• Jasmine "JB" Badie is a choreographer and creative director for pop stars, including Beyoncé and Sabrina Carpenter.
• She helps train the artists to sing and dance at the same time for their big performances.
• "Cardio is major," Badie told BI. "You train hard because you want the show to be great."

Have you ever wondered how pop stars such as Beyoncé and Sabrina Carpenter can sing for hours at a time while performing to massive audiences? No, they're not superhuman, but they do have a secret weapon: choreographer Jasmine "JB" Badie.

The 36-year-old Atlanta native helps singers get fit enough to sing their hearts out while dancing onstage — a feat requiring impressively high cardiovascular fitness. She shared how she gets clients fit enough for a big show in just two to three months and how you can replicate it in your own (offstage) life.

Badie was the co-choreographer for Beyoncé's 2018 Homecoming Coachella Performance, which ran for an hour and 45 minutes. She's also the choreographer on Carpenter's Short n' Sweet tour, which kicked off in September 2024. The tour, which runs through November, includes 19 songs and lasts roughly 90 minutes.

Badie told Business Insider that to achieve this level of sustained fitness, her clients' weekly workout schedule involves lots of rehearsals, cardio, and Pilates.

"Cardio is major," she said. "You train hard because you want the show to be great."

Daily workouts, rehearsal, and stretching

Badie likes her clients to wake up early, eat breakfast, and do a morning workout before they move on to 30 to 45 minutes of stretching.

For the morning workout, she recommends different types of exercise throughout the week, as some help strengthen while others are good for mobility, flexibility, or fitness. For example, Badie likes Pilates for stretching and working deep, stabilizing muscles.

"Pilates strengthens muscles that we may not know we have sometimes," she said, adding that barre classes help with posture, standing up straight, and opening up the hips.

Meanwhile, hiking or jogging on a hilly trail is good for breath control, which enables singers to belt out long notes, maintain the correct pitch, and not breathe too loudly when singing. "Running on the different intervals is great instead of just straight because you can feel where your breath is and where it's not," she added.

Then her clients start all-day rehearsals. "We'll run our cue points," she said, referring to specific points in the music. "We'll run all of our dance steps. We'll run our marks on the stage."

Pop stars focus on Zone 2 training. You should, too.

Although most of us aren't preparing to perform for thousands of fans night after night, we can still benefit from improving our aerobic fitness. It has many positive knock-on effects, such as better sleep and improved mood.

Being able to exercise and hold a conversation at the same time without being out of breath is a sign that you're training in Zone 2, a buzzy exercise term that some longevity experts believe can help ward off chronic disease as well as boost fitness.

In Zone 2, you're working at about 60-70% of your maximum heart rate, your body is mainly burning fat for energy, and your muscles have access to oxygen, making it an effective way to increase your aerobic endurance.

Once you enter Zone 3 or 70% to 80% of your max heart rate, you're moving at an intensity that's too much for the available oxygen supply, so your body starts using carbohydrates for energy.

We store carbs in limited amounts, so it wouldn't take long for your body to run out of energy. So, the more you train in Zone 2, the longer your body can last before needing to make that switch. That's important for a singer because once they're in Zone 3, they'll sound out of breath.

Zone 2 training causes your body to adapt at a cellular level by boosting mitochondria. Having more mitochondria is associated with increased athletic performance, better insulin resistance, and heart health. It's also the part of the cell responsible for making energy, which increases the power output of the muscle tissues, Dr. Morgan Busko, the sports medicine physician at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, previously told BI.

Singing while running or jumping rope

In addition to the daily workout and rehearsals, Badie asks her clients to practice their setlist and script while doing strenuous cardio for at least 30 minutes a day.

"It's doing everything you need to be doing on the stage, off the stage," she said.

The choreographer often starts her clients' workout with a jump rope that involves jumping for four minutes, taking a one-minute break, and repeating it three more times. During the break, they have to catch their breath and practice what they are going to say to the audience.

"We'll be like, 'How are you guys doing out there?" she said, mimicking how pop stars engage their audience onstage.

It also involves running on a treadmill while saying their script and singing aloud. "That's how you notice where your breaths are," Badie added.

As they get fitter, Badie shortens the break in between sets and gets them to practice wardrobe changes.

"You have to really work on it," she said.

• Former President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with "aggressive" prostate cancer.
• It's relatively easy to treat if caught early, but symptoms often don't show until it is advanced.
• Changes in how often you need to pee are among the signs that are easy to miss.

Former President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with "aggressive" prostate cancer that has spread to his bones, after experiencing urinary symptoms, his private office said on Sunday.

Prostate cancer is the second-deadliest form of cancer in men in the US, after lung cancer, and affects the gland that sits beneath the bladder and in front of the rectum in males. About one in eight men will get prostate cancer, but most will not die of the disease, according to the American Cancer Society.

It is a somewhat paradoxical disease: when caught early, it is often curable — but symptoms typically don't appear until it's more developed and harder to treat.

When found at more advanced stages, treatment options are more limited, and at stage 4, which is where the cancer has spread from the prostate to other parts of the body, "treatment won't cure your cancer, but it can help keep it under control and manage any symptoms," Chiara De Biase, director of health services, Equity, and Improvement at the charity Prostate Cancer UK, told Business Insider.

Biden's team has not shared what stage of cancer he has or his prognosis, but said it was "hormone sensitive," meaning it uses hormones to grow and has the potential to be managed with drugs that block hormones in the body.

Easy to miss symptoms of prostate cancer include changes in how a person pees

Changes in urinary habits tend to be the earliest sign that a person has prostate cancer. If the tumor grows near and presses against the tube we urinate through (the urethra) it can change the way the person pees. But early prostate cancer usually grows in a different part of the prostate away from the urethra, so it doesn't tend to cause symptoms until much later.

Changes in how a person with prostate cancer pees can include:

• Difficulty starting to pee or emptying your bladder
• A weak flow when you pee
• A feeling that your bladder hasn't emptied properly
• Dribbling urine after you finish urinating
• Needing to pee more often than usual, especially at night
• A sudden need to pee or sometimes leaking pee before you get to the toilet.

It's important to note that these changes can also be a sign of a common non-cancerous condition called enlarged prostate.

If prostate cancer spreads, other symptoms can include:

• Back pain, hip pain or pelvis pain
• Problems getting or keeping an erection
• Blood in the urine or semen
• Unexplained weight loss
• Weakness or numbness in the legs or feet, or even loss of bladder or bowel control, from cancer in the spine pressing on the spinal cord

Men are diagnosed with prostate cancer at the age of 67, on average

Biden is 82. The ACS recommends that men with an average risk of prostate cancer consider getting screened at age 50. The test involves taking a blood sample and checking for higher-than-normal prostate-specific antigen levels.

"It's so important for men to know their own risk, and what they can choose to do about it," De Biase said.

• Our modern lifestyles are thought to damage our gut health in a way that raises the risk of colon cancer.
• Lifestyle changes can improve the gut microbiome, which could in turn lower the risk of colon cancer.
• As well as eating healthily, GI surgeon James Kinross eats enough vitamin D to prevent the disease.

Colon cancer is rising in people under 50. James Kinross, a gastrointestinal surgeon who researches how the gut microbiome affects our risk of the disease, told Business Insider that poor gut health could be partly to blame.

Research suggests the gut microbiome, the trillions of microbes that live in the digestive tract, has a wide-ranging effect on our health. But our sterile, urbanized lifestyles, appear to have made them less diverse overall and, therefore, weaker, according to Kinross, who is based at Imperial College London.

"You're seeing a generational loss in our internal ecology, which is being hammered with a series of environmental hits that it simply cannot adapt to," he said, referring to factors including microplastics, ultra-processed foods, and minimal access to nature. Many studies have linked these changes in the gut microbiome to an increase in colon cancer risk.

But, the gut microbiome is changeable, meaning there are things we can do to increase its diversity, which in turn could help lower colon cancer risk. "It is an ecosystem which you can adapt, and you can modify," he said.

Kinross previously shared with BI how he eats to boost his gut microbiome. He shared the three things he does aside from healthy eating to lower his colon cancer risk.

Don't take antibiotics if you don't need to

As a surgeon, Kinross is acutely aware that antibiotics are often necessary and save millions of lives each year, but he believes we use them too liberally — particularly to treat viral infections they can't tackle.

"In my house, to qualify for antibiotics, you've really got to have a pathogen that you need treated," Kinross said.

Kinross and his family limit their use of antibiotics as much as possible because taking them can disrupt the ecosystem of the gut microbiome, killing off good bacteria along with pathogens, and reducing diversity.

He likened it to pouring weed killer all over your garden. "Your garden won't really grow into a lovely garden full of wild meadows and flowers and color. It will just be brown and lifeless," he said.

Take vitamin D

Kinross takes a vitamin D supplement because evidence suggests that having enough of the nutrient is important for gut health.

Vitamin D is crucial for several biological processes, including calcium absorption and cellular repair — but also keeps the lining of the small intestine strong. If the lining becomes weak, microbes can pass through it into the bloodstream and cause inflammation. Chronic inflammation is linked to a higher risk of chronic diseases, including cancer.

