Six popular claims about living longer don’t hold up, according to the scientists who study aging, as The New York Times’ Melinda Wenner Moyer reports. With longevity-related web searches quadrupling in a year, the debunking is overdue. “A lot is circulating in this space that is not science-based, and it’s really important to dispel some of that,” said Dr. Sofiya Milman, a professor of human longevity studies at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine’s Institute for Aging Research.
Myth 1: Drugs and supplements can extend life. No pill, peptide or powder has been shown to. A 2026 study found blood NAD+ levels stay stable in old age, so supplementing likely does nothing, and human growth hormone can raise the risk of joint pain, swelling and carpal tunnel syndrome in healthy older adults.
Myth 2: Longevity research aims to make people live longer. Most researchers are after “health span,” the years spent healthy. “If extra years turn out to be a side effect of keeping people healthy longer, well, that’s great,” said Steven Austad, a professor of biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “But that’s not the goal.”
Myth 3: People are getting healthier and living longer. A 2025 study found U.S. life expectancy rose only about six months from 2009 to 2019, while healthy life expectancy declined.
Myth 4: Women stay healthy longer than men. Women outlive men by about five years but often spend more of late life ill or disabled, a gap that male-focused aging research hasn’t helped.
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Myth 5: Weight loss is always good if you’re overweight. A meta-analysis of 30 studies, published in Age and Ageing, linked weight loss after 65 with a 59 percent higher risk of death, possibly because older adults shed muscle and bone rather than fat.
Myth 6: Take good care of yourself, and you’ll live to 100. Genetics shape roughly half of lifespan on average, and even more among people who reach 95, who don’t eat, exercise or drink any better than everyone else. “There’s really nothing different about their lifestyle,” Milman said.
