Biohacking is more popular than ever, but how healthy is the fixation on longevity?

How healthy is the fixation on longevity? Have we collectively become obsessed with living forever? According to a new study, all that biohacking may not be enough to improve life expectancy.

Words by Sarah Mitchell for Body+Soul

A new longevity ‘hack’ seems to be popularised every other week online.

Whether nutrition, fitness or health-focused, we all jump on the trends, regularly readjusting our routines to see if we can enhance our wellbeing.

There are influencers pushing supplements and therapies, then there are the likes of Bryan Johnson selling his extensive routine of exhausting-sounding plans, procedures and exercises.

Some of the ultra-wealthy seem to dedicate their lives to trying to reverse biological ageing, experimenting with frog poison, filtering their blood, consuming an absurd amount of vitamins and supplements, scanning and rescanning their body and undergoing particularly invasive procedures.

The religion of trying to live forever has been sold as more achievable on social media, with relatable creators encouraging smaller changes to improve lifestyle and overall health.

But despite all of the biohacking, according to a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, life expectancy still isn’t noticeably increasing.

Average life expectancy still isn’t surging

After examining data from 23 high-income, low-mortality countries, the international analysis found that no generation born after 1939 is expected to reach an average lifespan of 100.

According to co-author Héctor Pifarré i Arolas, “The unprecedented increase in life expectancy we achieved in the first half of the 20th century appears to be a phenomenon we are unlikely to achieve again in the foreseeable future.”

“In the absence of any major breakthroughs that significantly extend human life, life expectancy would still not match the rapid increases seen in the early 20th century even if adult survival improved twice as fast as we predict.”

Corresponding author José Andrade added, “We forecast that those born in 1980 will not live to be 100 on average, and none of the cohorts in our study will reach this milestone. This decline is largely due to the fact that past surges in longevity were driven by remarkable improvements in survival at very young ages”.

So, despite a notable focus on utilising all of the health resources available and gearing our lifestyles towards achieving maximum longevity, the research shows we’re unlikely to live significantly longer lives.

In addition to medical innovation’s post-early 20th-century lag getting in the way of our longevity, the culture of biohacking could also end up being detrimental to your health.

While some of the biggest names in the world of biohacking regularly share tips to hack your anxiety away, over-focusing on your health can actually exacerbate anxiety.

Speaking to Stylist, GP and women’s longevity expert Dr Nirusha Kumaran explained, “When someone becomes fixated on tracking every metric, following extreme regimens or constantly searching for the next ‘hack’, it can create anxiety and rigidity.”

“Chronic stress, fear of ageing and obsessive health monitoring can raise cortisol, cause inflammation and ironically accelerate ageing”, she continued. “True longevity shouldn’t be life-limiting; instead, it should create resilience, joy and balance in how you live each day”.

Your health can, of course, always be improved, and a good lifestyle can help you live better for as long as possible. But shaping your life around the pursuit of living longer to the point of worry and stress can’t be healthy.

And according to the research findings, all of the medical interventions available to us and our current knowledge of health aren’t likely to drastically improve life expectancies anyway.

This article first appeared in Body+Soul as Biohacking is more popular than ever, but science shows life expectancies still aren’t increasing enough