Vitamin D is found in foods including oily fish, egg yolks, and red meat, as well as from sunlight. In countries with climates like the UK's, where Kinross lives, it can be difficult to get enough vitamin D in the colder months, and residents are advised to supplement from October to March.

Socialize

Kinross goes cycling with friends regularly and makes sure to sit down to eat dinner with his family in the evenings. As well as being a pillar of overall health, research suggests that socializing positively impacts the composition of our gut microbiomes, Kinross said.

We exchange microbes through physical touch, and studies have found that friends, family members, and spouses have similar gut microbes to one another.

A 2024 study published in the journal Nature, based on 1,787 adults from 18 isolated villages in Honduras, found that people in the same social network shared more similarities in their gut microbiomes compared to those outside of it. This was regardless of diet, water sources, and medications. Spouses and people living together had the highest amount of microbial sharing, but the phenomenon still occurred among friends and even friends of friends.

"Our social interactions, our real-world social interactions, define so much of our health," Kinross said. "It's good for all aspects of our health. It's good for our mental health, it's good for our cardiovascular health. It's good for everything. But if you're not having real-world social interaction, you are not really optimizing your gut health, I believe."

• Dr. Eric Verdin eats a savory breakfast to avoid blood sugar spikes.
• Chronic high blood sugar is linked to metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes.
• Verdin believes that lifestyle factors have a greater impact on lifespan than genes.

A healthy aging doctor and researcher who says he has reversed his biological age by around 15 years shared the breakfast that helps him avoid blood sugar spikes.

"The worst breakfast you can possibly imagine is your sort of cereal bowl with a glass of orange juice because this is essentially a bowl of sugar, sugar, sugar," Dr. Eric Verdin, the CEO and president of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, said.

High blood sugar is linked to metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, and some longevity experts believe that added sugars play a role in the aging process.

Verdin is 68, but after "optimizing" his health for the past decade, by making diet and lifestyle tweaks, he said that his "biological age" is much younger, based on various epigenetic blood tests.

(Note: There's no consensus on the definition of biological age or how to measure it; Verdin uses GlycanAge and SuPar, which use inflammation markers to measure aging.)

He also uses wearable tech, such as the Whoop smartwatch, to keep tabs on his blood pressure and cholesterol, and makes lifestyle changes accordingly.

Based on his results, Verdin believes that diet has a huge impact on longevity. He follows a Mediterranean-style diet that includes lots of fresh produce, legumes, whole grains, and lean proteins, and avoids ultra-processed foods. "When you look at populations that are on this type of diet, they really are the healthy ones," Verdin said.

Why a sweet breakfast is bad for longevity

"Breakfast should be savory. So no pastries, no orange juice, no fruity yogurt," Verdin said.

Eating a sugary or high-carb meal on an empty stomach can cause your blood sugar to spike, he said.

"What it does, it sets you up for the whole day of bouncing up and down with your blood sugar," which means you're likely going to experience energy crashes and cravings throughout the day, he said.

A rise in blood sugar after eating carbs is natural and not necessarily a problem. However, having chronic high blood sugar can increase inflammation over time, aging your body and raising your risk of chronic disease.

Start the day with fiber, protein, and good fats

Verdin typically eats eggs, avocado, and salmon (either smoked or cooked) with wholemeal bread for breakfast.

He's not particularly fussed about how his eggs are cooked, but prefers to use olive oil over butter. "If one prefers no oil, hard boiled would be the best method," he said.

Eggs and salmon both contain healthy fats and protein, which help you feel full throughout the day. Wholemeal bread and avocado add fiber to the meal, which is important for digestive health as it feeds the "good" bacteria in the gut.

• Gut health is a buzzy topic, but the oral microbiome might be the next big trend.
• The evidence that a clean mouth could lower the risk of chronic diseases is piling up.
• Big voices in the longevity space like Andrew Huberman are starting to spread the word.

You may know that caring for the bugs in your gut, or the gut microbiome, could help you live longer. But a different collection of micro-organisms is getting attention for its health credentials.

Researchers have known for decades that people with problems like gum disease, cavities, and missing teeth, are more likely to experience stroke and develop chronic conditions, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, rheumatoid arthritis, and Alzheimer's.

"I've been in this business for over 50 years," Judith Jones, a professor who researches oral disease at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Dentistry, told Business Insider, "centenarians have more teeth than the people who don't live that long."

The potential reasons for this are "messy," she said: "It's not simple science."

Losing teeth, for instance, can affect our self-esteem and quality of life. We are less likely to socialize if we feel self-conscious and will struggle to eat nutritious but difficult-to-chew foods such as nuts, vegetables, and lean protein.

But growing research suggests the microbes that live in the mouth (the oral microbiome) could play a larger role in our health than previously thought.

Bryan Johnson and Andrew Huberman are talking to their followers about oral health

Some of the loudest voices in the longevity space are mainstreaming the idea that a clean mouth could help us live longer.

Last month, tech CEO-turned-biohacker Bryan Johnson shared his nine-step oral health "protocol" in his newsletter, which involves tongue scraping and tea tree oil to prevent chronic disease.

Days later, Andrew Huberman dedicated an entire episode of his chart-topping "Huberman Lab" podcast to the potential link between the oral microbiome and physical and mental health.

And the industry newsletter Fitt Insider reported on microbiome-focused products entering the $55 billion oral care market, including a prebiotic toothpaste featuring ingredients personalized according to the bugs that live in a customer's mouth.

From 2023 to 2024, the sale of oral care products in the US increased by 6.3%, from $10.8 billion to $12.2 billion, according to market research firm Mintel. Those investing are likely hoping to repeat the success of the global digestive health market, which is projected to be worth $71.95 billion in 2027, up from $37.93 billion in 2019, according to market research by Fortune Business Reports.

Both the mouth and the gut have a microbiome

Just like the gut, the mouth microbiome houses a collection of "good" and "bad" microorganisms, but it functions differently.

A healthy gut microbiome is one with a diverse range of inhabitants. These microbes have been linked to a variety of physical and mental health benefits — from a stronger immune system and better mood to a lower risk of diseases, including type two diabetes and colon cancer. In contrast, a healthy oral microbiome is relatively sparse.

Brushing and flossing hits the reset button and prevents harmful microbes from colonizing and maturing, Johnathon Baker, an assistant professor at Oregon Health and Science University who studies the oral microbiome, told BI.

He likened the ecosystem of the oral microbiome to a landscape following a volcanic eruption. It's barren (after a thorough clean), but plants eventually grow and change the environment, allowing secondary plants such as moss to grow. After a few years (or a few days of not brushing well enough), moss breaks down the rock, and more plant species emerge, until, eventually, you have a whole rainforest of microbes.

The more mature species of microbes are what can cause infections that break down the barrier between the gums and blood, enabling them to enter the bloodstream. That's why bleeding gums are a hallmark of periodontal disease, Baker said.

Once in the bloodstream, bacteria can travel to different parts of the body and cause damage and inflammation, he said. Gum disease-causing bacteria have been found in the brains of people with Alzheimer's, the tumors of colon cancer patients, and in heart tissue of people with cardiovascular disease.

Whether these microbes are causing chronic illness, contributing to its development, or just making the body more vulnerable to disease by causing inflammation is uncertain, Baker said, because research into the oral microbiome is in its infancy.

But evidence suggests there is a strong link between good oral hygiene and a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, with one study suggesting flossing weekly appeared to lower the risk of an ischemic stroke by over a fifth. Similarly, a review of studies into oral health and chronic disease published in 2019 found the most frequently reported correlation was between periodontal disease and cardiovascular disease.

Baker believes that as our understanding develops we may one day see "advances that will help our overall health significantly."

Brush and floss thoroughly daily

Jones, who started her career as a dental hygienist, said that good oral hygiene involves brushing your teeth thoroughly at least once a day. "Most dentists recommend twice a day. I think part of that is so people get it done really well at least once a day. And part of it is making people's breaths smell better," she said.

It's also important to floss daily because a toothbrush can't reach the spot in between the teeth and the gums, which is known as the periodontal pocket, where disease occurs, she said.

"Flossing helps you keep your teeth," Jones added.

When it comes to what kind of floss you should use, she thinks simple is best. "They say now even the water jets are effective, although I can't imagine that they are, quite honestly," she said.

Baker reiterated the importance of flossing. "Before I entered this field, I was definitely one of those people who didn't really floss very much," he said. But as a grad student, he saw "very graphic images" of advanced periodontal disease.

"I was like, I'm flossing every day from now on, and I have," he said.

• A longevity scientist who claims he reversed his age by 15 years believes exercise had the most impact.
• A combination of strength training and aerobic exercise is linked to a longer life.
• Verdin does hot pilates four to five times a week.

A longevity scientist who claims to have reversed his biological age by around 15 years shared his weekly workout routine with Business Insider.

Dr. Eric Verdin, the CEO and president of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, has been using medical tests and wearable devices like smartwatches to monitor his health for the past decade, and tweaking his lifestyle accordingly.

