Are We Learning to Live Better, or Just Longer?

We are learning more about how to live longer. But what can longevity science teach us about how to live better?

Bryan Johnson, a 45-year-old software entrepreneur, captured the public’s attention with an extreme anti-aging regimen detailed by Bloomberg. With a team of 30 doctors, in-home medical facilities, an annual budget exceeding $2 million, and a rigorous routine of nutrition, exercise, and medical testing, Johnson has made himself a test subject for longevity science.

His goal is to reverse the aging process in every organ of his body.

Johnson has dedicated extraordinary time and resources to advancing the science of longevity. We can only hope he is also finding joy and a sense of well-being within this highly controlled approach to living.

In the broader conversation about health and aging, there is a meaningful difference between reversing aging entirely and slowing the processes that contribute to unhealthy aging.

Nearly half of Americans live with at least one chronic illness. Life expectancy in the United States has declined more sharply than in many peer countries. The consequences are even greater for Black Americans, with significant disparities in life expectancy reflecting interconnected inequalities in healthcare, housing, education, and the environment.

Healthspan vs. Lifespan

Despite these realities, three out of four Americans hope to live to 100, according to a Stanford Center on Longevity poll.

An emphasis on lifespan can cause us to overlook healthspan, the number of years we live in good health.

Research suggests that many of us could spend two of those ten decades living with chronic illness, moving in and out of hospitals, and managing the financial and emotional costs of care.

Age is one of the greatest risk factors for disease in developed countries. But physicians estimate that genetics account for approximately 30 to 50 percent of the risk for most diseases. Lifestyle, living conditions, and environmental factors also play substantial roles.

Genes are only one part of a complex system, which makes it difficult to determine how much interventions like Johnson’s will ultimately change long-term outcomes.

His lifestyle also carries immense financial, physical, and psychological demands. It is not feasible for the average person, and because these interventions cannot easily be implemented at scale, it is difficult to know how the findings will apply to society more broadly.

We may want to control our fate, but complete control is impossible. Some people carry genetic risks that can complicate even their best efforts.

Still, physical and mental health can make a meaningful difference when someone faces serious illness. There is much we can learn from Johnson’s experience.

Breakthroughs in longevity research could allow people to live considerably longer by 2050, and some researchers even imagine a future in which humans approach immortality.

But regardless of how long Johnson lives, he will one day reach the end of his life, as all of us will.

As we consider what longer lifespans might mean, we must work to ensure those added years are healthy and meaningful. We must also plan for the best possible ending, whenever it arrives.

Resisting Ageist Stereotypes

Healthy aging is shaped in part by the culture around us.

Becca Levy, PhD, a psychologist at the Yale School of Public Health, has spent more than 30 years studying how ageist stereotypes affect health. Her research suggests that negative cultural and personal attitudes toward aging can shorten a person’s life by as much as eight years.

Her work also shows that these attitudes can change.

Older adults with positive perceptions of their own value and abilities tend to perform better on measures of cognitive health, physical health, and overall well-being than peers with more negative views of aging.

Other cultural and environmental influences on lifespan and healthspan can also be changed.

The Brookings Institution and the NAACP’s Black Progress Index examines differences in life expectancy among Black populations across the United States, highlighting communities where Black people are thriving.

In these places, longer life expectancy is associated with strong communities where civil rights groups, organizers, and policymakers are working to dismantle the structural inequalities that shorten people’s lives.

Their work reflects the collective power communities have to shape both healthspan and lifespan.

Learning to Live Better

The future of longevity science extends beyond radical experiments like Johnson’s.

It also asks us to expand our cultural and clinical imagination around aging and the end of life, ensuring that every person has the opportunity to leave this world with dignity, love, and joy.

The most important lesson from Johnson’s anti-aging regimen may have little to do with how long we can live.

It may be what it teaches us about how to live well.