I'm A Longevity Expert: Here Are My Nonnegotiables To Live To 200

Sergey Young has made it his personal mission to live to 200. Seriously: The longevity expert, founder of the Longevity Vision Fund, and author of The Science and Technology of Growing Young, has dedicated his entire career to helping at least 1 billion people live long, healthy lives—and make these technological advances affordable and accessible for all. 

Through his work, he has identified what he calls lifestyle "longevity buckets" to increase your lifespan and healthspan (because who wants to live to 200 with a low quality of life?). "By implementing them, we can add 10, 20 healthy and happy years to our life," he says on this episode of the mindbodygreen podcast. "We can easily live 200 years."

For bucket No. 1, Young stresses the importance of annual health checkups. "We shouldn't delay our annual checkups, and they should be as comprehensive as possible," he says. That's because identifying issues (should they arise) as early as possible is the best way to tackle them before they affect your quality of life; in fact, he says, "Treating someone in preventive ways is 10 to 20 times cheaper and much more successful recovery-wise than reacting to health emergencies." 

"No. 2, I call 'Don't do stupid things,'" says Young. For example, 'I really cannot understand people who [smoke tobacco] because tobacco smoking [takes] 10 years from your lifespan." Another instance that makes his skin crawl? When people don't wear seatbelts. In other words: Try to avoid the simple risks that can easily shave years off your life. 

The next bucket is one of the very pillars here at mbg: Treat food as fuel for your health. "You just need to work with the balance of your diet in terms of fats and healthy proteins," says Young. He personally prefers a plant-based eating plan ("I probably eat meat once every two weeks," he says), but when he does consume animal products, he's "always looking at the sources." 

According to Young, exercising for longevity is more about consistency than reaching a certain metric. Rather than fluctuating between extreme training and a largely sedentary lifestyle, he recommends doing some form of cardio every day (think 30 to 45 minutes, if you can) to get your heart pumping and your vascular system flowing. "Any movement is good," he adds. "So let's just make sure we integrate it into our daily and weekly routine."