Tests that measure biomarkers such as inflammation, blood pressure, and cholesterol indicate that while Verdin's chronological age is 68, his biological age is between 48 and 53. There's no consensus on the definition of biological age or how to measure it, so it differs according to the test he refers to.

Verdin said he believes exercising for an hour each day has made the biggest difference to his health.

"I rarely take a day off. On that day off, I just miss it because I realize it optimizes everything else," he said. "If you're looking for an anti-aging drug that the Buck Institute is going to come up with in the next few years, it is probably going to be 10 years before we have anything that comes remotely close to exercise and physical activity," Verdin said.

He works out every day, doing a mixture of cardio, strength training, and mobility exercises.

Hot pilates four to five times a week

"It hits all the notes that I need to hit," Verdin said.

It involves doing strength training exercises such as squats and pushups with small weights in the heat, which both challenge the muscles and make the heart and lungs work, he said.

Research suggests that doing a combination of weight lighting and cardio is best for longevity.

In a large 2022 study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, researchers from the National Cancer Institute examined data from nearly 100,000 older US adults. They found that participants who did resistance training once or twice a week as well as cardio, had a 41% lower risk of dying from chronic diseases such as cancer and heart disease when compared to sedentary participants.

Those who did 150 to 300 minutes a week of aerobic exercise were, on average, 32% less likely to die from any cause during the course of the study. And resistance training was linked to 9% lower mortality rates.

Lifting heavy weights at home

Once a week, Verdin lifts heavy weights at home, which helps him build muscle.

Dr. Vonda Wright, an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in healthy aging, previously told BI that maintaining muscle mass and bone density as we age is essential for staying strong and mobile.

Muscles help us perform everyday movements, such as reaching for a book off a high shelf or standing up from a chair, but they naturally start to shrink around the age of 30.

Long bike rides in nature

The Buck Institute is in Novato, just north of San Francisco. Verdin takes advantage of the beautiful surroundings by going on a two to three-hour bike ride in the mountains every week.

Cycling is a form of cardio that has been linked to multiple health benefits, including lower blood pressure and cholesterol, better mood, and a lower risk of chronic disease.

Exercising in nature has also been found to have extra benefits for the brain, such as improved focus.

• More people under the age of 50 are developing colon cancer.
• James Kinross, a colon cancer surgeon, said changes to the microbes in our gut could be a contributing factor.
• Following a vegetarian diet is one of the ways Kinross tries to reduce his risk of colon cancer.

Rates of colon cancer in people under the age of 50 are rising. James Kinross, a GI surgeon who researches how the gut microbiome affects our risk of the disease, believes "an internal climate crisis" among people in Western countries could be partly to blame.

But "the gift of the gut microbiome is that you can change it," said Kinross, referring to the trillions of microbes that populate our digestive system, and which research suggests have a wide-ranging affect on our health. "It is an ecosystem that you can adapt," the researcher at Imperial College London told Business Insider.

To lower his own risk of developing colon cancer, the second deadliest form of cancer disease in the US, Kinross follows dietary principles including eating a vegetarian diet. However, as BI has previously reported, a person's diet is just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to colon cancer risk.

Environmental factors such as ultra-processed foods, the use of antibiotics, which kill gut bacteria, microplastics, and limited exposure to nature, are thought to have made our gut microbiomes less diverse, he said. That means it's less healthy and resilient.

He gave the example of a child who is born by C-section, which means missing out on microbes that would have been passed on via the birth canal, to a mom whose gut microbiome is depleted by antibiotics, and fed a diet of ultra-processed foods, he said.

"You're seeing a generational loss in our internal ecology, which is being hammered with a series of environmental hits that it simply cannot adapt to," Kinross said.

The consequence is "a very unhappy microbiome," which produces harmful molecules and toxins that affect colon cancer risk, he said.

Kinross shared how he eats to lower his risk of colon cancer.

Eat 30 grams of fiber a day

"What I really want in my gut is diversity," Kinross said, "and the way you get that is by having a really good diverse diet which is really high in fiber."

Fiber is found in plant foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, and whole grains, and studies suggest that a diverse gut microbiome is linked to a range of health benefits, such as a strong immune system.

Kinross aims to eat 30 grams of dietary fiber a day, as recommended by the Food and Drug Administration. He tries to "eat the rainbow," ensuring that his plate is filled with plant foods of lots of different color and, therefore, nutrients.

Follow a vegetarian diet

Research has found a strong link between eating processed and red meats and colon cancer risk, so Kinross tries to follow a vegetarian diet as much as possible.

One 2020 study published in the International Journal of Epidemiology looked at data from around 500,000 people over a seven-year period to assess whether eating meat affected their cancer risk. It found that those who ate 79 grams of red or processed meat, or the equivalent of three slices of deli meat per day on average, had a 32% higher risk of colon cancer compared to those who ate less than 11 grams.

In 2015, The International Agency for Research on Cancer, the cancer research agency of the World Health Organization, classified processed meat as a "definite" cause of cancer, and red meat as a "probable" cause.

"I don't necessarily believe that we all have to be vegetarian, but I think meat consumption is a big part of our problem," he said, referring to rising colon cancer cases.

Eat fermented foods daily

Fermented foods, such as sauerkraut, kefir, and kombucha, contain probiotics, the "good" bacteria that live in the gut.

Kinross eats a serving of them daily, as research suggests they can improve the diversity of the gut microbiome. A 2021 study by Stanford University found that people who ate a diet high in fermented foods for 10 weeks had even more diverse microbiomes than those who ate a high-fiber diet.

His go-to's are sourdough bread and kimchi, a Korean fermented cabbage dish.

"My daughter's completely obsessed by kimchi. She makes loads of it. So we've always got a big bucket of it in our house," he said.

"They've got to be part of your regular food consumption, otherwise, the microbes just don't culture and graft into your gut," he said.

• Val Kilmer's cause of death was pneumonia, according to his daughter.
• Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer a decade ago and underwent a tracheotomy.
• The tracheotomy affected his ability to speak. The procedure can also increase the risk of pneumonia.

Val Kilmer died of pneumonia on Tuesday, but his history of throat cancer — an umbrella term for cancers of the throat, voice box, head, and neck — may have been a contributing factor.

Though the "Top Gun" star was diagnosed with the disease a decade ago, he initially kept it a secret. The actor, who was 65 at the time of his death, only began to speak publicly about his condition a few years later, and released a 2021 documentary "Val," in which he opened up about his health struggles, including losing his voice as a result of a tracheotomy. He used a voice box to speak in the film.

Kilmer's daughter, who confirmed his death, didn't clarify whether his pneumonia was related to his cancer. However, undergoing a tracheotomy can increase the risk of pneumonia long-term according to the American Thoracic Society.

Val Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014

The "Batman Forever" star received his diagnosis in 2014, but publicly disclosed it for the first time in a 2017 Reddit Ask Me Anything post. He had previously denied that he had cancer in 2016 after his "The Ghost and the Darkness" costar Michael Douglas revealed his health status during a press event. He later detailed his ongoing health struggle in a 2020 memoir called "I'm Your Huckleberry."

Kilmer confirmed he was cancer-free in a 2021 People magazine cover story promoting his documentary; in the doc, the actor said he'd been cancer-free for about four years.

Val Kilmer wasn't able to speak due to a tracheotomy

Kilmer's vocal cords were damaged after a tracheotomy, and he permanently lost his voice.

During a tracheotomy, also called a tracheostomy, a hole is made in the front of the neck and a tube is inserted into the windpipe. The procedure is performed on people with a problem that prevents air and oxygen from reaching the lungs. This can include throat injury (such as from radiation or trauma), or a physical blockage in the windpipe (such as from cancer).

The tracheotomy tube is secured to the neck with tape, and the patient breathes through it rather than through their nose and mouth.

It's common to have difficulty speaking after a tracheotomy, but not everyone loses the ability to speak permanently. However, the problem can persist in up to 25% of patients who require long-term mechanical ventilation, according to The National Tracheostomy Safety Project.

In a 2020 New York Times profile of Kilmer, the actor said his cancer treatments had included surgery, followed by chemotherapy and radiation. He suggested that damage from the chemo and radiation had resulted in his need for a tracheotomy tube. He also said that when he tried to remove the tube, he'd experience complications like a cough, cold, or fever.

• Ultra-processed foods tend to be energy-dense and soft, making them easy to overeat.
• Sam Dicken, a nutrition researcher, tries to avoid UPFs because he naturally has a big appetite.
• He shared how he avoids overeating without checking labels, such as by considering a food's texture.

Sam Dicken is a scientist who researches the potential harms of ultra-processed foods, like store-bought cookies and pizza. Despite what he knows, these kinds of food are often manufactured to be so easy to overeat that even he struggles to control himself around them.

"My appetite is huge," the researcher at the Centre for Obesity Research at UCL in London told Business Insider. "I find it really easy to just keep on eating."

But Dicken has a few clever tricks to practice moderation when eating less nutritious foods, which go beyond simply trying to decipher from the label whether they're ultra-processed.

