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Four decades of writing on living long and living well, with 1,000+ posts on functional and longevity medicine.
445 written by Dr. Frank Lipman
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Mar 30, 2026 · Healthy AgingMore Than Muscle: Creatine Fuels Brain Power and Healthy Aging
We all know about creatine, the stuff that body builders and gym rats buy in tubs to help pump up their physiques. But it isn’t only muscles that need energy. Your brain has to do a lot of thinking, that and overseeing virtually every process in your body, all of which requires a generous fuel supply. Researchers are beginning to uncover gains in cognitive sharpness, memory, even protection against dreaded neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. And that makes creatine a potentially very powerful longevity enhancer. Given that creatine levels decline with age, I now recommend it to my middle-aged and older patients, in measured and monitored doses.
Mar 23, 2026 · Healthy Aging7 “Healthy” Habits That Can Age You Far Too Fast
When I started my practice decades ago, a big part of it was educating patients on the health basics. Fast forward a few decades and the tide has turned, thanks in large measure to the wealth of information available on the internet. Patients now arrive with a much better baseline understanding of health and how to influence it. Which is great except that too much information can mislead almost as often as enlighten, and myths are often taken as gospel. When these ideas get over-simplified or just plain misunderstood, you can wind up accelerating the very processes that drive biological aging.
Mar 16, 2026 · Healthy Aging14 Ways to Maintain a Youthful Brain – by Curbing Chronic Inflammation
While there are many factors believed to contribute to diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and various forms of dementia, one biological common thread that keeps showing up across countless studies is chronic inflammation, often also referred to as “inflammaging.” One of the organs that’s particularly sensitive to easily damaged by years of unchecked chronic inflammation? It’s your brain. But the good news is that chronic inflammation is heavily influenced by the choices we make every day, and when done right, you can shift your brain health in a positive direction for decades to come – so the time to start is now.
Mar 9, 2026 · Health & WellnessThe Big Power of Small Doses: Optimizing Health with My Microdosing Top 5
“Less is more.” That’s hardly the usual refrain of conventional Western medicine, which likes to prescribe powerful pharma drugs at relatively large doses to knock out symptoms. Unwelcome side effects are tolerated (by the doctor anyway) if they seem manageable. Well, in the past few years, however, a whole new, and smaller, world has opened up, one prescribing (mostly) prescription drugs at either “microdose” or much smaller than full-strength levels, not to treat full-blown disease, but to gently nudge key biological systems in a healthful direction.
Mar 2, 2026 · NutritionHow Intermittent Fasting Promotes Your Hormonal Health -- and Why I’m A Fan!
When hormones stop playing nicely with one another, blood sugar swings, sleep becomes lighter or harder to come by, cravings feel louder, weight can shift in ways that feel unfair, and stress tends to linger. Over time, these disruptions can add up, affecting mood, metabolism, immune health, resilience, and even how quickly we age. The good news is that hormones are remarkably responsive to everyday choices – and fasting is a fantastic way to help smooth out the hormonal ride.
Feb 23, 2026 · Healthy Aging10 Ways Exercise Rewires, Slows — and Even Reverses Aging
Most of us were raised to believe you get older, your genes blow the whistle, your body ‘breaks.’ Fortunately for us, modern biology has been quietly rewriting that story and the new version is a lot more hopeful. Over the last few decades, researchers have mapped out a set of common biochemical changes which, over time, tend to push us in the direction of disease and frailty. These subtle shifts, known collectively as the ‘hallmarks of aging.’ The good news is that most, quite possibly all, of these hallmarks respond positively to healthy lifestyle habits. If a long, healthy life is what you’re shooting for, one of the hands-down most powerful habits you can cultivate is movement.
Feb 16, 2026 · Healthy AgingMeet AMPK: The Energy Switch You’ve Likely Not Heard of But Use Every Day
Most people outside the medical or research world probably aren’t familiar with AMP-activated protein kinase, or AMPK. But it influences how you experience every day of your life, like how steady your energy levels feel, how easily your body shifts between storing and using fuel, and how effectively your cells recover from stress and damage. Think of it this way: AMPK sets the table for long-term metabolic health and healthy aging.
Feb 9, 2026 · Healthy AgingWhy I’m Fascinated with Rapamycin — but Not Taking It Yet
Over the past few years, rapamycin has garnered a tremendous amount of buzz, frequently showing up on podcasts, blog posts, scientific papers, and online forums. Some outlets treat it like the most promising anti-aging intervention mankind has ever seen while others view it’s ‘next big thing-ness’ as a dangerous overreach. I fall somewhere in the middle: fascinated by the science, cautious about the risks, and not yet persuaded that the current evidence is strong enough to justify all-purpose “off-label” use. All that said, rapamycin still has plenty of potential as a longevity therapy in the not-too-distant future.
