not powerless over this. In a landmark analysis of two large U.S. cohorts, people who maintained five low-risk habits (never smoking, a healthy diet, regular activity, a healthy weight, and only moderate alcohol) lived more than a decade longer than those with none of them.1 More than a decade of life, from habits almost entirely within your control. That is the promise of longevity, and it is why I find this one of the most hopeful areas in all of medicine.

Longevity research: why we age

You don’t need a PhD in cell biology to live longer, but a little understanding helps. Scientists have organized aging into a set of underlying mechanisms, often called the hallmarks of aging. These include damage to DNA, worn-down cellular powerplants, cells that stop dividing but won’t die, shortening telomeres, and a slow loss of the body’s ability to repair itself.2 Running through nearly all of them is one shared thread: chronic, low-grade inflammation, sometimes called inflammaging, which quietly drives most age-related disease.3

This is where the field of geroscience comes in. The idea is that if you target aging itself, you can push back many diseases at once, because they share these common roots. It is a powerful reframing, and it lines up with what the population data already shows. Consider five healthy habits adding a decade or more of life,1 or the famous findings from the Adventist community of Loma Linda that lifestyle choices were tied to roughly ten extra years,30 and the message is the same. Most of what drives how you age is modifiable. The same diet, movement, sleep, and stress habits that make you feel good today are, underneath, slowing the very processes that age you.

A more recent analysis makes the point even more forcefully. In the Veterans Affairs Million Veteran Program, which followed nearly 720,000 people, adopting eight healthy habits by age 40 (never smoking, staying active, eating well, sleeping well, managing stress, moderating alcohol, staying socially connected, and avoiding opioid misuse) was tied to an estimated 24 extra years of life for men and roughly 21 for women.40 Those eight habits are essentially the pillars in this guide, which is exactly why I keep pointing patients back to the foundation.

Biological age vs. chronological age

Your chronological age is how many birthdays you’ve had. Your biological age is how old your body truly is on the inside, and the two can differ by years in either direction. Two people born the same day can have bodies a decade apart, and biological age predicts disease and death better than the calendar does. The exciting part is that biological age is partly reversible, which makes it the truest scorecard for everything in this guide.

Researchers measure it with epigenetic clocks, tests that read chemical tags on your DNA to estimate cellular age.27 Newer clocks were trained on health and lifespan rather than age alone, so they capture the pace of aging more meaningfully.28 And the science is getting more granular. A 2023 study showed that a simple blood test of proteins can estimate the age of individual organs like your heart, brain, kidneys, or liver, revealing that one organ can age faster than the rest and flag risk years early.29 Organ-age and biological-age testing is still maturing, but it points to a future of truly personalized longevity care.

Longevity bloodwork and markers

What gets measured gets managed. You don’t need an exotic panel to track how you’re aging. A focused set of markers tells you most of what matters, and lets you adjust early while changes are easy. Here is the core panel I track with patients who are serious about the long game.

Once a year, start with the basics: ApoB, metabolic markers, hs-CRP, and your fitness numbers. They tell you whether your habits are working, long before symptoms ever would.

The evidence-based pillars of longevity

Strip away the noise, and the science points to a handful of pillars that do the heavy lifting. Here they are, ranked roughly by the strength and size of their effect.

No single pillar carries the whole house. Longevity is what happens when these evidence-based habits stack together and hold for the long run.

1. Move your body and build muscle

If there is a closest thing to a longevity drug, it is exercise. Higher cardiorespiratory fitness is associated with dramatically lower mortality, with no apparent ceiling to the benefit,13 and more daily steps track with longer life.12 Strength matters just as much. Grip strength, a simple proxy for muscle, is a powerful predictor of how long you live,14 and overall activity is tied to substantially lower mortality.11

Why it matters: fitness and muscle are among the single strongest predictors of lifespan we have.

2. Eat a longevity diet

A whole-food, plant-forward, Mediterranean-style pattern lowers cardiovascular events and death in major randomized trials,4 and improving diet quality over time is tied to lower mortality.6 This is the eating pattern the world’s longest-lived people share.

Why it matters: Food is the most frequent and powerful input you give your body, three times a day for life.

3. Protect your sleep

Sleep is when the body repairs and the brain clears waste. Both too little and too much sleep are linked to higher mortality, with a sweet spot around seven hours.15 Chronically shortchanging sleep accelerates aging on nearly every front.