UPFs are made with ingredients you wouldn't find in a regular kitchen, such as stabilizers and gums, and are highly marketed and shelf-stable.

Part of what makes them so easy to overeat is that this combination can make UPFs hyperpalatable — meaning they contain an appetizing combination of fat, salt, or sugar and are soft in texture, Dicken said. All this can mean they're also energy-dense, containing a large number of calories per gram of food.

Scientists are working to uncover whether it's the effects of additives, the processing, or the nutritional content of UPFs that means a diet high in them is associated with a host of health problems. These include obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and certain cancers.

UPF is a vague category, so to keep his appetite in check, Dicken thinks about the following three things when deciding what to eat.

Energy density

Dicken needs to eat a large volume of food to feel satisfied, he said, so one thing he really looks out for is how energy-dense a food is.

Fruits and vegetables are not energy-dense because they contain very few calories per gram, meaning he's happy to eat them to his heart's desire, while foods such as chocolate and sugar-sweetened drinks are very energy-dense.

"You can have 1,000 calories of strawberries, and it's a massive pile," he said. "And 1,000 calories of chocolate in front of me, it's a tiny plate."

"That's what I do if I go to a supermarket, I always have a look at the energy density. I know that's a big factor for me," he said.

Texture

UPFs tend to be low in fiber and therefore have a soft, easy-to-eat, texture, Dicken said. Take cheese puffs for example: you can eat a handful in seconds barely even chewing. For this reason, he takes into account how soft a food is when deciding what to eat. If he's hungry, he'll opt for something crunchy such as a carrot or nuts.

When you have a snack that's really energy-dense with a soft texture, "it's very easy to overconsume" he said.

It takes about 20 minutes for the stomach to send a signal to the brain letting it know you're full. Chewing slowly and taking more time with each bite means that the body has enough time to process that it's full before you overeat, Dicken said.

Recommended dietary guidelines

Above all, Dicken tries to make sure he's following UK national dietary guidelines, such as eating five portions of fruits and vegetables a day, limiting salt, sugar, saturated fat, and red meat, and eating plenty of fresh produce.

Trying to consume fewer UPFs can improve your diet, he said, as it typically involves eating and preparing more fresh, whole foods.

But if focusing on UPFs isn't moving you closer to the national dietary guidance, Dicken said he "wouldn't do it."

UPFs are convenient, and if a busy parent relies on supplementing their diet with pre-cooked meats or protein powder, for example, which may be considered ultra-processed, forgoing those may just lead to nutritional gaps in their diet, Dicken said.

• "Social wellness," which blends socializing with health and fitness, is becoming more popular.
• A Business Insider health reporter went to a social sauna and ice bath class designed to reset the nervous system.
• At first it was awkward, but that changed when she got in an ice bath with a classmate.

I turned right at Barry's Boot Camp and arrived at my destination: Arc, a communal sauna and cold plunge studio in London's financial district, which markets itself as a place for people to connect.

You can start your week there with a guided contrast therapy class —that is, switching between extreme heat and cold— at 7:30 a.m. on Monday morning, and see it out with a sauna party on Saturday night, complete with DJs, aromatherapy, and of course, cold plunges.

While saunas and ice baths aren't new (they're known to help athletes recover faster and are a must in any bougie gym or spa), they're quickly becoming a staple of social wellness: the blending together of socializing with wellness activities, such as running clubs and longevity retreats.

The merging of these trends makes sense. The global wellness industry was valued at $6.3 trillion in 2023, up 25% since 2019, and after being starved of social connection during the COVID-19 pandemic, people are becoming more aware of the link between socializing and longevity.

Social saunas are popping up everywhere. Rebase, another self-proclaimed "social wellness" club, opened in London last May, while Othership, a Toronto-based "social sauna" and ice bath studio, launched its first US spa in July with more than 20 locations across North America expected to follow in the next five years. Bathhouse, a New York-based spa with two locations, just added four additional pools and two saunas to its Williamsburg branch.

Arc opened in London's Canary Wharf in January and calls itself a community-focused space, where guests are guided on "a journey of self-discovery, personal growth, and meaningful connection within themselves and others." I was there to attend Dopamine Reset, a guided contrast therapy session that promises to "reset the brain's reward system," "break old habits," and "unlock new levels of growth and peak experiences" — a tall order for a 50-minute class.

I wanted to try it for two reasons. Firstly, as a woman in my twenties I naturally spend too much time on the internet and have anxiety. So, I'm always keen to experiment with something that might snap me out of my thought spirals. But secondly, and most importantly, I wanted to see if meeting new people while exposing myself to extreme temperatures, almost nude, would be as awkward as it sounds, or actually provide an opportunity for bonding. Breaking the ice, if you will.

So I took the plunge and booked the £35 ($44) class.

I felt uncomfortable walking into the class

Excited and nervous, I left the chic changing room in my swimsuit and entered a dimly lit ampitheatre-cum-cave called The Lounge: a terracotta room big enough for 50 people, with a tiered conversation pit at its center. I sat near three young women, all wearing smartwatches that were most certainly tracking their biometrics. So far, so awkward and lonely.

Of the 12 out of a possible 40 of us in the 12:30 p.m. class, there was only one man, who was taking a break from training for Hyrox, a buzzy, intensive indoor fitness competition.

(You'll notice that there are no people in the photos accompanying this piece — the sauna understandably didn't want us to take pics of guests in their swimsuits, or disrupt their journeys of self-discovery).

After a few minutes, our teacher — or "sauna master" in Arc lingo — appeared mic'd up and wearing a one-piece swimsuit and a long sarong to explain the structure of the class.

We would be led through breathwork, meditation, and gentle stretches in the sauna for around 15 minutes before hitting the ice baths. There, we would submerge ourselves in freezing water (a maximum of 42 degrees Fahrenheit) for two minutes. The magic — the activation of the parasympathetic nervous system, which helps the body relax — starts to happen after the 30-second mark, she said.

We spread out along the benches of the sauna built to accommodate 65 people

The 65-person wooden sauna was wide and tall enough for the twelve of us to spread out along its three benches. Our teacher started the class by throwing a snowball filled with essential oils onto the coals at the center of the room and whipping a towel in a circular motion in the air to spread the floral aromas. The room was heated to a near-uncomfortable 200 degrees Fahrenheit, and I started sweating almost immediately.

Breathing exercises in extreme heat weren't relaxing

As we started the breathwork —which involved rounds of inhaling, holding our breath, and exhaling for four seconds each — I loosened up a bit, mainly because we were encouraged to close our eyes. I'm used to breathing exercises like this in my weekly yoga classes and know my way around the Headspace app , but holding my breath in the extreme heat was strenuous and frankly unpleasant.

I didn't feel particularly relaxed yet and hadn't shared so much as a smile with anyone. This all changed when we moved on to the next section of the class.

I shared my ice bath with a fellow classmate

After a quick post-sauna rinse in the shower room adjacent to the sauna, where I slathered myself with complementary Malin+Goetz shower gel, it was time to get chilly.

In a charcoal-colored room made entirely out of stone were eight ice baths. It had a harsh feel compared to the light natural materials of the sauna and the lounge.

Each bath was large enough for two people, and I partnered with Carli Wheatley, 42, who I later found out is a lymphatic massage therapist and has worked in the wellness industry for years — a theme among my classmates.

I felt apprehensive as we assumed our positions and at the count of three, all stepped inside the icy vats and sat down. The pain hit my feet, legs, and hands immediately, and I had to fight the urge to get out. But lo and behold, after about 30 seconds, my muscles started to relax, and I felt calmer. Wheatley and I intermittently shared exasperated looks, which reassured me.

A gong signaled that two minutes were up, and we stepped out. My legs felt numb, and it was as if currents of electricity were zapping me. I felt awake from the inside out: an awakeness I had never felt before. Like an espresso entering your bloodstream, but without the mania.

After the ice bath, I started to feel more comfortable and chatted with the people around me

Re-entering the sauna, the atmosphere had softened. Everyone's body language was more open, and we started chatting about our shared experience (trauma). The intensity of the ice bath served as a welcome social buffer.

I asked people why they decided to come and if they enjoyed it. Those I spoke to (I wasn't able to chat with everyone in the class) were either into health and wellness or worked in the industry. They had come for the sauna's physical and mental benefits, not to socialize, but I do wonder if this would've been different had I come to an evening event.

Renata Bianchi, a 38-year-old hypnotherapist from Brazil, said that she found Arc online, thought the facilities looked beautiful, and wanted to try it. She told me she'd like to come back again next week.

One woman, who wants to train as a sauna master and is a fan of the cult health-optimization podcast, the "Huberman Lab," told us that she had been to Arc about seven times in the three months since it opened. She grew up using saunas and loves the high she gets from contrast therapy.

"I've heard it's good for metabolism and brown fat, but that's not why I do it," she said.

I went for a second dip, with friends!

Although no one had come for the social aspect, they were all up for chatting, and a group of us decided to give the ice baths a second go. We exhaled loudly and giggled to get through round two. It reminded me a little of summer camp.