Feb 2, 2026 · Healthy AgingAre You Aging Out of Sync? Circadian Rhythm Dysfunction May Be To Blame!
Aging is inevitable, but that doesn’t mean it’s an uncontrollable free fall. There are ways to slow the pace at which resilience fades and the body breaks down. One of the simplest, most direct, and most overlooked strategies is working with your internal clock — and preventing circadian rhythm dysfunction from quietly speeding the process along. Circadian rhythm dysfunction is a surprisingly potent accelerator of aging — and most of us don’t even realize it’s happening.
Jan 26, 2026 · Healthy AgingYour Longevity Superpower: How Muscles Keep Your Heart, Brain and Body Younger Longer
For decades, having a good amount of muscle was considered optional — nice to have if you wanted to look toned or perform well in sports, but few thought of it as essential to health. That view has changed dramatically. Today, researchers increasingly describe skeletal muscle as a primary longevity organ, a biological system that actively determines how well we age rather than passively reflecting it. Turns out, muscle influences nearly every system that matters for a long, healthy life: metabolism, immune defense, cardiovascular function, brain health, resilience to illness, and physical independence. When muscle tissue is strong and active, aging slows. When it declines, the entire system becomes more fragile.
Jan 19, 2026 · Healthy AgingSlow Your Aging Roll Overnight – With Longevity-Loving Sleep!
The bedside table light turns off, you slip into unconsciousness and the business of living is put on hold until you wake up in the morning. Except that’s not really how sleep works. While you’re conked out, the body is busily engaged in a slew of renovation and repair operations that human life depends on. And it’s the difference between good sleep – 7-9 hours a night – and insufficient poor-quality sleep that helps determine how well, nor not so well, we age. Sleeping well and enough helps tame the inflammation ages us and nearly every system in the body. So, if your body is operating in a high inflammation state, you’re aging faster, and in a low inflammation state, slower.
Jan 12, 2026 · Healthy AgingLow-Dose Lithium: The Little Mineral with Big Potential for Longevity and a Healthier Brain
What’s emerging now is a portrait of lithium as a subtle supporter of brain health and longevity, especially when used in microdoses far below psychiatric levels.
Jan 5, 2026 · Healthy Aging4 Theories of Aging – and How to Start Making Choices to Help Slow the Pace
Aging is a privilege. Yes, some aspects don’t always feel that way — lines and wrinkles, muscles that aren’t as pumped as they once were, thinning hair — but these are simply gentle reminders that time is doing what time does to us all. Beneath the surface, something deeper is happening: all 37 trillion of your cells are aging right along with you. That can feel a little unnerving, but here’s the good news — once you understand why aging happens, you can start making choices that help slow the pace and support better healthspan and longevity. Aging doesn’t have to be a runaway train.
Dec 29, 2025 · Healthy AgingTop 16 Must-Read Longevity Articles for 2025 – And Why They Matter
If there’s one thing I’ve learned immersed in the worlds of longevity and integrative health, it’s that science never stands still (and thank heavens for that!). Just about every day, fascinating new ideas and insights emerge to dig into. Some confirm what we’ve long suspected, while others may challenge our assumptions, and still others may give rise to entirely new ways of thinking about how we age and how we thrive.
Dec 22, 2025 · Health & WellnessReaders’ Choice: 15 Favorite Lipman Posts of 2025
As a doctor, educator, and lifelong health and longevity advocate, my mission is to help patients and health-conscious readers understand not just the science behind longevity, but the simple, practical actions that can profoundly influence how long and how well one can live with vitality. As 2025 winds down, I want to revisit and share a few of my site’s top posts—the ones that struck a chord with readers, and, in their own different ways, helped shape the global conversation around healthspan and longevity.
Dec 15, 2025 · Healthy AgingLion’s Mane: The Mushroom That May Put More (Good) Life in Your Years
Mushrooms are having a moment, and a health-supportive one at that. While there are a number of very popular ones on the market these days each with their own unique health supportive properties (think reishi, chaga, cordyceps, turkey tail, etc.), lion’s mane is one of my favorites from a healthspan and longevity perspective. What makes it special in particular is the emerging research that’s showing lion’s mane’s potential to help support brain health, mood, gut balance, heart health and the cellular defenses that matter quite a bit for healthy aging.
Dec 8, 2025 · Healthy AgingThe 4 Essential Sex Hormones to Optimize Now – for Better Longevity Later
Among the dozens of hormones at work in our bodies 24/7, four stand out as key players in the vitality and longevity departments: estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, and DHEA. Commonly thought of as our sex hormones, they do far more than just influence libido. When levels are optimized and balanced, they support your over-all energy, your restorative deep sleep and manageable moods. But as the hormonal dials start to turn down with age, the harmony fades and the static creeps in. How to fight back? Optimize the hormones that can help keep you more youthful.
