STACKING YEARS · EVIDENCE FIELD GUIDE · 2026
We read the trials so you don't have to. Start with the nine things you can do now, see which prescription drugs are worth discussing with your doctor, and track what's coming out of the lab.
Muscle strength is one of the strongest predictors of survival, and lifting is the only reliable way to keep it as you age.
Estimated lifespan impact: +1 to +2 years
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Higher cardiorespiratory fitness tracks with lower all-cause mortality at every level, with the biggest gains for the least fit.
Estimated lifespan impact: +2 to +4 years
Quitting before 40 recovers most of the roughly 10 years smokers lose, so no supplement comes close.
Estimated lifespan impact: +4 to +10 years (for smokers who quit)
Short and very long sleep are both linked to higher mortality and cardiometabolic risk. Regularity matters too.
Estimated lifespan impact: +0.5 to +1.5 years
PREDIMED (RCT) cut major cardiovascular events about 30% with extra-virgin olive oil or nuts.
Estimated lifespan impact: +1.5 to +3 years
Excess visceral fat drives diabetes, CVD and cancer risk. Intentional loss improves those risk factors in trials.
Estimated lifespan impact: +2 to +4 years (moving out of BMI 30–35)
Newer analyses that correct for “sick quitter” bias show no protective dose, and risk rises steadily with intake.
Estimated lifespan impact: +0.5 to +5 years (for heavier drinkers cutting below ~100 g/week)
In RCTs in older adults, 3–5 g/day plus lifting adds strength and lean mass beyond training alone. Cheap and well studied.
Estimated lifespan impact: Unknown in humans
Large meta-analyses link social integration to lower mortality, comparable to other major lifestyle factors.
Estimated lifespan impact: +1 to +2.5 years
Decades of RCTs show fewer heart attacks, strokes and deaths in people with elevated cardiovascular risk.
Estimated lifespan impact: +0.5 to +2.5 years (if your CV risk warrants it)
Prescription only. Talk to your doctor.No dedicated page yet; a dedicated page is a proposal.
SELECT trial: 20% fewer major cardiovascular events in people with obesity without diabetes, plus large weight and metabolic benefits.
Estimated lifespan impact: +1 to +2.5 years with obesity + heart disease; unknown in healthy people
Prescription only. Talk to your doctor.Fewer heart-failure hospitalisations and slower kidney decline in RCTs. Canagliflozin also extended male mouse lifespan in the ITP.
Estimated lifespan impact: +2 to +4.5 years in type 2 diabetes with CVD / heart failure; unknown in healthy people
Prescription only. Talk to your doctor.Robust lifespan extension in mice (ITP, multiple labs), but the human data are only small safety and biomarker trials.
Estimated lifespan impact: Unknown in humans. Mouse: +9–14% lifespan, even started late
Prescription only. Talk to your doctor.Strong in diabetes, but for aging the evidence is mixed. The ITP found no lifespan effect, and the TAME trial is still unfunded or not running.
Estimated lifespan impact: Unknown in humans. Mouse: no lifespan effect in ITP
Prescription only. Talk to your doctor.Extended lifespan in male mice in the ITP. In humans it is a diabetes drug with modest CV-outcome data.
Estimated lifespan impact: Unknown in humans. Mouse: +22% median lifespan in males
Prescription only. Talk to your doctor.Clearing senescent cells extends healthspan in mice. Early human trials show mixed or modest results.
Estimated lifespan impact: Unknown in humans. Mouse: D+Q started late +36% remaining lifespan
Stage: Phase 2 human trials
Yamanaka-factor pulses reverse aging marks in mice and human cells.
Estimated lifespan impact: Unknown in humans. Mouse: +109% remaining lifespan in very old mice
Stage: Preclinical (mouse/primate data)
Small RCTs show better muscle endurance and mitochondrial markers in older adults.
Estimated lifespan impact: Unknown in humans. Worms: +45% lifespan; no mouse lifespan study
Stage: Phase 2 human trials
Reliably raise NAD+ in humans, but functional benefits in RCTs are small or absent so far. New mouse lifespan data are sex-dependent.
Estimated lifespan impact: Unknown in humans. Mouse: NR no lifespan effect in ITP
Stage: Phase 2 human trials
Extended lifespan in mice (Science, 2023), but later human cohort data question whether low taurine drives aging.
Estimated lifespan impact: Unknown in humans. Mouse: +10–12% median lifespan
Stage: Mouse/monkey data; early human trials
Small trials suggest shifts in biological-age markers, but it is costly, invasive and unproven for outcomes.
Estimated lifespan impact: Unknown in humans; no lifespan data
Stage: Early human trials
Raising klotho improves cognition in mice and in aged monkeys (2023), but there are no human aging trials.
Estimated lifespan impact: Unknown in humans. Mouse: overexpression +19–31% lifespan
Stage: Preclinical (mouse/monkey data)
Home blood-pressure monitoring is a way to measure, not an intervention (the OMRON link is on blood-pressure and screening pages); omega-3 if you eat little fish (C; VITAL was null for its primary endpoints); vitamin D only if you are deficient (C); and magnesium (C).
The overall score combines the science score multiplied by 0.85 and the expert score multiplied by 0.15. If only one score is available, that score is used on its own.
Science citations are weighted by study type: meta-analyses and systematic reviews 2×, randomised controlled trials 2×, cohort studies 1×, and animal or preclinical studies 0.5×. Human evidence therefore carries more weight than animal evidence; science scores are capped at 80 when evidence is animal-only, and at 90 when there are no meta-analyses or randomised trials.
The final score is capped by evidence grade: A at 100, B at 88, C at 74, and D at 59. Sources are linked study citations (including PubMed papers) and recorded expert positions. Promising new interventions show their current research stage rather than an evidence grade.
Lifespan estimates use published life-expectancy figures where they exist; otherwise they are derived from all-cause mortality hazard ratios (years ≈ ln(1/HR)/0.085, assuming mortality doubles about every 8 years), with the lower bound halved for observational data. Where human data are missing we show Unknown in humans and, where available, the animal result. These are population-level estimates, not personal predictions.