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Four decades of writing on living long and living well, with 1,000+ posts on functional and longevity medicine.
199 in Healthy Aging
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Feb 10, 2025 · Healthy AgingWalking Your Way to Longevity
These days, many of us are seeking simple ways to cultivate better physical and mental health – and longevity. Where to start? Put on your walking shoes. Walking is one of the most easily accessed forms of exercise that has a profound impact for on slowing aging and contributing to longevity. As researchers continue to learn more on the science behind aging, walking consistently ranks high on the list of powerful tools to promote physical, mental, and emotional well-being – all of which are all essential for extending life expectancy and enhancing quality of life for decades to come.
Feb 3, 2025 · Healthy Aging7 High Tech – and Enjoyable – Longevity Tools to Try Today!
While some days you may stick to the longevity landing better than others, keep in mind that a vibrant health span is the product of a life-long journey. In my longevity-focused practice, it’s my job to guide patients towards minimizing their risk for life-altering or life-shortening conditions like obesity, diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer. That guidance integrates an analysis of an individual’s medical history, lifestyle advice and state-of-the-art diagnostic testing. It’s all in the service of coming up with a personalized longevity ‘road map.’ One big part of the process is taking advantage of the best health technology available.
Jan 27, 2025 · Healthy AgingMildly Tarnished Wisdom of the ‘Blue Zones’ and 5 Essential Longevity Lessons
Despite its shaky data, Blue Zones reporting on the so-called secrets of living long and well, still has value. It’s less about specific claims of exceptionally long life-and-healthspans and more about the broader, big-picture lifestyle habits it shined a klieg light on for the millions of people who otherwise might have remained in the dark.
Jan 20, 2025 · Healthy AgingThe ‘Miracle’ Diabetes and Weight Loss Drugs — That May Also Keep You Younger Longer
The impact of so-called GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro has been, in a word, massive. They’ve been extraordinarily successful at pushing insulin production up – and driving too-high blood sugar levels down and supporting weight loss. But beyond the blood-sugar control and weight loss benefits, GLP-1s are also producing a startling number of additional healthspan-enhancing benefits, and showing themselves to be exceptionally useful tools in the war on aging. In fact, GLP-1s may quite possibly become the most powerful anti-aging, longevity-promoting drugs ever, with the power to change how we age, and how well we do it, for generations to come.
Jan 13, 2025 · Healthy AgingGet to Know TUDCA: The Easy Way to Protect Your Digestion, Brain and Liver
There are many tools in the wellness toolbox but one you might not yet be familiar with is a favorite of mine known as tauroursodeoxycholic acid or ‘TUDCA.’ It’s been a staple of Chinese medicine for thousands of years, and is now gaining traction in the West as a well-tolerated compound with numerous potential health benefits for your digestion, brain, liver and so much more. Here’s my topline on this important health helper.
Jan 10, 2025 · Healthy AgingAging Isn’t One-Size-Fits-All: Why Men and Women Take Different Roads to the Golden Years
Aging—it's a universal truth, but the way we age? That’s where the story gets interesting. For men and women, the journey through aging takes distinctly different paths, influenced by biology, lifestyle, and environment.
Dec 30, 2024 · Healthy AgingThe Top 15 Health and Wellness News Articles from 2024
For the past few decades, I’ve made it my life’s work to encourage people to take care of themselves so they can live long and fruitful lives. And while we in the functional medicine and longevity worlds have long appreciated the powerful benefits of a healthy lifestyle, sometimes it takes a minute (or two) for the research to catch up and re-confirm what should be self-evident: the choices we make now have both an immediate and long-term impact on how well we age. So, choose wisely!
Dec 27, 2024 · Healthy AgingHow to Fall Better
Falling is inevitable, but you can minimize injury by with these tips, moves, and exercises.
Dec 23, 2024 · Healthy Aging14 Articles on Anti-Aging and Longevity Therapies Driving Healthspan Innovation from 2024
In a lot of ways, 2024 has been a watershed year, especially when it comes to advances in the longevity field. And while we may not have yet unlocked the secret to eternal youth quite yet (we’ll leave that to the Twilight crew), just about every day we’re gaining more insights on how to get closer to it and live longer lives with plenty of health and vitality ideally, right up ‘til our last breath. With this in mind, for this end-of-the-year review I wanted to share some of the most interesting reporting on anti-aging and longevity strategies to inspire your journey and offer a quick inside look at these exciting discoveries.