Why it matters: No supplement can replace what consistent, quality sleep does for longevity.

4. Manage stress

Chronic stress pours fuel on inflammation and wears the body down over time. Practices that calm the nervous system, meditation among them, meaningfully reduce stress and anxiety.16 Lowering the chronic stress load is one of the most underrated longevity moves there is.

Why it matters: stress reduction directly eases the inflammaging that drives age-related disease.

5. Stay socially connected

This one surprises people, but the data is striking. A meta-analysis found that strong social relationships were associated with a roughly 50% greater likelihood of survival, an effect on par with quitting smoking.17 Loneliness is a real health risk; connection is medicine.

Why it matters: relationships rival diet and exercise as predictors of a long life.

6. Live with purpose

A reason to get up in the morning measurably protects life. In a study of older adults, a stronger sense of life purpose was associated with lower mortality.18 The Japanese call it ikigai, and it is a quiet fixture of the world’s longest-lived communities.

Why it matters: meaning and engagement keep both the mind and the body alive.

7. Avoid what accelerates aging

Subtraction matters as much as addition. Not smoking is one of the five habits tied to a decade-plus of extra life,1 and minimizing ultra-processed food, excess alcohol, refined sugar, and environmental toxins removes some of the biggest accelerants of aging.

Why it matters: you can’t out-supplement habits that are actively shortening your life.

Longevity fitness and exercise

If I could prescribe one thing for a longer life, it would be exercise, and the research backs that up. The goal is to train all the systems that decline with age, which means combining four ingredients.

• Aerobic base (Zone 2). Easy, conversational cardio like brisk walking, cycling, or swimming builds the engine. More daily steps and more activity both track with lower mortality.1112
• High-intensity work. A weekly dose of harder intervals lifts VO2 max, the fitness measure most tightly tied to longevity.13
• Strength training, twice a week. Muscle and grip strength predict how well you age, and resistance training protects both.14
• Balance and mobility. Staying steady on your feet prevents the falls that end independence later in life.

Here is a finding I always share, because it reframes exercise entirely. In the Copenhagen City Heart Study, researchers tracked how different activities related to life expectancy. Solitary gym work helped, but the biggest gains went to social, racquet-based sports. Tennis was associated with the largest gain of all, several years of added life expectancy, with badminton and soccer close behind.26 The likely reason is telling. The activities that add the most years combine movement with human connection. You don’t have to play tennis. The lesson is that the best exercise for longevity is one that is active, social, and sustainable enough to do for life.

The longevity diet

If movement is the most powerful longevity tool, food is the most constant one. The pattern with the deepest evidence is the same one that protects the heart and brain, built on whole, minimally processed foods centered on plants. A Mediterranean-style diet reduced cardiovascular events in major randomized trials, both for prevention and after a heart attack.45 Higher fiber and whole-grain intake tracks with lower mortality,7 and improving diet quality over time lowers the risk of dying.6

Ideal longevity foods, by category

Build your plate from these, in roughly this order of emphasis.

Foods that age you

What you leave off the plate matters as much as what you add. These are the biggest dietary accelerants of aging, and they are worth minimizing.

• Ultra-processed foods. Packaged snacks, fast food, and anything with a long list of additives.
• Refined sugar and sugary drinks. The fastest route to the blood-sugar swings that drive aging.
• Refined seed and vegetable oils. Heavily processed and pro-inflammatory in excess.
• Processed meats. Cured and packaged products are tied to worse long-term outcomes.
• Excess alcohol. Small amounts may be neutral, but more is a clear accelerant.
• Charred and deep-fried foods. High in the advanced glycation end-products that stiffen tissues.

The longevity breakfast (and a few recipes)

How you open the day sets your blood sugar and energy for hours. A longevity breakfast is built on the same logic as the whole diet, using protein to protect muscle, fiber and healthy fat to steady blood sugar, and a dose of colorful polyphenols, while skipping the sugar-and-refined-carb start that spikes and crashes you. Here are three I come back to.

Mediterranean green scramble

Sauté a big handful of spinach and a few cherry tomatoes in extra-virgin olive oil, then fold in two or three eggs. Finish with fresh herbs, a little feta, and avocado on the side.

Why it works: protein and healthy fat for steady energy, with greens and polyphenols built in.

