After more than a century of steady, upward climb, US life expectancy hit 78.9 years in 2015. Since then, it’s been mostly downhill. US life expectancy slid to 76.1 years in 2021 at the pandemic’s nadir before inching back up to 78.4 years in 2023 — still well below the 2014 peak and lagging most peer nations.
So where’s the good news? Science is figuring out ways to pump those numbers up again and pointing the way toward living more years — and more healthy years. And this doesn’t require sci-fi, Silicon Valley anti-aging technology like blood swapping, or cellular reprogramming. According to Dr. Eric Topol, a cardiologist and the author of the new book Super Agers, there are evidence-based steps you can take right now to help ensure you live a longer, healthier life.
“We’re at a turning point,” Topol told me in an interview this week. “Thanks to advances in the science of aging, we can actually show everything is going in the right direction. We’re making headway.”
Know — and lower — your biological age
It used to be that if you wanted to know how old you are, all you needed was a calendar. But your body’s aging isn’t as simple as turning the pages on a calendar: Depending on who you are and how you live, different parts of your body can age more quickly or slowly than. And it turns out this other kind of aging, biological aging, matters more for your health than the number of candles on your birthday cake.
In Super Agers, Topol points to a “metric revolution” in which blood-based proteomic clocks and DNA-methylation scores can pinpoint which organ system is aging the fastest, and by how many years. A 2024 Nature Medicine study used machine learning to examine more than 200 plasma proteins in thousands of people and showed that the resulting biological age forecasted 18 major diseases and all-cause mortality better than any single risk factor, like blood pressure or body mass.
“When you particularize risk to a person, the chance of them taking actions to mitigate it is much, much higher,” Topol said.
It’s one thing to know generally that as you get older, you need to be aware of the risks of heart disease or neurodegenerative diseases. It’s another thing to be told that your brain age is, say, five years ahead of your calendar age — which means you need to intervene now to protect yourself.
What you can do: Companies are already offering biological age tests that you can order for your own use. Down the line, scientists at the University of Washington are developing a multi-organ biological clock that will be developed into a digital app.
Eat like the Mediterraneans do
There’s no field where the prevailing advice seems more conflicting and confusing than in the science of nutrition. Atkins, South Beach, Paleo, Zone — you’d be forgiven for throwing up your hands and just ordering takeout from DoorDash.
But we do know what you eat is key to how well and how long you’ll live, and the current American diet, heavy on ultra-processed foods and red meat, isn’t cutting it. “Our diet is basically inviting disease instead of preventing it., Topol said.
A 30-year study looked at 105,000 adults and found that of the one in 10 study subjects who reached age 70 without cancer, cardiac disease, or serious cognitive decline, virtually all scored high on an eating index that closely tracks Mediterranean-style diets. That means plenty of whole grains, vegetables, olive oil, and omega-rich seafood. You should also try to cut out sugars and ultraprocessed foods as much as possible, and go very easy on red meat, which Topol notes can trigger aging-accelerating inflammation.
What you can do: Start by something as simple as swapping out butter for olive oil and soda for sparkling water.
Sleep more — and sleep deeper
At this point, I think everyone knows just how important it is to get a good night’s sleep. Poor sleep is associated with everything from heart disease to diabetes to dementia to obesity to cancer, not to mention a significantly increased risk of watching way too many Netflix shows.
But as Topol told me, it’s not just how much sleep you’re getting, but how you’re sleeping. “The key thing is deep sleep,” he said. “If you don’t get it, you’re much more subject to brain aging and the three major diseases of aging.”
Research has shown that people who get fewer hours of deep sleep per night have a greater risk of developing neurodegenerative diseases like dementia, while a larger amount of deep sleep can act as a protection against Alzheimer’s-related memory loss.
What you can do: During the writing of Super Agers, Topol increased his own deep sleep from around 15 minutes per night to over an hour by adhering to a consistent sleep schedule and tracking his progress with wearables. And steer clear of drugs and supplements, which are unlikely to help you get the deep, restorative slumber you need.
As a cardiologist, Topol was long focused on aerobic exercise, which helps build up the cardiovascular system. But he now realizes that’s not enough. “Aerobic was the thing,” he told me. “Now we know that strength and core training are equally important.”
One meta-analysis from 2022 found that just an hour of resistance training per week lowered all-cause mortality by as much as 25 percent. And beyond trying to reduce the chance of death, strength training when you’re younger helps build up muscle mass, slowing down the inevitable decline of muscle that occurs as you age.
What you can do: You don’t have to start pumping iron like 1970s Arnold Schwarzenegger to get the anti-aging benefits of strength training. Bodyweight exercises will go a long way, as will resistance training that involves exercise bands. And as much as you may hate them, don’t neglect those squats!
It may seem inevitable that as you age, your social circle and connections shrink. But it doesn’t have to be that way — and there are enormous longevity benefits to keeping connected to the world and the people around you. “The strong data for social isolation shows it will compromise healthy aging,” Topol said.
A 2023 meta-analysis linked social isolation to a 32 percent higher risk of all-cause mortality, while self-reported loneliness specifically tacked on another 14 percent. Neuro-imaging studies have even shown a biological effect from being alone, demonstrating spikes in inflammatory cytokines and the shrinkage of hippocampal volume in the brain.
What you can do: Get off your couch and out of your house, for one thing! Schedule regular face time with a friend, and ideally do it outside: Frequent time in nature has been associated with reduced epigenetic aging.
There’s plenty more in Super Agers, including Topol’s optimism around GLP-1 inhibitors like Ozempic, which have been showing the ability to reduce the risk of diseases of aging like dementia. But you don’t need cutting-edge medicines to live a longer, healthier life. You just need to change how you live your life.
A version of this story originally appeared in the Good News newsletter. Sign up here!
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