China is pouring billions into longevity research through state-backed labs and startups like Longvi Biosciences, making bold claims about living to 150. But scientists are skeptical, and the evidence mostly comes from mouse studies. The proven ways to live longer are simpler: skip sugary drinks and processed food, exercise, sleep enough, and maintain a healthy weight.
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In China, the dream of outrunning time. China isn't just chasing growth, it's chasing more years. Beijing has made longevity a national priority, pouring billions into labs, conferences and startups that promise to slow or even feed aging. In Shenzhen, Longvi Biosciences sells grapeseed derived pills aimed at targeting zombie cells. Its chief technologist says living to 150 is realistic and even predicts a near term cancer cure claims serious scientists treat with caution. Mouse data behind the compound showed lifespan gains, then drew an editor's note for errors. Follow ups are mixed. China's average life expectancy is about 79 above the global average, but far, far from 150. Extravagant claims aside, the best real story is a state backed bet. Scale the science, sort the hype and see what survives clinical trials. Okay, what's the real message here? We think of China as really pushing the edge on AI and so many technologies. But they're spending a lot of time, money, effort and investment on making us live, if not forever, 150 years, 100. Hoping they come up with some real breakthroughs. Let's dig a little bit deeper. If ever there were a topic situated for long term thinking, it is how to live long term. One thing, and I don't want to sound like an apologist for the Chinese regime, there's plenty of things I don't like about authoritarian regimes, whether in my own country or abroad. But one of the advantages of an authoritarian regime like China is they can really think long term. They can pour money into research. Not with the idea of turning a profit in six months or three months or for the next quarterly earnings call. They can say we don't care about any of that priority for our nation and we want to invest in it. And that is what they're doing. Are some of these things going to be nonsense? Yeah. One of the predictions that came out is, you know, there's going to be no cancer in five to 10 years. Well, anytime you start giving predictions in five to 10 years, it's going to get media attention, number one. Number two, it's very unlikely someone's going to come back to you in five or 10 years and say, hey, you made this prediction five, 10 years ago and it's wrong. There's no one better at that than Elon Musk who routinely says not just five or 10 years from now, but in 18 months from now we're going to have, you know, 10 billion remote driverless taxis around the world. And you know, that was a decade ago. I'm paraphrasing what he said. That's not literally what he said. He's the master at always giving promises for some time down the road, whether it's one year, two years. In this case, the experts in China are saying we essentially can stop aging or get the point where people can routinely live to 150. Is that a pipe dream? I don't know. There's a part of me that says, you know, sharks, certain sharks can live 200, 300, some claim even 500 years. Certain turtles can live hundreds of years. Why can't humans live to be 150 years? Yeah. Could it get to the point where we simply replace organs and with your tissue being an organ, that's heart being replaced, it might not happen in my lifetime, but if you're young, it might happen in your lifetime. There are some futurists, Ray Kurzweil specifically, who says we are about to reach escape velocity with artificial intelligence giving us the wherewithal. So that for every year you live, you're going to gain more than a year because of the science. So at some point you're. Your life expectancy will just keep growing and growing and you won't have to die. Is that going to happen in 2028, as some predict? I don't think it's going to happen that quickly. Will it happen in my own daughter's lifetime? Well, I certainly hope so. It's obviously going to radically change every aspect of society and what we think of as a normal lifespan. I mean, so much of what makes life precious is the scarcity of it. If you knew in advance, there's a good chance you'd have 300 years, would you savor more and get more out of life? Or would it cause lethargy? Would it cause stagnation? Thinking, well, why bother doing it today? I got another 200 years. What's the rush? I'm not quite sure, but China is doing something right now. Part of their life expectancy going up is just going from mass poverty. 35 years ago, 90% of that population was living in extreme poverty. And being in poverty or living under the poverty rate, the official poverty rate in any country generally means you don't live as long. So they have largely solved the problem of mass poverty in that society. So their average age has gone way up. Now they're not toward Japan is Japan's life. Average life expectancy is 85. Very, very high. It is interesting sometimes. You hear there was an incident earlier this year where Putin was talking to the Chinese leader Xi, and they were both Talking about how they plan on living to be 150 years old. So this is something that autocrats are obviously interested in, because if you can rule an entire country and essentially be a king, yeah, you want to live forever, no doubt about that. It's also something really wealthy people talk about incessantly, especially Silicon Valley billionaires, the Peter Thiels of the world. They. When you already have everything, the one thing you don't have is more time. So I do predict we're going to see more and more billionaire, maybe trillionaire investors putting money into research on how to live longer. Until that time. I do want to share with you radically boring, unexciting, uncontroversial measures on how to live longer. Okay, for starters, as we talked about in an earlier story, don't drink sugar, don't drink coke. Maintain a healthy body weight, specifically a waistline that is proportionate to your height. And no, I'm not fat shaming, but it's a simple fact that when you carry excess weight, you're much more likely to have diabetes, obesity, heart stroke, hypertension, and many other diseases. So big starting point for you personally to live as long as possible. Get your weight to what's considered a normal weight, a healthy weight for your frame and your height. Get a lot of sleep. If you're using an alarm clock, almost by definition you're not getting enough. If you're having to drink a lot of caffeine drinks, that's causing problems at many levels. Get enough sleep. Eat real food that's unprocessed. Drink lots of water, play a sport, move, walk, exercise every day. None of what I'm saying is going to go viral. Some of you have clicked away. Oh, my God, tj, That's so boring. You're telling me to eat right? Get a lot of sleep, not drink garbage. Wow, that's so boring. I'll do anything. Where's the pillow? How can I take a pill to make myself live for. Well, as of right now, there is no pill. But you dramatically increase your odds of living much longer. You can maintain a healthy weight. The easiest way to do that is to eat relatively unprocessed food to not. Sorry, Carl's. You got a lot of good publicity this week by giving food to poor people for only a dollar. But part of the secret to living longer. Don't eat it. Carl's. Don't eat at McDonald's. Don't eat at Wen. Don't eat at French fries. Don't eat it. Don't eat French fries constantly. I mean, that's. That's a real problem in America. There's so many restaurants where even if you pick what you think of as the absolute healthiest entree, a vegetarian veggie wrap, and it comes with a giant side of french fries, you didn't even ask for it. But we're humans. It's right there. And it's easy consuming. So if you want to extend your own life, the basic principles that are boring but you don't hear enough are really the best factor you can focus on right now. If there is some miracle pill or potion or drug, believe me, I will bring it to your attention as quickly as possible.
