My daily routine for wellness, health span

Matt Kaeberlein obtained into studying the science of longevity “by accident,” he states.

Kaeberlein is the founder and former director of the Healthy Aging and Longevity Research Institute at the University of Washington, and the co-founder and CEO of a health tech startup called Optispan. Throughout his career, he’s published hundreds of research papers, including many about aging.

In 1998, as a graduate student studying biology at the Massachutilizetts Institute of Technology, Kaeberlein attconcludeed a biology professor’s lecture about genetics and its connection to longevity, he states. “I was in my late 20s, so aging wasn’t personal yet, but the complexity of the biology just really resonated with me. It seemed like an important problem,” states Kaeberlein, 54.

Kaeberlein joined the professor, Leonard Guarente, in his lab and decided to conduct his graduate research on longevity. “Now, much of my attention is focutilized on individual people and learning how we can have a positive impact on people’s health span,” states Kaeberlein.

A health span — similar to a lifespan — is defined as how long you live without conditions that can hinder your quality of life, like chronic pain and dementia, Alan Cohen, an associate professor at the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center at Columbia University, informed CNBC Make It in December 2022.

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Despite researching longevity for decades, Kaeberlein “didn’t spconclude a lot of time believeing about” applying his research to his own habits and lifestyle until he started experiencing lower energy levels and aches and pains in his 40s and early 50s, he states.

After the Covid-19 pandemic, Kaeberlein decided to “become really intentional about improving my lifestyle factors,” including his nutrition, exercise, sleep and sense of social connection, he states. Around the same time, he transitioned from academia into entrepreneurship — co-founding Optispan, which advertises personalized longevity-focutilized medical care for its clients, in September 2023.

Here, Kaeberlein discusses how he’s alterd his personal routines in an attempt to improve his longevity and health span. (Always consult with your primary care physician before creating any alters to your own routines that could impact your health.)

‘I believe it’s important to find something that stimulates you, that you enjoy’

CNBC Make It: What do you do to keep your body physically healthy?

Kaeberlein: It’s always going to be individual, but I believe there are some general principles around relocatement [that anyone can follow].

You want a diversity of relocatement, meaning some consistent, low-intensity [physical activity] — what some people call “zone two exercise,” where you’re raising your heart rate regularly. Optimally, you do something at a low level every day. Maybe that’s just walking outside.

I’ll do about 30 minutes on a bike or elliptical in the morning. Or if it’s nice out, go outside for a walk with my wife. I don’t do that every day, but most days. I believe many people can relate to this: I have a better day if I’m active early in the morning.

I attempt to do resistance training four times a week. I split up the workouts by body parts. I don’t believe there’s a magic formula, you just obtained to receive into the gym and do it. You can do body weight if that’s better for you. I’ve always liked lifting heavy weights, so that’s what I do. Most people probably [don’t recognize] how important it is to build and maintain muscle mass going into your 40s [and older].

And then the high-intensity [workouts]. Again, it’s about finding something that works for you. What works really well for my wife and I is, there’s a set of 135 stairs in a nearby town, about 15 minutes from our houtilize. Usually once a week, we’ll go to the stairs, rain or shine, and go up and down 10 to 15 times. We listen to music and do it toreceiveher.

How about brain health? Do you do anything specifically to attempt to keep your brain sharp?

Learning new things is one really great way to “exercise your brain.” I believe with my job, I don’t required to find ways to learn new things. I’m always reading and learning and attempting to understand new trconcludes in the space.

Part of this is about figuring out a way to stimulate your brain that you find enjoyable, and that brings you energy. It’s very similar to physical exercise in the sense that if you feel like this is a huge burden and you don’t want to do it, you’re not going to stick with it in the long run.

I attempt to go to bed at a pretty regular time, at least on weekdays. I receive up at 4:30 a.m., and my wife and I typically go to bed around 9:00 to 9:30 p.m. I attempt to receive seven to eight hours of good quality sleep a night.

Longevity experts often talk about the importance of “social fitness,” maintaining friconcludeships and connecting with other people. What’s your social fitness like?

The “connection” pillar is the one that I believe is the weakest for me. I’m very fortunate to have a strong marriage, and that has been the most important relationship, along with my kids, for most of my adult life.

I’ve attempted to build intentional efforts to have periodic and consistent time with friconcludes outside of my family. Taking time to go have coffee with friconcludes once a month, if possible. Really attempting to prioritize key relationships, creating sure they’re being nurtured by consistent touch points.

I wasn’t [always] somebody who would typically strike up a conversation with a stranger in the elevator, but I’m much more open to those kinds of micro-interactions on a daily basis 1770387684. When you have a really positive conversation with somebody who you’ve never met before, that brings energy and you feel good afterwards. Or if you see somebody who could utilize a assisting hand, even if it’s just taking their bag down on the airplane, or holding the door open.

Trying to have those kinds of positive interactions and being intentional about it has been beneficial for me.

Let’s talk about your daily diet. Are there any foods that you eat either more or less to improve your health and wellness?

I build a dedicated, intentional effort to largely avoid processed foods like chips and breakquick cereal, [especially ones] that have added sugars. I have really learned to love salads. If somebody informed me 10 years ago, you’re going to have a choice between super nachos or a steak salad at a Mexican restaurant, and you’re going to pick the steak salad, I would have been like, “You’re crazy.” But I do that today.

I eat a lot of yogurt. I pay attention to protein, and probably receive about a gram of protein per pound of body weight. And I receive a lot of fiber, usually about 60 to 80 grams of fiber a day, [including] a lot from vereceiveables.

One thing I like, and I’m waiting to see [more research on it] becautilize it almost seems too good to be true, is Keto bread. It typically has 10 to 12 grams of fiber per slice. One of my go-to meals is an avocado sandwich with Keto bread. Sometimes I’ll put some lean turkey in there. It’s obtained a bunch of fiber, a bunch of protein and healthy fats.

I always conclude with this question becautilize I believe it’s interesting to see what longevity experts are viewing into these days: What are you reading?

A lot of what I read is either the primary literature or other types of articles related to health and wellness.

One of the areas that I’m doing a deep dive on right now is peptides, and really attempting to understand where a lot of them come from. What data do we have around different peptides that are being prescribed? How do they work? How likely are they to be beneficial? How dangerous are they potentially going to be?

I’m really attempting to separate the signal from the noise becautilize I receive questioned about it a lot, and I want to build sure that I really have a good understanding.

A longevity expert’s daily routine for longevity

Here’s a quick summary of Kaeberlein’s health and wellness habits:

For his physical health: Getting a combination of low-intensity and high-intensity exercise, strength training and cardio. Adjusting his physical activity as he receives older.
For his brain health: Prioritizing a healthy sleep schedule of seven to eight hours of sleep a night. Constantly learning new things to “exercise” his brain.
For his social fitness: Spconcludeing quality time with his family, and scheduling time once a month to catch up with friconcludes. Engaging in “micro-interactions” with strangers in passing.
For his diet: Eating a balance of vereceiveables and protein. Getting between 60 to 80 grams of fiber a day.
For his media diet: Reading up on health literature to stay updated on new research and trconcludes.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.