As life expectancy in the U.S. rises, so does the country’s broader conversation around the pursuit of longevity.
Billionaires are spending big in hopes of extending their lifespan for as long as they can. The world’s longest-living people share their “secrets” to longevity, intended for the average person to achieve optimal health, too. For some people, being healthy entails a lot more than it used to these days — from wearable devices to track your “good” hours of sleep to at-home DNA tests for measuring your biological age based on individual health markers.
But the more that influencers and other people online promote “healthmaxxing” — a social media-driven trend for optimizing health outcomes — the harder it can become to determine how much time and energy to invest into your future longevity, versus simply enjoying the present moment. Not everyone should track and dissect their health data so meticulously, certain longevity experts say.
“You don’t want to shorten the life that you’re trying to extend by having stress around trying to be healthier,” says Dr. Poonam Desai, a practicing physician and founder of Longevity Place, a personalized health clinic with locations in New York City and Scarsdale, New York. “The balance really comes from picking a few things that will actually move the needle, and giving yourself permission to rest.”
