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To close out the year, GQ is revisiting the most fascinating ideas, trends, people, and projects of 2023. For all of our year-end coverage, click here.
In 2015, the comedian Tom Segura joked, “I hear people go, ‘I want to live to see 100!’ Really? Have you seen 80?” Until recently it’s probably how most people—myself included—felt about general notions of longevity. But this was the year the world was introduced to Bryan Johnson, who is burning millions of dollars in his quest to live forever. I myself tried Tally’s at-home biological age test, which was created by Harvard scientist David Sinclair—all to discover that I am biologically approximately two months younger than my actual 32 years. And even Segura started talking about STEM cell infusions and working out to the point of looking truly swole.
Given that the quest to live as long as possible seems to be top-of-mind for more people than ever before, I thought I’d reach out to some actual experts to find out what it was about 2023 that made people fixate on longevity, and to see if there’s any chance this sudden interest could actually lead to a longer future.
Dan Buettner knows a little something about the obsession with longevity. The author, researcher and National Geographic fellow released the documentary Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones on Netflix earlier this year. The film followed decades of research focusing on the diets, habits, and activity levels of people who live in the five regions in the world where people are thought to live the longest lives.
Buettner relayed a certain skepticism toward people’s fascination with longevity—not necessarily from the habits being recommended, but rather from the likelihood that people will adopt them long-term. He said cold plunges and supplements are similar to June flies: “they're here for a short period, and then they disappear and they leave no real significant impact on your longevity.”
“One thing I know 100-percent that these influencers seem to miss is that when it comes to longevity, if it's not something you're doing for decades, it's not adding years to your life,” Buettner said of the trends sweeping social media. “There's nothing you can do this year or this month—other than not die—that will have any impact on how long you're going to live.”
On the other hand, one trend that’s been popping up that Buettner has actually taken note of in the blue zones is fasting. “In all blue zones, they have been forced to fast,” explains Buettner. And while he explains that these fasts are generally due to “war, food shortage or religious commitment,” they still reap the positive health effects of the fasts.
On the front lines of the longevity fixation was Jamie Gabel, a physician assistant and the clinical director of Advitam at the Shafer Clinic in Manhattan. He has experienced the rise in new treatments like peptide therapy first-hand. Gabel began his career with a focus on orthopedics, which is when he first learned about using stem cells and platelet-rich plasma treatments for recovery. This sparked his interest in using medicine as means to promote longevity instead of solely as a treatment for disease. Today, the Advitam Clinic provides peptide and IV therapies, including services for patients who are looking into weight loss drugs like semaglutide and tirzepatide—better known as Ozempic and Mounjaro. Gabel says he’s seen the growing interest not only from patients as new studies have come out, but from clinicians who attend conferences and trainings on longevity-focused treatments and therapies.
“These medications were initially studied in the diabetic population, but they were never meant to replace diabetic medications—rather to work as an adjunct to them,” explains Gabel. “It really helps with the prevention of new fat formation and assists with the breakdown of fat cells and stabilizing somebody's blood sugar.”
If you’re not quite to the point of forking over the cash for peptides and STEM cells—much less the expensive red light therapies lauded by Bryan Johnson—Matthew Walker says you can always fall back on an age-old longevity recommendation: sleep. Walker is the author of Why We Sleep, and a professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. He’s also the founder and director of the Center for Human Sleep Science.
“I think the longevity movement in some ways is a misnomer,” says Walker. “It's not really so much about living longer, it's really about—yes, perhaps living a few more years—but for most of those years living in health.”
Walker referred to his friend and recreational car racing buddy, Peter Attia, who has undoubtedly contributed to the popularity of the interest in longevity—and who declined to be interviewed for this piece but spoke to GQ about the subject earlier this year. “Peter has spoken about what's called your marginal decade, which is essentially the last 10 years of your life,” Walker explains. “That's where almost all of the time that you spend in hospitals and all of the dollars that you spend on your health really happens. I think that people will slowly make the transition to realizing that it's not really about living as long as possible, but as healthy as possible. So it's about healthspan.”
And much like everyone who is committed to intermittent fasting, peptides, or cold-plunging, it turns out that even the experts indulge in debates about what really matters when it comes to achieving longevity.
“Peter, and I would argue about this, but I think he would say that exercise is probably the greatest lever that you can pull for longevity and health span or lifespan,” says Walker. “I would say it's a very close tie with sleep. And then of course diet and nutrition. But I would probably say sleep is the Archimedes lever. It is the foundation on which the two of the pillars of physical activity and diet sit.”
