Enhancing longevity means reducing the chances of death from injury or illness. Injury is usually physical damage to the body that occurs on a macroscopic scale. They can include things like burns, cuts, or broken bones.

Illness is the malfunction of microscopic components (usually cells) that degrade the body's functions. Illnesses include heart disease, pneumonia, cancer, and many others. Even the process of aging can be considered an illness.

Factors that keep you healthy for longer will likely also increase your longevity. It is why societies with the longest health spans also have the longest lifespans. So, increasing health span is an effective way to increase lifespan.


We can think of the body as a complex machine with many interdependent parts. Like any other machine, the best way to keep it working well is to have all the parts in good condition. Many car enthusiasts use this principle to keep antique cars in mint condition indefinitely. Perhaps within the next few decades, humanity will also learn how to keep the human body in good condition (young) indefinitely.


Maintaining healthy cells for longevity is like using limited resources to keep an antique car in mint condition. To do this, you must do three things:

Prevent unnecessary damage: Although this step is not enough by itself, it helps by reducing the number of cells that need repair and replacement. It is for the same reason you wouldn't drive your car in a demolition derby if you want to keep it in pristine condition.

Preventing unnecessary damage to cells usually means avoiding toxic substances and environments. Toxic substances and environments can include smoke, alcohol, radiation, and other environmental poisons. We can also minimize damage with nutrition and supplements such as antioxidants.

Repair damage: We can minimize damage, but we cannot prevent every bit of damage from happening. That is why we need to repair damage to the cells. Autophagy is one of the processes for doing this. During autophagy, the cell breaks down damaged proteins and organelles and uses their components to make new ones. This repairs and rejuvenates the cell. Another process is the activation of Oct4, Sox2, and Klf4 (OSK) genes, which rejuvenates the cell.

Replace the unrepairable: Regardless of how much you try to prevent or repair damage, some cells will be damaged beyond repair. So, they will have to be replaced. Again, this is similar to keeping an old car in pristine condition.

Replacing old and damaged cells is a two-step process, and the first step is to remove the old cells. You can do this with senolytics which selectively removes old and dysfunctional cells. Senolytic substances include supplements like fisetin or quercetin. Also, resistance exercises such as weightlifting can have a senolytic effect up to 48 hours after the workout.

The second step is to bring in new cells to replace old ones. This is done by stem cells. Stem cells can replicate themselves and turn into other types of cells. When a stem cell replicates itself, it is called stem cell renewal. When it turns into other types of cells to perform repairs, it is called stem cell differentiation.

We need stem cell differentiation to replace old cells, and we need stem cell renewal to maintain the pool of stem cells. However, stem cell renewal happens very slowly. So we must spend more time in states that support stem cell renewal and reduce the need for stem cell differentiation. You do this by preventing unnecessary damage and repairing damaged cells so they don't need replacement.


Advancements in life extension are happening regularly and will continue for the foreseeable future. These advancements will be in some combination of preventing unnecessary damage, repairing damage, and repairing the unrepairable.