Dec 1, 2025 · Healthy AgingFour "Everyday" Hormone Levels to Optimize for Longevity, and a Longer, Stronger Healthspan
Hormones, produced by various glands throughout the body, act as chemical messengers that keep nearly every one of our systems —from brain and heart health to mood, muscle, and bone strength—running smoothly. While estrogen and testosterone often steal the spotlight, other “everyday” hormones like growth hormone, thyroid, cortisol, and melatonin are just as vital to our energy, resilience, and overall wellbeing. As levels naturally decline with age, optimizing them becomes key. The good news: the choices we make daily—how we eat, move, sleep, and manage stress—have a profound effect on preserving hormonal harmony, vitality, and longevity
Nov 24, 2025 · Healthy AgingMeet 5 Common Meds That Can Put Your Brain in Dementia’s Path
When we think about Alzheimer’s, we often think of it as a disease that happens because of age, or maybe as the result of a life lived too hard or just plain old bad luck in the genetics department. While age and genes certainly do play a role, they’re not the whole story. More and more research is pointing to another, more under-the-radar factor. It turns out that certain common medications may speed up brain aging. In fact, many of the meds that are used to treat everyday issues, both prescription and over-the-counter, may be surreptitiously increasing your risk of dementia, including Alzheimer’s, the most common severe form of the condition.
Nov 17, 2025 · Healthy AgingSupport Vibrant Longevity with Dr. Lipman’s 15 Favorite, Super Savvy Supplements
Traveling the longevity path requires a proactive effort on our part – it’s not a one-and-done deal. It’s about creating a road map that combines health and longevity-promoting lifestyle habits with cutting-edge scientific innovations and treatment modalities, including a custom tailored program of longevity-supporting supplements to enhance quality of life and reduce the risks of disease and early mortality. So, how do we get there? I have a few thoughts on the topic.
Nov 10, 2025 · Healthy AgingNAD To the Rescue – and 7 Smart Ways to Support Your Cells
With so many health headlines making news every day, it’s easy for even my well-informed patients to feel like they’re drowning in too much information. That’s where my team and I come in: to sift through the noise, explain the science, and guide people toward sensible, evidence-based choices tailored to their exact life situation and physiology. Lately, I’ve had a lot of questions about NAD, something I’m naturally a fan of -- we couldn’t live without it! But about the trendy NAD “shots” or infusions, truth be told, I’m less enthusiastic. Why? Well, I have a few thoughts on that.
Nov 3, 2025 · Gut HealthGut Health’s Key Role in Longevity: What Hippocrates Knew and Modern Science Confirms
Hippocrates (460–370 BCE), the Greek physician often hailed as the “father of Western medicine,” is best known for his declaration primum non nocere, or, “First, do no harm”. Whether he uttered those exact words is uncertain, but their spirit has anchored medical ethics through the centuries. Also attributed to him, ‘All disease begins in the gut,’ feels especially pertinent today. Again, the exact phrase may be apocryphal, but the underlying insight lives in his teachings. As modern science expands our understanding of how trillions of microbes in our intestines influence our immunity, metabolism, mood, and aging, I see Hippocrates’ intuition in a new and more profound light. Revisiting that ancient medical tradition helps us think about health and longevity in a more integrative and holistic way, ideally helping us to enhance both.
Oct 27, 2025 · Healthy AgingHeat Shock Proteins: The Under-the-Radar Longevity Booster Worth Cultivating
Heat shock proteins – don’t let the odd name fool you. The phrase sounds as if we’re talking about proteins that are suffering from too much heat exposure, and that can’t be good. And, in a way, that’s actually not too far off. Heat shock proteins, or HSPs, are a special class of proteins that adapt to the stresses of living, including but by no means limited to exposure to heat, by becoming extra-resilient. In fact, they become so resilient, they’re able to help ordinary proteins repair themselves when they’re subjected to those same pressures. Pretty cool, eh?
Oct 20, 2025 · Healthy AgingMore than Just Jet-Lag Helper: How Mighty Melatonin May Guard Your Brain, Mitochondria, and Longevity
Chances are, you’ve probably taken melatonin from time to time when struggling with sleep or crisscrossing time zones. The idea is that as evening falls, your primary energy hormone cortisol drops and melatonin goes up, cueing the body for sleep, which is why some have dubbed melatonin “the hormone of darkness.” Well, guess what? Melatonin is stepping into the spotlight to help aging brains The latest research has revealed that it’s produced in the mitochondria, the cell powerplants, in a number of your organs, and that it’s involved a wide range of important physiological processes, some of which have nothing directly to do with sleep – and more to do with brain health over the long haul.