Berry, walnut and chia overnight oats

Stir rolled oats with chia seeds and milk or kefir, refrigerate overnight, then top with blueberries, chopped walnuts, and a dusting of cinnamon. No added sugar needed.

Why it works: soluble fiber, omega-3-rich walnuts, and berry polyphenols in one bowl.

Green longevity smoothie

Blend a handful of spinach, half an avocado, frozen berries, a scoop of clean protein, ground flax, and water or unsweetened almond milk. Add fresh ginger and a little turmeric.

Why it works: an easy way to load greens, fiber, healthy fat, and anti-inflammatory spices.

A 7-day longevity eating plan

A simple, plant-forward week to show how it comes together. Adjust portions to your needs, and lean on leftovers.

Two more levers deserve mention. First, protein and muscle. As we age, we lose muscle, so adequate protein paired with resistance training becomes essential to protect the strength that predicts longevity. Second, when you eat. Periods of fasting trigger cellular repair and metabolic benefits,8 calorie restriction improved cardiometabolic markers in a two-year human trial,9 and extended healthy life in primates.10 A sensible eating window suits many people, though it is a tool, not a requirement.

The Blue Zones and other long-lived people

The Blue Zones (Okinawa in Japan, Sardinia in Italy, Ikaria in Greece, Nicoya in Costa Rica, and Loma Linda in California) are regions where people reach 100 at strikingly high rates. They didn’t get there with supplements or biohacks. They got there by living, by default, the way the evidence says to live, with plant-forward diets built on beans and vegetables, constant natural movement, tight family and community bonds, a clear sense of purpose, and daily rhythms of rest. The Loma Linda Adventists make the case especially cleanly. Their faith-based lifestyle of vegetarian eating, exercise, and community was tied to roughly ten extra years of life.30

It is worth looking, too, at smaller groups long rumored to live well. Beekeepers have for centuries been observed to enjoy unusual longevity, possibly from a life of outdoor physical activity, low stress, and regular exposure to bee products like propolis and royal jelly. The rigorous data here is thin, so I file it under intriguing rather than proven. The same caveat applies to mountain shepherds, monastics, and other groups credited with long lives. But notice the through-line in all of them. They move constantly, eat simply, stay connected, and live with purpose. The longevity has less to do with the bees or the mountains than with the way of life.

Countries with the longest life expectancy

Where do people live longest? The latest United Nations estimates put a cluster of small, wealthy states and East Asian nations at the top, most of them in Europe and the Pacific Rim.39 The common threads are familiar ones, including whole-food diets, active daily life, strong social systems, and good healthcare.

For comparison, the global average sits near 73.8 years, and the United States trails much of the developed world at roughly 79.5, despite the highest healthcare spending on earth, a gap driven largely by chronic disease and unequal access. The lesson is the one this whole guide makes, that longevity is built more in daily life than in the clinic.

TCM longevity: herbs, foods, and lifestyle

Long before epigenetic clocks, traditional systems were chasing longevity in their own language. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) frames health as a matter of balanced, abundant qi, or vital energy, preserved through diet, movement, rest, and tonic herbs. Modern research is now validating pieces of this ancient practice.

• Tonic herbs. Panax ginseng has long been the premier energy tonic, with modern studies on fatigue and cognition,35 while reishi mushroom, the legendary “mushroom of immortality,” is used for immune and stress support and is under active study.33 Astragalus, goji berry, cordyceps, and schisandra round out the classic longevity cabinet.
• Longevity foods. Warming, easy-to-digest dishes like congee and bone broth, plus goji berries, ginger, garlic, mushrooms, and green tea, all eaten with the seasons.
• Lifestyle. Gentle daily movement such as tai chi and qi gong, adequate rest, emotional balance, and the Okinawan habit of hara hachi bu, eating until about 80% full.

I treat these traditions with respect and curiosity. Centuries of careful observation are not nothing, and where modern trials confirm them, the case grows stronger. Use them as long-term support layered on the foundation, never as substitutes for it.

The top 15 longevity herbs and supplements

This is where the hype is thickest, so I rank candidates two ways, by the strength of modern research and by their Ancient Health Score, a rough measure of how deeply rooted they are in traditional longevity practice. The best picks score well on both. No pill replaces the pillars, but a few additions earn their place.

The pattern is clear. The strongest picks support specific, healthspan-relevant systems and often carry centuries of traditional use. The trendy NAD boosters and polyphenols are scientifically interesting but not yet shown to extend human life. Food first, then a few well-chosen additions.