We popped into the sauna again to warm up, shared some last-minute reflections on the state of the world, and gradually dispersed.

As I made my way back to the changing area, I realized that I hadn't thought about anything outside of these three rooms for at least 20 minutes. That was a huge win, which told me I had been in the moment and felt calm.

The social sauna class got me out of my head

I felt calmer and more grounded leaving Arc than I did walking in. I also had some pleasant conversations and enjoyed myself.

But, as is the case with many wellness treatments designed to help you destress and boost your sense of well-being, the effects were short-lived. After I left the luxury subterranean spa, I rejoined the real world: the cause of my stress.

I felt that I could've achieved that calm feeling for less money, or even for free, if I put my phone down and started each morning with a sunrise walk.

But it's easier to go to a sauna class than to delete your Instagram account or confront a demanding boss.

If I had the money and the time, I could see myself becoming a regular, albeit more for the relaxation than the connection. Did I leave with a new group of friends? No. But it got me out of my head and chatting to people, which is a difficult feat in our fast-paced, digital-first world.

• Ginny MacColl, 73, got fit in her 60s and now competes in American Ninja Warrior.
• She started by aiming to do one pull-up, which took her a year of strength training to achieve.
• MacColl set herself an achievable goal and was consistent with her workouts.

At 73, Ginny MacColl, an actor and former dancer in North Carolina, is stronger and fitter than ever.

Since achieving her first pull-up at 63, she has been a regular participant in American Ninja Warrior competitions, and in 2022 she bagged the Guinness World Record for being the oldest female Ninja Warrior competitor in the world.

For the uninitiated, the sport, which originated as a Japanese gameshow, involves completing extreme obstacle courses that include hurdles such as running up a warped wall, crossing a body of water using moving steps, and swinging on a spinning rope from one platform to another.

To prepare herself for competitions, MacColl works out six days a week, doing a combination of strength training at the gym, obstacle course practice, and swimming. She also prioritizes mobility and balance.

Although she retired from her day job at 62, MacColl is still a working actor, and her fitness has seeped into the roles she's landed in recent years. She was a stunt actor in Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrel's new movie "You're Cordially Invited," played tennis as a supporting actor on the "Sex And The City" sequel "And Just Like That," and did the splits in "Poms," a 2017 movie about a senior cheer squad starring Diane Keaton.

MacColl told Business Insider that she wants people to know it's never too late to get fit.

"If I'm doing this at 73, you can too," she said.

She shared the three things that helped her get so strong.

Have an attainable goal

MacColl's daughter, Jessie Graff, is also an American Ninja Warrior, and seeing how strong she is inspired MacColl to build some muscle herself. MacColl first saw Graff, who has been a Ninja Warrior since 2013, compete live in a televised Las Vegas competition in 2015.

When MacColl was growing up, the conversation around women lifting weights was non-existent, she said, but seeing Graff "flying across the stage" changed her perspective.

"I saw her muscles, I was like, 'wow, she's beautiful and curvy and strong.' I love that. And so I asked her how could I get stronger?" she said.

MacColl had never stepped into a gym at this point, so she set herself a goal of doing one pull-up. "I've always felt that you need to have an attainable goal," she said. And achieving it, motivated her to set a harder goal of five pull-ups.

"I think every time you reach a goal, you just set it a little bit farther, and so you keep trying to get stronger and stronger," she said. "I enjoy the satisfaction of getting through an obstacle and the learning process as I keep at it."

Be consistent (and patient)

After you've set yourself a goal, you have to be consistent if you want to achieve it, MacColl said, and don't expect to reach it overnight. It took her a year to do her first pull-up at 63: "that's a long time to stay committed," she said.

You want to form a habit, which might look like working out every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, she said, even when you don't feel like it.

But you can start out slowly, for example, by committing to walking for 30 minutes a day, or doing some exercise with resistance bands.

"Then just keep getting better and better and better and get stronger and stronger," she said.

Find a class or personal trainer

MacColl recommends signing up to a class, or finding a personal trainer, particularly when you're first starting out because it'll keep you accountable.

"When you're paying for it, you tend to go," she said. "I'm not sure I have the discipline to make myself do the things if I didn't have the personal trainer and the appointment to go to."

Plus, if you're lifting weights, it's important to learn the correct posture otherwise, you can injure yourself.

• Dr. Eric Verdin, 63, studies the biology of aging and how to get and stay healthy.
• He believes lifestyle factors such as diet play the biggest role in how long we live.
• He follows a Mediterranean-style diet and rarely drinks alcohol.

A healthy aging doctor and researcher who claims to have reversed his biological age by up to 15 years said he follows a Mediterranean-style diet — but avoids things like alcohol.

Dr. Eric Verdin, the CEO and president of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, studies how we can extend our "healthspan," or quality of life, by maintaining faculties that tend to decline with age, such as cognition, and preventing chronic diseases like cancer and type 2 diabetes.

For the last decade, Verdin has used wearable devices, such as smartwatches, as well as quarterly blood tests, to track his own health and makes tweaks according to the results. Currently, he's working on eating an earlier dinner to extend his intermittent fasting window.

According to tests that measure biomarkers such as inflammation, blood pressure, and cholesterol, while his chronological age is 68, Verdin's biological age is between 48 and 53. There is no consensus on the definition of biological age or how to measure it, so it differs according to the tests he refers to.

In general, Verdin believes lifestyle factors, including diet, exercise, sleep, stress management, and social connections, play a larger role in determining how long we will live in good health than genes.

Verdin shared the diet he swears by for longevity, and the three foods he limits as much as possible.

Swears by: eating a Mediterranean-style diet

Verdin said that there's strong evidence to suggest eating a good balance of complex carbohydrates — such as sweet potatoes — fats, and proteins is essential for health.

He follows the principles of the Mediterranean diet, which is based on the traditional eating habits of people in countries such as Greece, Italy, and Turkey, and has been ranked the healthiest way to eat by the US News & World Report for eight years running.

"When you look at populations that are on this type of diet, they really are the healthy ones," Verdin said.

The eating plan emphasizes fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds, and lean sources of protein such as fish.

Avoids: ultra-processed foods

Verdin follows the food writer Michael Pollan's advice of never eating anything you could order from a window or your grandmother wouldn't recognize as food — or what would be considered ultra-professed foods.

There isn't an agreed definition of ultra-processed foods, but they're typically considered to be made using ingredients and processes that you wouldn't have in a home kitchen. They tend to be highly marketed, low in fiber, and contain large amounts of fat, sugar, and salt: a combination which makes them "hyper-palatable," which studies suggest leads to overeating.

Scientists are still trying to understand how they affect our health, but eating a diet high in UPFs was linked to 32 health problems, including obesity, cancer, and depression in a recent study.

Avoids: fruit juice

While Verdin advocates eating plenty of fruit, he doesn't recommend drinking it, as juice tends to be high in sugar.

Juicing removes the fiber from fruit. So you can drink several pieces of fruit in seconds, which you wouldn't be able to do if you ate them.

When we consume sugary foods or beverages, our blood sugar spikes and the pancreas needs to release more insulin to balance it. With repeated spikes, after a period of time the pancreas may not be able to keep up with production needed, which can lead to insulin resistance, prediabetes, and type 2 diabetes.

Fiber, which is great for gut health, also delays the absorption of the sugar therefore preventing blood sugar spikes, he said.

"When you eat an orange, the sugar comes in at a much slower rate. So your body is actually able to cope with it," Verdin said.

Avoids: alcohol

Verdin used to have a glass of wine with his wife most evenings, but after trying Dry January during the COVID pandemic, he realized that he had more energy and slept better without it. "So I never went back," he said.

He'll still have the odd glass of wine on a special occasion but he rarely drinks these days.

In January 2023, the World Health Organization said that "no level of alcohol consumption is safe when it comes to human health," and the US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy published an advisory bringing awareness to alcohol's links to cancer in January.

The advisory said alcohol consumption was the third leading preventable cause of cancer in the US, after tobacco and obesity and recommended advocated for warning labels on alcoholic drinks.

• John Tregoning, 47, tried 15 longevity hacks to see which ones were worth buying.
• The research scientist tried things like cold water swimming, gene sequencing, and blood analysis.
• Calorie restriction helped him lose weight, but he missed out on social activities.

As he entered his mid-40s, it finally hit John Tregoning that he was going to die one day.

Faced with his mortality, the vaccine immunologist based at Imperial College London, wondered if there was anything he could do to extend his lifespan (unlikely, he thought), or at least live healthier for longer.

He researched buzzy longevity treatments that he hoped would prevent conditions such as cancer, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, which are leading causes of death.

He landed on trying: gene sequencing, whole-body blood analysis, an ECG, more exercise, cold water swimming, eating beetroot, eating less salt, Dry January and alcohol replacement, eating less red meat and more vegetables, brain training apps, sleeping more, a calorie restriction diet, eating more fiber, microbiome sequencing, and drinking more water. He documented his experience in his book "Live Forever? A Curious Scientist's Guide to Wellness, Ageing and Death."

Tregoning shared the three longevity hacks he thought were a waste of money.

