Live longer

Eat mostly minimally-processed food, get enough protein and fiber, and let total energy intake match whether you want to lose, hold, or gain. The specific named diet matters far less than sticking to a decent pattern — adherence beats ideology, every time.

In this stackA mostly-whole-food pattern with ~25–30 g fiber and enough protein, at an energy intake matched to your goal.

Protect a consistent wake time and enough time in bed before you touch a supplement. Move caffeine earlier, keep alcohol out of your sleep experiments, and screen for apnea if you snore, gasp, or wake unrefreshed. The pills are the last 10%, not the first.

In this stack7+ hours, a consistent wake time, morning light, a caffeine cutoff, and an apnea screen if you snore or wake unrefreshed.

Accumulate easy aerobic minutes most weeks — conversational-pace Zone 2 — and add one or two harder sessions once the base is there. Going from low to even moderate fitness is the biggest mortality dividend in this entire guide, and it's mostly boring, repeatable volume.

In this stackMostly easy Zone 2 volume most weeks, topped with one or two harder sessions.

Two sessions a week covering the major movement patterns is enough to bend the curve. Muscle-strengthening activity tracks with 10–17% lower mortality, and the dose-response peaks early — around 30–60 minutes a week — so you do not need to live in the gym.

In this stackTwo sessions a week covering push, pull, squat/hinge, and carry — progressive load.

The RDA of 0.8 g/kg prevents deficiency, not the same as optimal. If you resistance-train, benefits from added protein plateau around 1.6 g/kg per day. Hit a reasonable target across a few meals and stop optimizing the decimal places.

In this stackAround 1.6 g/kg/day if you train, spread across a few meals.

Get ApoB or LDL-C measured; it's cheap and it moves decisions. The relationship to heart disease is causal, log-linear, and cumulative — lower and earlier is better. Lifestyle moves it somewhat; when risk is high, medication moves it decisively, and that's a clinician conversation, not a supplement one.

In this stackMeasure it (or LDL-C). Lower and earlier is better; act on it with a clinician if it's high.

Measure it — properly, more than once. Guidelines now flag ≥130/80. In high-risk adults, driving systolic below 120 cut cardiovascular events about 25% and deaths about 27% in a major trial. Lifestyle helps; when it's not enough, medication is effective and worth it.

In this stackKnow your number from several proper readings; keep it near 120/80, lifestyle first.

The idea that light drinking protects your heart was largely an artifact of comparing drinkers against a sicker mix of non-drinkers. Better-designed analyses — genetic (Mendelian randomization) studies and bias-corrected meta-analyses — find no mortality benefit at low intake and clear harm as intake rises. Alcohol is a Group 1 carcinogen and raises blood pressure. There's no safe level that improves health, and less is unambiguously better. The action here is simple: drink less.

In this stackLess is better. Keep it out of any sleep or training experiment.

The lever here is subtraction, not addition.

3–5 g/day of plain creatine monohydrate, taken any time, forever. It reliably improves high-intensity performance and lean mass alongside training, costs pennies, and has a deep safety record. Skip the fancy branded forms — monohydrate is the one that's actually studied.

In this stack3–5 g/day of plain monohydrate, any time, indefinitely.

In a large trial of generally replete adults, 2000 IU/day didn't reduce cancer or cardiovascular disease. Vitamin D matters when you're deficient — correct that. If your level is fine, more is not better, and high-dose megadosing carries its own small risks.

In this stackOnly if a test says you're low — then modest daily dosing.

For a general healthy adult, ordinary fish-oil supplements show little to no effect on heart disease or death in large trials. Eating fish is still reasonable. The impressive 25% risk-reduction headline came from a high-dose prescription drug in a specific high-triglyceride population — don't generalize it to the capsules at the pharmacy.

In this stackModest dose, mainly if you don't eat fish. Not a longevity essential.