The Longevity Edit: Aging Backwards Isn't Science Fiction Anymore

I’ll be the first to admit, I hate needles. I know it’s an irrational fear, but I’ve never liked them and I never will. So, when I had some health concerns begin to pop up a few years ago, I was not a fan of the doctor’s suggestion to do a full blood panel. However, I reluctantly obliged, and to my surprise, I survived! Not only was the woman at Labcorp comforting, but the process was so quick. I spent just 10 minutes there, and by the end of the week, I had my results. Their insights were invaluable in understanding my health. As part of this mid-year resolution review, it's time for another full panel. So, if needles aren’t your thing either, we’re in this together!

Timeline's Mitopure Softgels have been referred to as ‘Youth in a pill.' Made with Mitopure, the first and only highly pure, clinically validated Urolithin A supplement, these softgels are designed to rejuvenate cells for enhanced performance, recovery, and resilience. The brand takes a holistic approach to aging by addressing the core signs of aging both externally and internally.

Before starting a million different treatments, it's best to have an idea of where your baseline is. Wild Health is a groundbreaking provider of what they call "precision medicine": healthcare that's tailored to your specific needs, including what's stored in your DNA. By analyzing your bloodwork, Wild Health's team of doctors and coaches can identify everything from which vitamins you're deficient in to what sleep schedule is most ideal for your body. They break it all down for you in a 50+ page personalized health report full of actionable next steps, which several of the products below can likely help you fulfill.

It's no secret that our diets are the key to a large part of our health — but did you know that glucose levels specifically can have a significant impact on your lifespan? Like Wild Health, Levels analyzes your specific biomarkers to understand which foods have positive or negative impacts on your metabolic health. The major difference, however, is that Levels operates in real time, using a wearable patch to track the impacts of foods immediately after you eat them. It's as cutting-edge as it gets, and can be a game-changer for understanding exactly what foods help you look and feel your best.

Here's the best news you'll hear all week: your spa trips just might be the key to your longevity. Research out of Harvard University indicates that saunas have the potential to lower death rates, especially from cardiovascular disease and strokes. David Sinclair suggests that extreme heat signals to our bodies that it needs to go into overdrive to keep us stable, encouraging it to produce compounds that are beneficial for fighting off aging. I'm fully aware that this is as splurgey as it gets, so if you've got a sauna available to you elsewhere, by all means avail yourself. But with a recommended frequency of 2-3 uses per week, it's hard to beat the advantage of installing one at home.

While Plunge is as sleek and chic as it gets, with a nearly $5,000 price tag, I couldn't endorse it as a vessel for ice water. NuRecover makes a much more affordable ice bath, and has the added bonus of being totally portable. Its positive effects are similar to the sauna and other forms of heat therapy: by shocking the body with another extreme, it increases circulation and boosts properties to help your system survive what it perceives to be a new Ice Age. And as unappetizing as a temperature of 15 degrees might sound, it's much colder than your shower can get, giving you that much more benefit.

Resveratrol is one of the most popular plant-based compounds for increasing cellular health — mostly because it's found in red wine. But even the biggest Pinot heads may need to source their supplements elsewhere, since the trace amounts found in wine bottles aren't nearly enough to combat aging. I take Thorne's ResveraCel supplement instead, which combines resveratrol with NR and Quercetin, two other effective compounds in the healthy aging space. Their Collagen Plus supplement is also a huge asset for skin and nail health, which are widely considered two of the most important markers for determining your biological age. But if you really want to get to the bottom of things, for $95 Thorne can perform a Biological Age Health Panel, generating personalized scores that track your rate of aging.

Take it from my experience: once you start diving into this world, the number of beneficial supplements you could add to your regime becomes totally overwhelming. That's the beauty of Novos' Core formula, a mix of 12 highly-effective longevity ingredients you can add to water for one daily dose. Promoting better cognition, energy, mood, and metabolism, the ingredients found in Core — which range from magnesium to hyaluronic acid — share no overlap with the Thorne products above, meaning you won't be spending money on duplicates. Your cluttered medicine cabinet will thank you for that.

Waking up on the wrong side of the bed isn't just a blow to your mood and productivity – sleep quality has been shown to have a direct effect on health and life expectancy. Getting enough sleep is essential, and so is improving the quality of that sleep, but melatonin supplements are often disruptive to our body's natural melatonin production. Minerals like magnesium and calming amino acids are a much better way to go, which is exactly what you'll find in Form Nutrition's ZZZZs capsules. I've noticed a huge increase in the quality of my sleep since I started taking them nightly, and at less than $1 per capsule it's well worth the investment.

I know what you're thinking: the "anti-aging" benefits promised by skincare products and the internal cellular health we've been discussing here sound like two very different things. But as the largest organ in (or rather, on) the body, the health of your skin plays a massive part in determining your health at large. Retinol and hyaluronic acid have both been endorsed by Dr. David Sinclair as beneficial in increasing skin cell turnover, and Ever makes products centering those ingredients as well, like their Sublime Retinol Eye Wrinkler Smoother ($70) and Hydralift Rich Moisture Injection Cream ($68.40). Peptides, though, have the potential to work even more systematically by reducing inflammation and the number of senescent cells that occur in the first place. A skincare regimen that incorporates all three is truly the triple threat of the anti-aging world.