Microbiome testing

The gut microbiome is the name given to the trillions of microbes that live in the colon lining. A gut microbiome with a diverse range of microbes is linked to better overall health — from the immune system to the brain.

Understanding how it works and impacts the body is a large area of research, however, there is still much scientists don't know, Tregoning said. But this hasn't stopped businesses from cashing in on the hype and selling products claiming to support gut health, he said.

Microbiome sampling, which involves sending your poop off to a lab to be tested, has become a readily available, albeit pricey, service. Most tests go for between $200 and $300.

Tregoning sampled his gut microbiome after making dietary changes on three separate occasions, to see if the results might help him make some gut-friendly changes to his diet.

The first sample was taken when he followed his typical diet, the second after he ate a curry and drank two bottles of beer, and the third after he ate 30 grams of fiber and three portions of fermented foods for a week, based on advice from a GI surgeon and researcher colleague.

The results showed that his microbiome had changed after the high-fiber week, but it had also unexpectedly become less diverse. A new type of bacteria had entered his microbiome, but the test couldn't tell him what that might mean for his health.

Tregoning said that the results were not useful because they weren't actionable, and only reflected the state of his gut at very specific times.

"Saying that this one bacteria in a sea of bacteria changes anything, we are nowhere close to that," Tregoning said. "It's a single snapshot. It's a bit like saying, 'How do you feel this second?' It changes all the time.

Calorie restriction diet

Calorie restriction, either through eating fewer calories or intermittent fasting, has been shown to extend the lifespan of mice. It can also help people who are overweight or obese reach a healthy weight, which can have beneficial knock-on effects for their health.

As part of his research, Tregoning tried a fast-mimicking diet for five days. He purchased a diet kit for £160 ($207), which came with packets of soup, nut bars, kale crackers, olives, and chicory root bars, which would provide him with 900 calories a day.

He lost more than six pounds in that week and kept it off for a month, but overall he didn't find the diet sustainable.

"It was effective in terms of I lost weight, but I was pretty listless and miserable for the whole week," Tregoning said. He wouldn't do it again mainly because it was too expensive and he largely had to stop socializing to follow it.

"It really pointed out to me how central food is in my life socially. In cooking with friends or cooking for family, having lunch at work with people, there's lots of social elements around food, which in that week I was missing out on," he said.

Social connection is crucial for longevity, and social isolation accelerates decline, healthspan, and lifespan, Trengoning said. This aligns with longevity research, which has found relationships to be as important for health as factors such as diet and exercise.

Gene sequencing

To assess his risk of developing certain health conditions, Tregoning did a genetic test.

He ordered a kit from 23andMe, which revealed that he doesn't have the gene variants for any of the 46 traits they measure or any of the 14 genes that make a person predisposed to a range of diseases, including breast cancer (BRCA2), Parkinson's disease, and age-related macular degeneration.

It also told him more trivial things like how likely he was to have back hair, and that his genes were likely 2% Neanderthal.

Overall, Tregoning did not find it a useful exercise. "It's fun, but it didn't really change anything in my understanding of what my personal risks are," he said. Our genes predicts likelihood rather than actual outcome, he said, and they are influenced by environmental factors and lifestyle.

"Environment is as important as our genes. The phrase I like is 'genes loads the gun, the environment pulls the trigger," he said.

• A scientist tested out 15 buzzy longevity hacks to see if they made him feel healthier.
• John Tregoning tried things including calorie restriction, microbiome testing, and exercising more.
• He kept up with exercising more, drinking less, and eating more vegetarian meals instead of red meat.

As he neared his 47th birthday, John Tregoning could no longer ignore the signs that he wasn't a spring chicken anymore.

He had to hold his phone further and further away from his face to read it, and the pile of hair he left behind at the hairdresser was markedly more gray than blond.

"The period of denial was finally over," Tregoning, a professor of vaccine immunology at Imperial College London who has been a clinical researcher for 25 years, told Business Insider.

Entering middle age, he began to wrestle with the idea of his own mortality, and whether there was anything he could do to delay it, or at least make his journey more pleasant.

So he did what comes naturally to him when faced with a problem — a series of experiments.

Tregoning researched the latest buzzy longevity hacks. Although it would be almost impossible to pinpoint whether they were extending his life, he wanted to see which were the most sustainable and made him feel healthier.

He ruled out anything that didn't have at least a large clinical trial supporting its efficacy, and focused on interventions that would prevent diseases such as cancer, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. These conditions are responsible for 74% of all deaths worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.

He landed on a list of around 15 lifestyle changes, medical tests, and treatments that are said to boost longevity.

They were: gene sequencing, whole-body blood analysis, an ECG, more exercise, cold water swimming, eating beetroot, eating less salt, dry January and alcohol replacement, eating less red meat and more vegetables, brain training apps, sleeping more, a calorie restriction diet, eating more fiber, microbiome sequencing, and drinking more water.

He documented his experience in his book "Live Forever? A Curious Scientist's Guide to Wellness, Ageing and Death."

He said his approach of experimenting on himself "is definitely more illustrative than scientific" because his findings are anecdotal. But he deemed anything that he continued to do after the experiment was over long-term a success.

Tregoning shared the three longevity treatments he stuck with.

Exercising more

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As the heart is a muscle, working it through exercise makes it stronger and better able to pump blood around the body more efficiently, Tregoning wrote. So he decided to be more active in the name of heart health.

Tregoning said that a year after setting himself the goal of exercising more, he still's at it. He likes to fit exercise into his commute, so he'll often get off the train a stop or two early and run the rest of the way. He also goes on runs with his daughter.

Exercise also provides many health benefits that indirectly help the heart, he wrote, such as lowering body weight, reducing cortisol levels, and burning glucose. It also reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes, stroke, and cancer.

Drinking less alcohol

Alcohol can damage the body in many ways, including causing certain types of cancer, contributing to heart failure and strokes by increasing blood pressure, and liver disease, Tregoning wrote.

Tregoning attempted Dry January but didn't make it to the end. He has, however, continued to be more conscious of how much he drinks and records "no drink days" on an app, which he finds motivating.

Eating more vegetarian meals (and less red meat)

Eating a diet high in red and processed meat has been linked to a higher risk of colon cancer while piling your plate up with high-fiber foods such as leafy greens and seeds appears to lower the risk.

Eating meat can, in part, be counterbalanced with fiber, Tregoning wrote, by promoting smooth digestion and regular poops, which means the meat is in contact with the colon for less time.

Instead of cutting red meat out altogether, which didn't feel realistic, Tregoning decided to add more vegetarian meals to his weekly repertoire. His favorites are three-bean chili, vegetable curry, and tomato pasta.

He said that he still eats two vegetarian meals a week a year after ending the experiment.

• Leah Wei avoided the gym because she felt exercise was just about achieving a certain body type.
• She realized she was missing out on health benefits, so worked on her relationship with exercise.
• Wei now sees moving daily as an opportunity to have fun and see her friends.

When Leah Wei, a 27-year-old YouTuber based in New York, learned that the body naturally starts to lose muscle mass at age 30, she knew she had to get over her fear of working out.

She had sworn off the gym years before because she had negative associations with exercise, she told Business Insider. These came from growing up seeing images of Victoria's Secret models and magazine covers emblazoned with phrases like "get abs quick."

It felt like exercise was about pushing yourself to look a certain way, Wei said. When she didn't see the aesthetic results fitness influencers promised, it left her feeling bad about her body.

To preserve her self-esteem, Wei decided to abandon exercise and accept her body as it was. "I didn't want to have that relationship with my body, with movement," she said.

But as time went on, she realized that she was missing out on the health benefits of exercise. Her neck and shoulders felt tight from sitting at a screen all day, she felt lethargic in the colder months, and became aware maintaining muscle as you age was important for staying strong and mobile.

In January 2023, Wei decided it was time to give working out another go. But this time she wanted it to be sustainable, and to prioritize how it made her feel, not how it made her look.

Now, she exercises every day, either going to a class or hitting the gym, because she genuinely enjoys it. She shared three ways she makes working out a joy.

1) Reframing 'exercise' as 'movement'

Wei likes to think about exercise as an opportunity to move her body, get away from her laptop, and have fun.

"It's a rebrand to this is just a really fun part of your day and something I love to do," she said.

Rather than having a strict routine or schedule, she decides what kind of movement she'll do each day based on her mood. She's a member of a rock climbing gym that offers a wide range of classes— from classic to aerial yoga and circus skills— and often tries new activities.

Wei likened her new attitude toward working out to going to a playground as a child. "You're never like 'oh I have to go outside to play for recess because it improves my sleep, or increases my metabolism. You're kind of just there because it's fun,'" she said.

Wei also has a gym in her building, where she aims to strength train twice a week with free weights.

2) Marrying movement with socializing

Exercising with a friend makes it even more fun, Wei said, and it helps her to balance different parts of her life.

She convinced three of her friends to join her rock climbing gym and they typically go together at least once a week or bump into each other there. "I think if your friends are all going climbing, it's more motivating for you too," she said.

And it means she gets to exercise and see the people she loves at the same time.

