The Internet Health Trap: Longevity and Empty Promises

Someone from my gym came up to me the other day and complained that they could spend almost every hour of their life implementing countless viral recommendations for health and longevity popularized by internet influencers and podcasters, and you’ll still feel like you’re falling behind.

He mentioned the complex and often contradictory menu. “biohacks” (quick ways to improve our biology(all lacking scientific rigor) and “protocols” (very specific exercise, sleep, and nutrition regimens). In this era of the quest for eternal youth, there are supplements, green powders, cold packs, supposed benefits of low-angle morning sunlight, continuous glucose monitors for non-diabetics, “box breathing,” the supposed benefits of rapamycin (a drug originally used in organ transplants that are adapted for longevity), and countless restrictive diets ranging from eliminating seed oils to Be aware of the “hidden dangers” of fruits and vegetables, avoiding the consumption of almost everything except meat.

While the obsession with health and longevity has long plagued humanity, this latest version is amplified by an ecosystem in which influencers and podcast hosts profit from our attention and desire for health by securing sponsorship from companies that make dietary supplements, sleep trackers, and other pseudoscientific wellness products. In 2016, the global dietary supplement market amounted to 135 billion dollars. Today it has grown to $250 billion and is expected to reach nearly $310 billion over the next four years.

Some of these interventions have limited utility, while others range from the absurd to the downright harmful. It’s a shame that people waste their money and energy on these things, and even more so because The key to a longer, healthier life is no secret.

Research has long shown that health and longevity come down to five fundamental behavior patterns: Exercise regularly, eat a nutritious diet, avoid smoking, limit alcohol consumption, and develop meaningful relationships.

It’s simple, a little boring, and harder to make profitable than fancy supplements, complicated theories, and new gadgets, but it’s what really works.

For the seminal 2017 study published in the journal Health issuesThe researchers analyzed data from more than 14,000 American men and women aged 50 and older dating back to the 1990s. They found that non-smokers aged 50, moderate drinkers and non-obese individuals could expect to live an average of seven years longer than their peers who did not share these traits. The average life expectancy for women with this lifestyle triad was 89 years. For men, it was nearly 86 years. By tracking impairments associated with aging, such as trouble walking, bathing or getting out of bed, the researchers found that of those extra seven years, Six passed normally, without disability.

The role of relationships in longevity was examined in a meta-analysis published in 2023 in the journal. Nature Human Behavior including more than two million adults. The researchers found that at any age, the risk of premature death associated with loneliness increased by 14 percent, and the risk of premature death associated with social isolation increased by 32 percent.

Maintaining relationships means not only living longer, but living well. He Research on adult development At Harvard, they have followed more than 700 men since 1938, later adding their spouses and, more recently, more than 1,300 descendants of the first group. The director and deputy director of the study, Robert Waldinger And Mark Schultzexplained in The Atlantic last year that they had come to a “simple and profound conclusion: good relationships lead to health and happiness.”

Still, the promises of the online health and longevity movement are enticing. Much of its appeal is fantasy and control: If you follow all these routines and regimens and take all these supplements, you will live forever, never ageing or getting sick. But accidents happen. So do random cell mutations that trigger deadly cancers. And yet the fantasy of controlled longevity persists.

Over the last decade, I have studied the craft and worked with some of the best athletes in the world. What makes a professional athlete or Olympian great is not waking up at 5am to take a cold shower and stare at the sun. Rather, greatness is the result of focusing on the fundamentals of the craft, consistently executing those fundamentals over many years (if not decades), adopting the right mindset, and surrounding yourself with the right people. Genetics helps too.

Health anxiety has increased significantly in recent decades, fueled in large part by the avalanche of online content about the quest for perfect biomarkers and immortality. And it also poses a counterintuitive problem: so much focus on adding years to our lives comes with the real danger of making us neglect the life we ​​have in those years. That’s as true for a 50-year-old on Instagram as it is for a 16-year-old on TikTok.

It follows that perhaps the best way to live a good, long, fulfilling, and productive life is to focus on what’s important and not worry about the rest. If you’re worried about life being fragile and short, you simply have no time to waste.

© The New York Times, 2024