Longevity therapies

Beyond diet and movement, a handful of therapies show real or emerging promise. I rank them by evidence, not by hype.

• Sauna (best evidence). Regular sauna bathing was associated with substantially lower cardiovascular and all-cause mortality in a long-running study, with more frequent sessions linked to greater benefit.32
• Red light therapy. Promising for skin, recovery, and cellular energy. See our full red light therapy guide.
• Cold exposure. Cold plunges and showers may support mood, recovery, and metabolic health; the longevity data is early.
• Hyperbaric oxygen. An intriguing area for tissue repair and aging biology, still largely experimental.
• Peptides. A fast-growing field for repair and metabolism, promising but largely unproven for longevity. See our peptides guide.

Longevity and human connection

If one finding deserves to be better known, it is this. The Harvard Study of Adult Development has followed the same people for more than 85 years, one of the longest studies of adult life ever conducted, running since 1938. After decades of tracking health, careers, and relationships, its directors reached a conclusion that surprised even them. Ahead of cholesterol, wealth, and fame, the single strongest predictor of a long, healthy, happy life was the warmth of close relationships. The people with strong connections in midlife stayed healthier and lived longer.34

The wider literature agrees. A meta-analysis found that strong social ties were associated with about a 50% greater chance of survival, rivaling the effect of quitting smoking,17 and a sense of purpose, often anchored in other people, predicts lower mortality too.18 We tend to chase longevity in the gym and the supplement aisle. This is the reminder that the dinner table, the phone call, and the long friendship belong on the same list.

The experimental frontier

Beyond lifestyle lies a fast-moving research frontier aimed at slowing aging itself, and it deserves a two-sided look. The leading candidates include rapamycin (an mTOR inhibitor that extends life in animals), metformin (a diabetes drug under study for aging), senolytics (compounds that clear worn-out cells), NAD+ boosters, and certain peptides and GLP-1 medications. The underlying biology is real, and these target the hallmarks of aging directly.2

But the truth is that none of these is proven to extend lifespan in healthy humans, and several carry real risks and unknowns. It is also worth remembering that lifestyle often outperforms drugs on the very outcomes these target. In a landmark trial, lifestyle change beat metformin at preventing diabetes.25 I follow this frontier with great interest, and some of it may well prove valuable. But experimenting on yourself ahead of the evidence is not a strategy, and anything in this category belongs under the care of a knowledgeable physician, layered on top of the foundation, never instead of it.

How to start living longer today

You don’t need a lab, a coach, or a cabinet of supplements to begin. Start here, in roughly this order.

1. Move every day, and lift twice a week. Walk more, add strength training, and choose active, social activities you’ll keep doing for life.
2. Eat real food, plant-forward. Build meals around vegetables, legumes, olive oil, nuts, whole grains, and fatty fish, with enough protein. Cut ultra-processed food and refined sugar.
3. Protect your sleep. Aim for a consistent seven to eight hours and treat it as non-negotiable.
4. Tend to your stress and your relationships. Build in daily recovery, and invest in the people who matter. Both are longevity medicine.
5. Find your purpose. Stay engaged with something larger than yourself; meaning keeps you alive.
6. Measure and adjust. Check a few key markers yearly, and let the data guide small, steady course corrections.

And don’t wait for the perfect plan to start. In that same Million Veteran Program analysis, adopting even one of these habits at age 40 was linked to about 3.5 more years for men (1.8 for women), and just two added roughly six more years.40 This is not all-or-nothing. You benefit from every single change, at any age.

The bottom line

Longevity: frequently asked questions

References

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Dr. Josh Axe, DC, DNM, CNS

Doctor of Natural Medicine · Founder, DrAxe.com

Dr. Axe is a certified doctor of natural medicine, clinical nutritionist, and multiple New York Times bestselling author. He has spent 20+ years in clinical practice helping people heal at the root cause and founded one of the most-visited natural-health platforms in the world.

Read the full bio →

Medically reviewed by the DrAxe.com Medical Advisory Board on Jun 6, 2026.

This article is for educational purposes and reflects current research on aging and a healthy lifestyle. Longevity science is evolving, and the experimental interventions discussed are not proven to extend human lifespan. Talk with a qualified, licensed physician before making major changes to diet, exercise, or supplements, or before considering any experimental therapy, especially if you have a medical condition, take medication, or are pregnant.