Dec 16, 2024 · Healthy Aging13 Headline-Making Reports and Research on Longevity from 2024
For those of us who have the privilege of aging with health and vitality, the longevity news this past year is giving us even more insights into the multiple aspects of the aging process that we want to combat. So, whether you’re a fit 25-year-old hiker, or a power-lifting retiree, there’s much to learn from these recent reports from longevity’s cutting edge, so check out a few of the year’s best.
Dec 2, 2024 · Healthy Aging7 Ways Longevity Starts with Your VO₂ Max
Why does cardio fitness matter so much to longevity? Cardiovascular fitness, best measured by assessing your VO₂ (oxygen consumption), is one of the most powerful indicators we have to measure your overall health and longevity potential. Your ‘VO₂ max’ reflects how efficiently heart, lungs, and muscles function together to keep the body moving when it’s working hard. Research indicates that higher VO₂ max levels are associated with a lower risk of mortality and a longer lifespan, which is the main reason I encourage everyone to work on improving their VO₂ max.
Nov 25, 2024 · Healthy Aging9 Life-changing Ways to Tend to Your Soulspan
As my readers know, I often talk about ‘health-span,’ the number of years we’re able to physically function well. Well, soul-span speaks to an even bigger issue, as in, what are you doing with all those years? What good is a long life with a well-functioning mind and body if the time you spend on the planet lacks meaning or purpose? I think if we’re honest enough to ask that question, we already know the answer. Which begs the question: how to cultivate and nourish your ‘soul span’ to help seed a happier, and yes, healthier life?
Nov 11, 2024 · Healthy Aging7 Crash-free Ways Ketones Energize Your Life – and Support Your Longevity
Energy. We all need it and want to get more of it, in as healthy a way as possible. In short, we’re all in the market for a healthy energy hack and I’ve got one you might not be aware of – ketones. True, people who have experimented with the keto diet are familiar – the whole point of the no- or super-low carb diet is to cue the body to produce ketones for energy. But even they may not realize you can actually take a ketone supplement, not only to support energy production but also to enjoy an impressive roster of other benefits.
Nov 4, 2024 · Healthy AgingIntroducing ApoB: The Essential and Inexpensive Heart Test You Must Ask for to Live Long and Well
As we get older (and we all, for the most part, do), we tend to worry most about diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s. Understandably so. But what people often forget is that heart attacks are still the biggest killers in the U.S. and in the whole industrial West. But here’s the thing. Unlike those other lethal diseases, cardiovascular disease, or atherosclerosis, shouldn’t be that difficult to prevent or combat. The fatty plaques that can develop in your arteries usually take decades to grow into life-threatening terrors. We know we can stop this progression, especially of early-stage disease, and, in some cases, even reverse it, with the right diet and physical activity and, when necessary, cholesterol-lowering drugs.
Oct 28, 2024 · Healthy AgingBeyond Big Muscles: Creatine’s Big 4 Anti-Aging Bonuses
While many athletes take creatine to boost performance, endurance and recovery, you might be wondering, what’s the benefit of taking creatine for a regular civilian like me? Well, if you’re starting to age – and face it, we all are – studies suggest that the benefits of creatine supplementation go well beyond just adding muscle. It’s got the potential to be a powerful anti-aging and longevity ally, enhancing everything from bone density to cognitive function.
Oct 14, 2024 · Healthy Aging9 Longevity and Anti-Aging Secrets of Seaweed
Often the easiest health hacks are the dietary ones, and leaning into superfoods is a delicious, no-brainer way to get our wellness and longevity compass pointing in the right direction. Chances are you’re already tucking into a number of the superfood classics a few times a week – think blueberries, spinach, avocados, etc. But you may be overlooking seaweed, one of nature’s most unassuming superfood treasures, packed with the power to enhance our healthy aging process.
Sep 27, 2024 · Healthy AgingHow to Become a Pro-Ager
How we talk and think about growing old can significantly affect our ability to maintain our health as we age. Here's why.
