Fact checked by Derick Wilder
Taking supplements galore, pushing your body to the limit, and monitoring every metric possible. And don’t forget to post about it!
“Longevitymaxxing” promises to add years to your life and improve your health through extreme — though usually unscientific — methods. “Maxxing” trends — looksmaxxing, proteinmaxxing, sleepmaxxing — stem from the manosphere, where some of these trends originated with men focused on maximizing physical attractiveness.
Alongside the manosphere, the delayed-aging industry is booming, though there’s no uniform way to measure the aging process. In fact, S. Jay Olshansky, PhD, emeritus professor of epidemiology at the University of Illinois Chicago, says anti-aging interventions don’t exist. “If somebody’s telling you that they can make you live longer by eating this or doing that, for example, they won’t have the scientific evidence to back it up,” he says.
Some interventions, however, show promise, including GLP-1 medications, socialization, and strength training.
Longevitymaxxing advice generally comes from influencers who are simultaneously pushing products. Its best-known proponent, tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson, spends millions a year trying to “not die” but was recently diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, gastritis, which he described as his stomach “eating itself.”
Olshansky argues that public health measures are what have truly helped maximize human life expectancy well beyond the roughly 50-year average seen in high-income countries at the beginning of the 20th century.
So, is there anything to longevitymaxxing claims?
- Monitoring and data: Keep up with your medical appointments at every age, Olshansky says. To treat issues before they get worse, “Pay attention to how our bodies operate, learn what it is that the body doesn’t like, and avoid it,” he says. Tracking minutiae, as biohackers do, isn’t necessary.
- Slower living: Prioritize habits such as making home-cooked meals, connecting face-to-face, and getting better-quality sleep to bolster quality of life.
- Core functional habits: Don’t max out on supplements, food, or compulsive exercise. Instead, aim for balanced, healthier choices, Olshansky says.
Maxing out on the things that make you enjoy life is okay, Olshansky says, as long as they’re also healthy. Just remember, he adds, “The decisions that you make early in life echo through biological time.”