"I'll hit up friends and be like, 'do you wanna go Friday night or Sunday or Saturday morning' and people are usually down," she said.

3) Join a gym you want to spend time in every day

Wei's gym has big windows and a pretty view, which she said has helped her build the habit of going almost daily as it's a space she likes to spend time in.

"If I invest in a space that I think is really welcoming and warm, it makes me want to go there every day," she said.

Studios like this tend to be more expensive than a basic gym, but Wei is happy to spend her money this way.

"I don't care as much about makeup or clothing or purses or whatever but I'm like, this is really worth it for me," she said.

• Stacy Anderson, a scientist, has studied how centenarians live for over 20 years.
• She believes lifestyle factors such as diet play a big role in how long a person might live.
• She eats plenty of fruits and vegetables and gets eight hours of sleep each night.

A scientist who has studied centenarians for over 20 years shared four things she does to live a long, healthy life.

Stacy Andersen, a behavioral neuroscientist at Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine, is the co-director of the New England Centenarian Study, which examines the lives of people over 100 who are in good health. She has traveled the country visiting centenarians in their homes, meeting their families, and often sitting down with them for breakfast to try to pinpoint why they have lived so long.

"We're not trying to get everyone to live to 100. We're trying to get everyone to live like a centenarian. So really, to have that extended healthspan," Andersen told Business Insider, using the term for how long a person is healthy.

Living to an extreme age, like 105 and over, is likely about 70% down to a person's genetics, Andersen said, but healthy habits appear to be the most important factor for living to our late 80s and early 90s.

There's no one recipe for longevity, Andersen said, but following "the good, healthy behaviors that we know about and that are well tested" is the best approach to healthy aging.

She shared the habits she's implemented into her life based on her research and meeting hundreds of centenarians.

1) Eat five different colors a day

Andersen tries to eat five different colors of fruits and vegetables every day to ensure she gets a range of nutrients. "You're getting a wider variety, and it just feels good to check that box each day," she said.

Prioritizing fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and lean meats is crucial for healthy aging, she said and pointed to the Mediterranean-style diet as an example.

Based on the eating patterns of people in countries like Italy, Greece, and Turkey, the Mediterranean Diet has been ranked the healthiest way to eat for eight years running by US News & World Report.

A large 2023 study found that people who ate a whole-food-rich diet, similar to the Mediterranean Diet, lived up to a decade longer than those who ate a typical Western diet.

2) Exercise daily and mix it up

Anderson aims to get some movement in every day. She mixes up her workouts, sometimes going on long hikes with her dog, and other times running on a treadmill.

A typical centenarian is active, Andersen said. Many live on their own into their 90s, they often drive for an average of 10 years longer than their peers, and work for five years longer, she said.

The most common workout the centenarians she has studied do is walking or stretching, but they also do a lot of informal exercise, such as housekeeping, gardening, and yard work.

The link between longevity and an active lifestyle is well-established. A 2023 study by researchers at the University of Cambridge found a link between exercising for 11 minutes a day and a lower risk of dying from chronic illnesses such as heart disease and cancer.

3) Get good-quality sleep

Andersen prioritizes consistently getting eight hours of high-quality sleep.

Current guidance on sleep tends to emphasize getting seven to nine hours, but some emerging science suggests sticking to a consistent sleep schedule could matter more.

Everyone is different and feeling refreshed when you wake up is more important than the number of hours you sleep, she said.

"It's kind of when you feel like you're waking up ready to start the day," Andersen added.

When we sleep, it's like a "power cleanse for our brain," she said. It helps remove the proteins that are thought to to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's.

4) Challenge yourself to learn a new skill

Andersen has taken up sailing, which she said challenges her both cognitively and physically. "I tell everyone, 'Whatever you've always wanted to do that's new, go and do that!'" she said. Several centenarians she has met took up painting in their later years, for example.

Doing something that engages your brain and attention strengthens neural pathways and builds new ones, and is the number one thing we can do for brain health, she said. "Just doing crossword puzzles where you're retrieving information is probably not going to be that beneficial," she said.

A 2021 study published in the journal PLOS One by researchers at the University of Edinburgh, found that after just one week of intensive language learning, a group of 33 participants, aged between 18 and 78, had improved their ability to focus and switch between tasks. A control group of 34 participants who did an intensive course that didn't involve language learning also experienced cognitive benefits, but they weren't quite as significant, the authors said.

• People pleasers put their needs last and base their decisions on others.
• They learn these behaviors in childhood, which often leads to problems in adult life.
• Therapists told Business Insider the common issues people pleasers bring to therapy include analysis paralysis.

People-pleasing, or putting other's needs before your own, may seem like a positive trait.

But people pleasers don't recognize their emotional needs and, deep down, don't think they are important, Israa Nasir, a therapist based in New York, told Business Insider.

People pleasers don't simply want to make others happy, but fear them feeling uncomfortable or upset, Summer Forlenza, a trauma therapist based in California, told BI. It feels threatening and jolts them into the "fawn response," which is when someone reacts to a threat by suppressing their feelings to appease someone else.

It's typically a behavior we learn in childhood if we feel the need to take care of a parent or other significant person in order for our needs to be met, Melissa Stanger, a psychotherapist based in New York, told BI.

"You need to minimize your own needs in favor of theirs, either to make them the available caretaker that you need or because they don't have room for your needs at all," she said.

The people pleaser is often not consciously aware that they're doing it, and this common but misunderstood pattern of behavior often leads to challenges in adult life.

Nasir, Forlenza, and Stanger told BI the common issues their people-pleasing clients bring to therapy.

1) Relationship problems

People pleasers often seek therapy because of conflict and resentment in their relationships, Stanger said. But they won't necessarily realize that these issues are a result of their people-pleasing behavior.

"A lot of people will say, 'I'm having this conflict with a partner, and I don't know how to address it.' And usually, they do know how to address it. They just don't want to address it," she said. That's because they're afraid of jeopardizing the relationship.

"The people pleaser self-abandons again and again by prioritizing the relational threat over themself," Nasir said.

Not being honest about their feelings can create resentment over time, which will likely be communicated in other ways.

"A lot of times, people pleasers will tolerate a lot of pain before saying something, and usually they'll say it in a very passive-aggressive or a breakdown type of way," Nasir said.

For example, instead of communicating what she could realistically afford, one of Nasir's clients spent above her means and became resentful toward a friend who made more money than her and suggested expensive activities.

"She had made the assumption that her friend wouldn't understand and started to dislike her friend based on that," Nasir said. "This happens often with people pleasers who don't communicate their needs."

2) Difficulty making decisions

Nasir says her people pleaser clients often experience "analysis paralysis," finding it hard to make decisions, particularly in relation to their job, living situation, relationship, or other personal circumstances.

One client stayed in an unfulfilling job for a long time rather than applying for a promotion or another role at the company because she was so worried about making the wrong choice.

Forlenza said the stress of wanting to "keep everybody happy" adds to this indecision.

"I feel a lot of anxiety and fear at the possibility of people being upset with me for making this choice," she said of people pleasers.

3) Emotional and workplace burnout

This can happen if a people pleaser is scared to tell their manager they've been given too much work, for example. Forlenza said her clients can also have a hard time taking their PTO because they worry it'll make their co-workers' lives harder.

"It's just a total recipe for burnout and exhaustion," she said.

Nasir had a client who struggled to take time off from his job in healthcare and fainted from exhaustion during a double shift.

Emotional exhaustion or "relational burnout" is also common among people pleasers, as they may feel they are always taking care of others but nobody takes care of them, she said.

People pleasers will often know how to check the emotional temperature of a room and anticipate other people's needs very quickly, Nasir said, "so it's a lot of cognitive workload."

Practice speaking your mind to reduce the urge to people-please.

The first step toward changing these patterns of behavior to prioritize your own needs is improving emotional literacy, Nasir said. She gives clients a language to describe their emotions, often starting by using a feelings wheel, which maps out the primary emotions we experience. This helps clients learn to recognize what the emotions feel like physically.

The next step is learning to tolerate uncomfortable emotions. "They don't know how to tolerate if somebody is disappointed because they always act to avoid it. So they don't have a lot of experience in being confronted with it," Nasir said.

It's about being able to sit there and watch somebody be angry or disappointed with you and allow the other person to have their emotion without "fixing it," she said.

Finally, people pleasers need to practice direct communication, which means expressing thoughts and feelings clearly and explicitly.

Stanger recommended finding a trusted friend or relative who you can role-play those kinds of conversations with. This can help you feel more confident expressing your feelings in real-life scenarios.

• Fiber is crucial for gut health, but most Americans don't eat enough.
• Those who follow the Mediterranean Diet, packed with veggies and beans, eat twice as much fiber.
• Christina Soteriou's tips for adding fiber to dishes include using blended beans.

Eating a diet packed with fiber is second nature to Christina Soteriou, a plant-based chef who spent most of her childhood in Cyprus.

Fiber, found in plants such as vegetables, beans, and nuts, is crucial for our digestive health. It feeds "good" bacteria in the gut microbiome, or the microbes that line the colon. A diverse gut microbiome is associated with better overall health and a lower risk of chronic diseases, including colon cancer.

