Each month this year, we asked leading longevity experts about the daily habits they follow to stay healthy.
“You can’t do just one thing at a time to extend your life,” Dr. Darshan Shah told me in January.
Shah explained that to have a significant impact on your healthspan, or the number of years you spend in good health, you need to practice and stick to some healthy habits in your daily life.
He interviews experts in the longevity field on his podcast “Extend,” and he says Shah is putting into practice in his daily life what he’s learned about how to increase your chances of living a long life.
That’s a common theme among the experts I spoke to in 2025.
Here are four key practices that longevity experts agree are prioritizing to live longer, healthier lives.
1. Daily exercise and exercise
“I always try to do a 10-minute workout first thing in the morning,” Shah said. “It’s very important to move your body and do strength training in the morning.”
Stephanie Ben-Watson, who helped discover the first essential fatty acids in nearly a century, walks one to three miles a day and does cardio and strength training every week. “As well as helping with our daily mental and physical health, exercising is essential to ensuring our longevity,” Ben Watson said in February.
Human performance and longevity expert Dr. Suzanne Ferry’s top priority is to “move your body in a meaningful way. Anything that doesn’t make you sedentary,” she said in October.
This can range from taking a yoga class to doing Pilates to going for a walk with the dog. Another fun way Ferry gets her body moving is salsa dancing, which she says is great for brain health. “You use your body in different directions at the same time and you need your brain to remember the steps,” Ferry says.
2. Quality sleep
“I think sleep is the best thing for longevity,” said Poonam Desai, who worked as an ER doctor for 20 years and began practicing longevity medicine in 2017.
“This is something we do every day. It’s free. We have an opportunity to optimize it every day.”
Desai and Dr. Vonda Wright, a practicing clinician and longevity expert, both prioritize waking up and going to bed at the same time every day to get the best quality of sleep.
“I’m particular about my sleep, which means I’m in bed by 9:30 p.m. and awake by 5 a.m. I can rely on that on weekends and weekdays,” Wright told Make It magazine in August.
Longevity investor Sergey Young uses technology to measure how much rest you get each night, and for how long, to improve your sleep.
“I use the Oura ring to measure my sleep cycles. Every morning I can see what I did the previous day or the evening before and whether that had a positive or negative impact on the quality and structure of my sleep,” Young said in April.
3. Maintaining peace of mind
When speaking with longevity experts, managing stress levels and prioritizing peace came up often.
“I think most people today don’t enjoy life, and when you don’t do that and don’t live with compassion and love for others, you end up with negative stress points,” Dr. Simon Feldhaus, a physician who has researched longevity for 15 years, said last month.
Dr. Angela Mazza, an integrative endocrinologist and founder of the Center for Wellness and Metabolism, whose specialty aligns with longevity medicine, said stress management should be a top priority for longevity.
Mazza said she manages to avoid stress by spending time with her husband and pets and pursuing hobbies such as crocheting.
“People want to live longer, but they also want this long life to be full of healthy and happy days, so proper attention to well-being and mental health is very important,” Young said.
4. Eat whole foods and avoid ultra-processed foods
“I try to eat whole foods,” Ferry said. “Instead of eating packaged or processed foods.”
Most of the longevity experts I spoke to recommended a diet based primarily on whole foods, especially ones rich in green leafy vegetables. He also said people should avoid eating simple carbohydrates, which quickly break down into sugar, and ultra-processed foods, which are linked to chronic diseases.
“It’s really important to avoid ultra-processed foods, avoid additives, and avoid anything that can cause inflammation,” Desai says.
“Your diet should be optimized for green and yellow vegetables, nuts, protein, and omega-3s.”
To build muscle, Wright optimizes the protein in his diet and eats as little sugar as possible. Young, on the other hand, focuses on cutting out sweet and sugary drinks from your diet.
“It doesn’t matter what diet program you follow, as long as you avoid ultra-processed foods,” Shah says. “I try to avoid ultra-processed foods at all costs, so I don’t even have ultra-processed foods at home.”
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