Sep 23, 2024 · Healthy Aging7 Do-Right-Now, High and Low Tech Ways to Avoid Alzheimer’s and Dementia
When the brain starts to fail, the consequences are devastating, life-changing, in the worst possible way. Small wonder the mere mention of words like cognitive impairment, dementia, Alzheimer’s – whether it’s in relation to ourselves or our loved ones –strikes fear in our heart. What’s more, the rates of these debilitating neurological conditions are expected to skyrocket in the next 20 years as the population ages and life expectancies increase – we’re looking at you Gen X and younger Boomers. The good news there is a lot you can do to steer clear.
Sep 16, 2024 · Healthy AgingWant to Live Long and Well? Your Oral Microbiome Can Help
One of the most intriguing, and most important, bacterial ecosystems we have is the oral microbiome which really isn’t a single microbiome at all but rather a collection of neighboring bacterial populations, approximately 700 strains in all, that have colonized our gums, tongue, the mucous lining of our cheeks and the surface of our teeth. This is some of the most densely populated bacterial real estate in the body with its primary function being to maintain our oral health – think cavity-free teeth and pink gums resistant to infection and recession.
Sep 9, 2024 · Healthy AgingPerfect Pairing: Harnessing the Anti-Aging Power of Methylene Blue and Red Light Therapy
I am a big proponent of health-promoting therapies and two of the ones I’m now regularly using in my practice are red light therapy and methylene blue. The extraordinary benefits of combining the red and the blue, two modalities which, in different ways, both stimulate the powerplants inside our cells, the mitochondria, with the result that the body has more healing energy on tap. Each therapy enhances the other, creating a synergistic effect that I like to call, 1 plus 1 equals 3. Or, combine and conquer! Here are my thoughts on how to put them both to work for you.
Aug 30, 2024 · Healthy AgingHere’s What You Need to Know About A1C
High blood glucose and prediabetes diagnoses are becoming increasingly common, even among people who are otherwise in good health. Discover the factors that contribute to a concerning A1C reading, along with diet and lifestyle strategies that can help you regulate your blood-glucose levels.
Aug 26, 2024 · Healthy Aging7 Reasons Why You Need More Protein for Anti-Aging – and 6 Ways to Get Yours
Just about every day patients ask me how they can age well, or at minimum, do it better than their parents and grandparents did -- and the good news is that many of them can! As the biology of aging has evolved over the past few decades, we now know so much more about how to help our bodies age more slowly, in better health, than ever before. Granted, we’ve not quite figured out how to stop aging but there are a number of steps we can take, starting now, to get into a slower aging groove. One of the biggies is protein. While it may not seem like an obvious clock-stopper, as we age, increasing protein intake becomes especially important – and a lot of people overlook this relatively simple, longevity upgrade.
Aug 19, 2024 · Healthy AgingTwo Heart Tests You May Need — But Don’t Know About
Nothing is more essential than taking care of your heart. Heart attack risk increases significantly when underlying issues go unchecked and yet many people overlook the importance of understanding their cardiovascular system until it's too late. This is where diagnostic tests that capture images of your heart should enter the picture, revealing artery-blocking plaque before it becomes problematic. Having this kind of information now empowers you to take control of your heart health while there’s plenty of time to do something about it. In fact, most heart attacks should be preventable. Cardiac imaging tests remind us that we don’t have to let the coronary vessels deteriorate. With a little extra effort, we all can nip atherosclerosis in the bud – and that’s music to your heart’s ears!
Aug 12, 2024 · Healthy Aging7 Ways Alcohol Hurts Your Heart – and Ages You Fast
When it comes to alcohol consumption, as you might imagine, I’m really not a fan. As much as it may not seem to be a big deal – it is, after all, available everywhere – alcohol is a toxin, and it’s one that far too many people pour into their bodies multiple times a week. We use alcohol to unwind, relax, commune with others, feel more festive or enhance a nice meal. These are all understandable motivations but the trouble is, alcohol has enormous potential for dependency, more rapid aging, shortened longevity – and the exceedingly difficult-to-reverse specter of heart damage to boot.