In the US, where the Western diet is common, over 90% of women and 97% of men don't eat the recommended 14 grams of fiber per 1,000 calories each day, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans state. People who follow a Mediterranean-style diet, however, eat double the amount of fiber each day, according to a 2021 literature review published in the journal Nutrients.

Soteriou, the author of "Big Veg Energy," told Business Insider it's easy to add fiber to meals without compromising flavor, using the whole foods that are a staple of the Mediterranean diet.

Nichola Ludlam-Raine, a dietitian and the author of "How Not to Eat Ultra-Processed," said Soteriou's tips are an excellent way to consume more fiber to support digestion, gut health, and energy levels.

1) Add blended beans to sauce to make it creamier

Soteriou likes to think about what she can add to a meal versus what to restrict.

One of her favorite high-fiber additions is blended beans, as they also add a creamy flavor to a dish. "Instead of somewhere you might put cream in, you can blend beans," she told Business Insider.

She often mixes blended lima beans into pasta sauces.

"The flavors could be something like harissa and roasted red peppers, or you could just literally throw some pesto into the blender with some beans, and that makes a creamy sauce," she said.

Another favorite is fresh herbs, spinach, half a can of beans, lemon juice, and a tablespoon of tahini.

"If you love pasta, you're eating pasta, but also getting all of these yummy nutrients and protein and fiber," she said.

2) Sprinkle mixed seeds on meals

Seeds are high in both fiber and healthy fats and contain plant-based protein. They're also easy to add to any meal or snack, Soteriou said.

She buys packs of mixed seeds to help her reach her goal of eating 30 plants a week, a number experts believe helps promote gut microbiome diversity.

"If you have a seed mix that has 10 different seeds in it, that's 10 points already," she said.

She sprinkles them over oats, salads, and roasted vegetables.

3) Try different whole grains

Whole grains such as brown rice, quinoa, and bulgar wheat are an essential part of the Mediterranean diet, and they tend to be high in fiber.

To eat more fiber, Soteriou changes the whole grains she uses and tries new ones.

"If you think, 'Okay, I've had rice, what other grain can I eat with this thing?' There's so many different grains," she said. "Experiment with different grains where you can."

You could try using pearl barely instead of Arborio rice in a risotto, for example, or millet instead of couscous, she said.

4) Top dishes with fermented foods

Dashing some fermented vegetables, such as pickles, kimchi, and sauerkraut, into a grain bowl or on top of a salad is quick and easy and will up the fiber content and flavor profile, Soteriou said.

These foods also introduce live bacteria into the gut, which research suggests boosts gut health.

Fermented foods tend to last for ages, so you don't have to worry about them going bad like fresh vegetables, she said.

• Jason Smith didn't exercise for years and got fit when he was 49.
• Smith is now a personal trainer who regularly strength trains and runs.
• He started by committing to an hour of daily movement and going slow.

A man who got fit at 49 and ran his first marathon at 52 shared the three things that helped him get in shape.

Jason Smith, 55, a personal trainer based in the UK, strength trains five times a week, and goes on four runs. Six years ago, his life looked very different. He worked a corporate job, did little to no exercise, and mainly ate ultra-processed microwave meals — and his health suffered.

In his 40s, Smith started to feel more lethargic and had less energy, he told Business Insider.

"I was overweight to the point of obesity, unwell, and in a pretty bad way physically and mentally," he said.

In January 2019, a friend posted online about "an adventure" he was going on, which included cycling up hills and running through fields.

Smith thought: "That's how I want to feel. That's how I want to live." It "flicked a switch" in his brain and he committed to changing his lifestyle then and there.

"I started to do a lot more research into nutrition. I decided I wasn't going to drink alcohol anymore, and I also decided that I was going to get fit and that I would take that seriously," he said.

After two weeks of moving more and eating a more nutritious diet he noticed a difference in himself, and he kept progressing.

"I felt so liberated, so different. I was enjoying it and I was loving life. It was a massive mental shift in me as well as a physical shift in me," he said.

Two years later, he decided he wanted to help others feel the same way. For his 50th birthday in January 2019, Smith's family bought him a personal training qualification course, and by the end of 2020, he was working with his first clients.

Smith shared how he approached getting fit at 49.

1) Have a clear goal

In the past, there were several instances where Smith had started working out, stuck to it for a week or so, and stopped when life got in the way. Having a clear goal helped make exercising regularly a sustainable goal.

Before hitting the gym or loading up his plate with veggies, Smith visualized his ideal self and wrote two lists: one detailed the things his future self would do, and the other the things he would stop doing. "The first thing that I did was get my mind in the right place," he said.

This helped him create a plan and motivated him to follow it. "Having that vision in my head and almost this plan of what I would and wouldn't do really, really helped," he said.

Visualization is a technique that successful people including Steve Jobs and Michael Phelps have used, and has been linked to improved decision-making and emotional regulation.

2) Find something you enjoy

Finding a form of exercise you enjoy is key to making being active a habit, Smith said.

"You're not going to do anything that you don't enjoy," he said.

He recommended thinking back to what you loved doing as a child. "I used to enjoy running through the woods, so funnily enough I went running through the woods and that made it a lot easier," he said.

Because Smith enjoyed what he was doing, he looked forward to his runs and in April 2022 he ran his first marathon in three hours and 55 minutes.

3) Start slow and build up

When he first decided to get into fitness, Smith committed to doing an hour of movement everyday, but he started slow.

"Certainly, for the first couple of weeks or more, running was really walking with an occasional running spurt in between," he said.

He joined his local gym and started with simple movements like lunges and squats, adding more as his fitness improved. He also had an introductory session with a personal trainer who showed him the correct form to avoid injury, which he said was helpful.

"It's not how hard you work in the hour or the 45 minutes that you might be doing a workout that really counts. It's how many times you do that," he said.

• Protein is beneficial because it helps us feel full and build and maintain muscle mass.
• A chef who grew up on the Mediterranean diet shared how she adds protein to her meals.
• Christina Soteriou's tricks include sprinkling nutritional yeast on dishes.

As a vegan of 13 years, Christina Soteriou, a chef and recipe developer based in London, has learned how to add plant-based protein to her meals in quick, simple ways.

The 32-year-old grew up in Cyprus following a Mediterranean diet, which has been linked to many health benefits, including a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and better gut health. It emphasizes plant-based sources of protein that are cheap and nutrient-dense, such as legumes, beans, and lentils

Protein in all its forms has become buzzy in recent years amid growing awareness that it can help with building and keeping muscle mass, as well as maintaining a healthy weight because it's filling and prevents overeating.

The US government recommends people eat 0.36 g of protein per pound of body weight, or at least 46 grams for women and 56g for men. For building lean muscle mass, research suggests 0.7 grams per pound a day is ideal.

The global protein market is estimated to grow from $26 billion in 2021 to over $47.4 billion by 2032, according to Statista, as grocery stores stock more protein-enhanced foods, from pasta to soda.

But Soteriou, who taught herself to cook vegan food growing up, knows you don't need to spend much or take supplements to get enough protein.

Each day, Soteriou, the author of the "Big Veg Energy" recipe book, makes sure she eats at least one substantial source of protein each day, such as tofu or beans, and tops up with other foods throughout the day.

"Little sprinkles of seeds here and there, or a drizzle of tahini even has protein in it," she said.

Soteriou shared three other hacks for eating more plant-based protein without sacrificing flavor.

Nichola Ludlam-Raine, a dietitian and the author of "How Not to Eat Ultra-Processed," said these are well-balanced suggestions for eating more protein, which also provide fiber and essential micronutrients.

Have pre-cooked legumes on hand

Legumes such as chickpeas, lima beans, and lentils, are good sources of protein and high in fiber. They all contain at least 8g of protein per 100g.

Soteriou finds it helpful to keep pre-cooked packs of legumes in her store cupboard, which she adds to dishes to bulk up the protein content.

"If you're eating a soup, let's say, can you throw some beans in? Or if you're having a salad, will some chickpeas go in there?" she said.

Tofu, many ways

Tofu has a reputation for being tasteless unless you spend hours marinating it, Soteriou said, but she disagrees.

"It can be so versatile. As it's quite plain, it can really lend itself to different things. So you can bake it, you can stir fry it, you can air fry it," she said.

Silken tofu, which is the softest type, can be blended into a cream and used in a sauce, a salad dressing, or seasoned and drizzled over roasted vegetables.

Firmer tofu can be crumbled into small pieces, covered with lots of salt and lemon juice, and sprinkled over a salad like feta.

"It's just a fun way to add more protein," she said.

Sprinkle nutritional yeast on dishes

Nutritional yeast is an inactive version of the yeast used to make bread or beer. It has a savory, umami flavor and is often used as a plant-based alternative to cheese.

It comes in powder or flake form and is a complete protein. One teaspoon contains around three grams of protein.

Soteriou always has some in her kitchen and likes to sprinkle it over dishes for extra protein.

"You can even sprinkle it onto your pasta," she said.