Interventions

Cardiorespiratory fitness is the strongest known predictor of longevity — stronger than smoking, diabetes or kidney disease.

Muscle is the organ of longevity: 30–60 minutes of strength work a week tracks with 10–17% lower mortality, and it's the one thing that reverses sarcopenia.

Quitting before 40 removes 90% of the excess mortality from smoking; even at 60 it gives back 4 years.

Hypertension is the world's number-one mortality risk; a systolic target of 120 gave 27% fewer deaths than 140.

Atherosclerosis depends on lifetime cumulative exposure to ApoB particles; the earlier and the lower, the fewer heart attacks.

Sleep REGULARITY predicts mortality more strongly than duration; chronic sleep under 6 hours raises mortality ≈12%.

The only diet that moved hard endpoints in a large RCT: 30% fewer heart attacks, strokes and cardiovascular deaths.

“A glass of wine a day is healthy” came from cohort bias; the latest analyses put the health optimum at zero.

15–20% weight loss in obesity and 20% fewer cardiovascular events — the first “metabolic drug” to move hard endpoints in non-diabetics.

Fibre is the one nutrient with a meta-analytic dose-response curve on mortality: 25–29 g/day means 15–30% fewer deaths, heart disease, diabetes and bowel cancer. The European average is 18 g.

You needn't reach an ideal weight: a 5% loss already improves blood pressure, insulin sensitivity and fatty liver; 10% reverses half of prediabetes and eases sleep apnoea.

Over 65, one in three people falls each year, and one-year mortality after hip fracture is 20–30%. Targeted balance training (Otago, tai chi) cuts falls 23–34% — the best-proven geriatric intervention.

Present in 20–30% of adult men and 10–15% of women, 80% of them unaware. Untreated it drives hypertension, atrial fibrillation, insulin resistance and dementia — CPAP treatment largely reverses this.

Screening for bowel, breast, cervical and (in smokers) lung cancer cuts death from that cancer 15–60% in RCTs. Participation in Hungary is 30–50% — the cheapest years to be won.

One hard interval session a week is the shortest route to raising VO2max — which falls ~10% per decade after 50 unless you push back.

The mortality curve starts dropping at 4,000 steps and flattens around 7–8,000 — the cheapest life-saving intervention there is.

The official 0.8 g/kg prevents deficiency; keeping muscle after 50 takes 1.5× that, spread as 25–40 g per meal.

Strong relationships raise survival odds by 50% — loneliness rivals smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

It's not one nutrient that matters but the degree of processing: every +10% of energy from UPF tracks with 3–4% more mortality, and in an RCT it caused +500 kcal of overeating a day.

The sodium/potassium ratio says more about blood pressure than salt alone. Replacing 25% of table salt with potassium chloride cut mortality 12% in a 21,000-person RCT.

In the CALERIE trial it slowed the pace of biological ageing over 2 years and improved every cardiometabolic marker — in non-obese people.

Untreated hearing loss is the largest modifiable dementia risk; hearing aids slowed cognitive decline 48% in the ACHIEVE RCT.

The shingles vaccine cut dementia risk 20% in a natural experiment; flu and pneumococcal vaccines also reduce cardiovascular events.

Fine particulate pollution (PM2.5) causes 250,000 premature deaths a year in Europe and shortens life expectancy by 1–2 years — more than alcohol. Indoor air (cooking, fireplaces, candles) is often worse than outdoors.

Light is the master reset for the circadian clock: 10–20 minutes outdoors after waking and dimmed evening lighting is the cheapest sleep upgrade.

In Finnish cohorts, 4–7 saunas a week halved cardiovascular mortality and dementia compared with once a week.

10–20 minutes of daily mindfulness measurably reduces anxiety and depressive symptoms; chronic stress accelerates telomere and immune ageing.

A strong sense of purpose (ikigai) tracks with 2.4× lower mortality in cohorts; the most important protective factor after retirement. Volunteering above 2 hours a week measurably reduces depression and mortality.

Sitting 8+ hours a day harms even if you exercise — but 2–5 minute walking breaks every half hour cut post-meal glucose peaks 20–30% and blood pressure 3–4 mmHg, and enough movement offsets the sitting risk.

A simple tool for eating less; adds NO extra benefit over calorie restriction, but many find it easier to stick to.

Not crosswords but NEW and HARD learning (a language, an instrument, photography) builds cognitive reserve: in one RCT, 3 months of new skill learning at 65+ lifted memory to the level of people 30 years younger.

5–6 breaths a minute for 5–10 minutes a day lowers blood pressure 4–6 mmHg in RCTs, raises HRV, and exhale-weighted breathing (the physiological sigh) calms anxiety faster than meditation.

120 minutes a week in nature (a park counts) was the threshold for good health and wellbeing in a 20,000-person study, independent of exercise. People living in greener surroundings have 8–12% lower mortality.

Sun-avoiding women had double the mortality in a 20-year Swedish cohort — yet sunburn causes melanoma, and sunscreen halved it in an RCT. 10–20 minutes a day without burning, plus protection for longer exposure.

The only drug that extended lifespan even in old mice; in humans it improved immune response in older adults, but no longevity data exist — a research field, not a protocol.

Immediate effects on mood and alertness; weak data on fat loss and lifespan — a good habit, not a longevity tool.