A research-based
guide to healthspan.
What actually works for healthy adults, what doesn't, and how strong the evidence is. The single largest, best-replicated intervention for midlife longevity is not a pill — it's the combination of a Mediterranean-pattern diet, regular exercise, consistent sleep, and the avoidance of well-documented harms.
The eight 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 →Recovery & Hormesis
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
Protect your sleep
7–8 hours, regular schedule, screen for apnea if you snore or have any cardiometabolic risk factor.
- 02
Train both ways
2–3 resistance sessions and 150+ minutes of zone 2 plus some VO₂ max work weekly.
- 03
Eat Mediterranean-pattern
Vegetables, legumes, fish, nuts, olive oil; minimal ultra-processed food.
- 04
Don't smoke. Drink as little as possible.
The J-curve is gone. The minimum-risk dose is at or near zero.
- 05
Test and supplement deficiencies
Vitamin D, B12 if at risk, iron in premenopausal women, omega-3 if you don't eat fish.
- 06
Add creatine
3–5 g/day. The best evidence-to-cost ratio of any optional supplement.
- 07
Hearing, vision, dental
Underrated dementia and cardiovascular modifiers.
- 08
Stay socially connected; find purpose
Blue Zones' most replicable insight.
Everything else on this site adds nuance. None of it overrides this list.