Health Area: Longevity & Aging
No treatment has been shown to extend human life in a controlled trial. Not one
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.
Draws evidence from 57 expert discussions across 5 topics — 32% of our analysed library.
Synthesised 2026-07-21
What is this based on?See the topics, expert discussions and methodology behind this synthesis.
Topics behind this synthesis
This Health Area is built from 5 topics, each analysed in full. As more evidence is added, it grows.
Supports 27 findings on this page, including Muscle mass and power decline · Bone density declines · Mental reserve stops being topped up
Supports 19 findings on this page, including The cell's instructions get harder to read · Nothing here has been shown to extend human life · A better biological age score is not a longer life
Supports 16 findings on this page, including The rest of the mainstream list · Reversal is where the line is drawn · Can established Alzheimer's be reversed?
Supports 12 findings on this page, including Fasting research has largely not studied women · Why does fasting work? · The dramatic fasts carry real risk
Supports 7 findings on this page, including Head injury · Some of this cannot be settled by a trial at all · How much of Parkinson's comes from chemicals we could avoid?