Longevity & Aging

Why it matters

This is the health subject with the most money and the loudest claims attached to it. Knowing which levers are proven, which are promising and which are being sold tells you where your effort and money are worth spending. It also tells you how much of what you read is a mouse study wearing a headline.

Key insights from this synthesis

• Attention and evidence run in opposite directions here. Three of our topics say so independently, in almost the same words.
• Exercise is the only lever every expert supports without qualification. The two most exciting drugs have less human evidence than walking briskly four times a week.
• The strongest fasting evidence is not for dramatic multi-day fasts. It is for eating within a consistent 10 to 12 hour window.
• Regularity of sleep may matter more than hours. Weekend catch-up does not undo the week as cleanly as people assume.
• One of our own topics recommends a supplement that its own evidence method would reject.