Five free hacks for a longer life
Dietary supplements, expensive treatments, or check-ups – the pursuit of longevity is an expensive hobby. Longevity gurus like tech millionaire Bryan Johnson spend millions of dollars each year using methods they hope will extend their lives. But such treatments are expensive even in Europe. A special check-up at the AYUN Clinic in Switzerland costs €3,500, and a longevity treatment at Tegernsee Lake costs around €8,200.
The effectiveness of these methods is often not scientifically proven, and many applications rely on patients repeating them repeatedly. This places an additional burden on the wallet. Life extension doesn't have to be expensive, though. In fact, the measures most likely to prolong life are often even free. Five hacks at a glance.
Fasting is said to have many positive effects. It's said to help with weight loss, detoxification, and even life extension. As early as the 1930s, experiments with rats demonstrated the effect of controlled fasting on lifespan.
For this study, US biochemist Clive McCay had rats eat as much as they could for about four years. Others were given only meager portions, yet they contained all the essential nutrients. In the first group, the last member died after 3.3 years (1,189 days); the last member of the fasting group lived almost eight months longer and only died after 1,421 days, according to the study results.
Fasting triggers a recycling process in the cells known as "autophagy." This type of detoxification keeps the body fit and, very likely, young, too. Studies show this .
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A two-year US intervention study examining the effects of calorie restriction on humans showed that blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, and inflammation levels improved significantly among those who ate less. Whether the participants will also live longer lives remains to be seen, however.
But the chances are good: People who don't suffer from the classic risk factors of high blood pressure, diabetes, being overweight or underweight, and high cholesterol, and who don't smoke, live significantly longer. This was shown by a study conducted by the University Hospital Hamburg (UKE Hamburg) . Men lived up to 12 years longer if they didn't have any of the risk factors, and women lived up to 14.5 years longer.
It takes some effort, but taking a cold shower, taking an ice bath, or even a regular trip to the ice bucket could be worthwhile. A slight reduction in body temperature has been proven to extend life expectancy. This has been shown by studies on cold-blooded animals such as worms, flies, and fish, as well as on warm-blooded animals such as mammals.
The nematode, for example, lives significantly longer when its body temperature is five degrees lower than normal. In mice, just 0.5 degrees is enough to extend lifespan by up to 20 percent. The study was published in the scientific journal "Science."
A research team at the University of Cologne has now discovered that cold prevents protein clumping and thus also prevents typical neurodegenerative age-related diseases such as ALS and Huntington's disease. The study was published in the scientific journal Nature in 2023.
People who sleep well live longer. This is the conclusion suggested by a 2023 study by the American College of Cardiology . It lists five factors for healthy sleep: seven to eight hours of sleep per night, difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep no more than twice a week, waking up refreshed five days a week, and avoiding sleeping pills. Between 2013 and 2018, they asked 172,000 people to complete questionnaires in which they assigned a number to each of the five factors.
The result: Those who met all five criteria had a 20 percent lower risk of dying from cancer or cardiovascular disease. The risk of dying from other causes was even 40 percent lower. Male and female subjects who did not meet the criteria for good sleep were used for comparison. Life expectancy increased by 4.7 years for men and 2.4 years for women.
However, caution should be taken here when attempting to sleep too strenuously. Robert Göder, a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy and head of the sleep laboratory at Kiel University Hospital, recommends one thing above all else for good sleep: calmness. "We need to relax in order to fall asleep," he says in an interview with the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND) .
Chronic stress is unhealthy and shortens life expectancy. This is demonstrated by a 2021 study in the journal Science Advances. It's not always possible to work less, be less nervous, or simply experience less stress. But there is one part of our body that can help us: the vagus nerve.
The so-called "self-healing nerve" originates in the brain stem and is the most important part of our parasympathetic nervous system—and it is responsible for helping us relax. It controls unconscious processes such as breathing, heart rate, and digestion and transmits a multitude of information and signals from our body to the brain.
Researchers are testing ways to specifically activate the vagus nerve, such as in the "cold face test." In this test, participants were given a cold gel mask on their faces, which helped them relax more quickly after a stressful situation. The cold had an effect on the parasympathetic nervous system and thus the vagus nerve. According to a Dutch study, breathing exercises such as those used in meditation or yoga are also said to be relaxing because they affect the vagus nerve.
There is also an invasive treatment for treatment-resistant depression. Electrodes and a generator are implanted below the collarbone on the left vagus nerve. The stimulation frequency is individually calibrated .
Those who believe that good things will happen or that the future is desirable live longer. This is shown by a study published in the journal of the US National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). According to the study, the lifespan of particularly optimistic women is on average 15 percent longer than that of particularly pessimistic subjects – with comparable demographic characteristics and pre-existing medical conditions. For men, the lifespan was extended by 11 percent.
The chance of living to a particularly old age—85 years and older, according to research—was twice as high among the most optimistic women. For men, the difference was 70 percent. When the researchers adjusted for lifestyle factors such as diet and exercise, the correlations decreased but remained significant. On average, life expectancy was still increased by 8.7 percent even after adjustment. A positive outlook on life and goals for the future can therefore definitely extend life.
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