Evidence, examined claim by claim
Know what holds up.
Longevity marketing grades interventions. Science grades claims. Every claim here carries its own grade, derived by a public rubric from verified studies — and re-derived when the evidence changes.
Evidence monitor
Live from the rubric
Nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN)
3 claims · 3 verdicts
- EarlyRaises NAD+ levels in blood
- InsufficientExtends human lifespan
- InsufficientImproves blood pressure
56 verified sources · rebuilt 22 August 2026
28
interventions assessed
60
claims graded individually
56
studies linked to source
- Strong
- Moderate
- Early
- Mixed
- Preclinical
- Insufficient
- Against
01How we assess
One intervention. Many claims. Assessed separately.
An intervention can have decent evidence for shifting a laboratory marker and none at all for helping you live longer. Collapsing that into a single score is how longevity marketing works — and why it misleads. Every claim here carries its own grade and its own reasoning.
Claims with the most support
The lifespan board
Live from the rubric
The most-sold claim in this field, and where it currently stands. No entry here is written by hand.
02The evidence explorer
Interventions assessed
Profiles are published only once their claims have been appraised against the linked studies. Everything else waits in preparation.
Supplement
Creatine monohydrate
Reasonable human evidence that creatine adds a modest amount to resistance-training gains in older adults. No human evidence that it extends lifespan, and claims to that effect are not supported by the trial literature.
2 claimsHuman evidenceSupplement
Nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN)
Human trials indicate NMN raises blood NAD+ and is generally well tolerated over the periods studied. Evidence that this translates into meaningful health benefits is early and inconsistent, and no human study has examined lifespan.
3 claimsHuman evidenceSupplement
Nicotinamide riboside (NR)
Human trials support that NR raises NAD+ and is tolerated. Trials in specific conditions have produced mixed results, and no human lifespan evidence exists.
2 claimsHuman evidenceSupplement
Vitamin D
Large randomised trials in generally healthy older adults have found no reduction in overall mortality from routine vitamin D supplementation. Correcting a diagnosed deficiency remains standard medical advice — a different question from taking it for longevity.
1 claimHuman evidenceSupplement
Omega-3 fatty acids
No benefit for primary prevention in healthy adults in the largest trial. A high-dose purified EPA preparation reduced cardiovascular events in statin-treated patients with high triglycerides — a specific, prescription-level context often stretched to sell ordinary fish-oil capsules.
2 claimsHuman evidencePrescription medicine
Rapamycin
The animal case is unusually strong; the human case is unusually early. Small trials of low-dose mTOR inhibition have produced mixed results on immune function, a recent one-year safety trial reported low-dose rapamycin as generally well tolerated, and nothing in humans has measured lifespan.
3 claimsHuman evidencePrescription medicine
Metformin
A proven diabetes medicine; an unproven longevity drug. Randomised evidence for benefits beyond diabetes does not yet exist, and meta-analysis of trials within diabetes found the cardiovascular case weaker than commonly assumed.
2 claimsHuman evidenceLifestyle
Sauna bathing
Consistent prospective cohort evidence associates frequent sauna use with lower cardiovascular mortality. Association is not causation: sauna use tracks with fitness, wealth and health in ways statistics can only partly untangle. No randomised mortality evidence exists.
2 claimsHuman evidenceSupplement
Spermidine
Higher dietary spermidine intake is associated with lower mortality in observational data. The main randomised supplementation trial in older adults found no significant effect on memory. Association plus a null trial equals an open question, not a longevity supplement.
2 claimsHuman evidenceSupplement
Taurine
Mouse lifespan extension is reported; the human premise is now disputed. A 2025 longitudinal analysis found circulating taurine does not show the consistent age-related decline the supplementation argument assumed. No human trial has tested taurine for ageing outcomes.
1 claimHuman evidenceNutrition
Calorie restriction
In the main randomised human trial, two years of sustained calorie restriction improved cardiometabolic risk factors in healthy non-obese adults. Whether decades of restriction would extend human life is unmeasured — and the regimen's demands and risks make it far from a casual recommendation.
2 claimsHuman evidenceNutrition
Intermittent fasting
In the TREAT randomised trial, 16:8 time-restricted eating produced no significant weight-loss advantage over three structured meals a day. Fasting regimens can still help some people eat less; the evidence that the timing itself does metabolic magic is weak.
2 claimsHuman evidenceExercise
Resistance training
Pooled observational evidence associates regular muscle-strengthening activity with meaningfully lower all-cause mortality. Unlike most interventions on this site, the mechanism runs through a capacity you can measure in yourself.
1 claimHuman evidenceSupplement
Collagen peptides
Replicated randomised trials, summarised by meta-analysis, indicate oral collagen improves instrument-measured skin elasticity and hydration. Narrower single trials suggest benefits for activity-related joint pain and for training-related muscle gains in elderly men. Nothing links collagen to lifespan, and most supporting trials are industry-funded.
4 claimsHuman evidenceEmerging therapy
BPC-157
A consistent rodent literature suggests accelerated healing of tendon, muscle and gut injuries. A 2025 systematic review of its orthopaedic use found no randomised human trial has ever been published. Every human-effectiveness and human-safety claim made for BPC-157 is currently unsupported.
2 claimsHuman evidenceEmerging therapy
GHK-Cu
Laboratory and mechanistic work shows GHK-Cu modulates genes involved in skin repair and remodelling. No randomised human trial supports the regenerative, anti-ageing or systemic claims under which it is sold, and injectable use has no human safety data.
1 claimNo human evidenceEmerging therapy
Epithalon
Cell-culture work — including a 2025 study — supports telomere lengthening in vitro. The human lifespan evidence is a small, non-randomised Soviet-era programme run by the peptide's developers, never independently replicated. No regulator anywhere has licensed it.
2 claimsHuman evidencePrescription medicine
GLP-1 receptor agonists
Randomised trials show substantial weight loss, and the 17,604-person SELECT trial showed fewer cardiovascular events in people with overweight or obesity and existing cardiovascular disease. These are prescription medicines with real side effects, tested in high-risk populations — not longevity drugs, and no trial has examined lifespan as a primary outcome.
3 claimsHuman evidenceSupplement
Resveratrol
Meta-analysis of randomised trials finds no metabolic benefit in people without diabetes, and a prospective cohort found dietary resveratrol unrelated to mortality. The famous mouse lifespan result came from mice on a high-fat diet and did not generalise. What survives is a possible modest effect in type 2 diabetes — a medical question, not a longevity one.
3 claimsHuman evidenceSupplement
Urolithin A
Randomised trials show improved mitochondrial biomarkers, and one trial in older adults reported better muscle endurance on some measures while missing its primary walking endpoint. All key trials are funded by the manufacturer. No health-outcome or lifespan evidence exists.
2 claimsHuman evidenceSleep
Sleep
Very large syntheses of prospective cohorts consistently find a U-shaped association: both habitually short and habitually long sleep predict higher mortality. Whether changing your sleep changes your risk has never been tested against mortality — the association evidence and the intervention evidence are different things.
2 claimsHuman evidenceExercise
Aerobic exercise
Large cohorts consistently associate regular aerobic activity and higher cardiorespiratory fitness with substantially lower mortality, with no upper limit of benefit found for fitness. The Generation 100 randomised trial found no significant mortality reduction from five years of prescribed training over general activity advice — active control groups make that a high bar, but it is the honest randomised result.
2 claimsHuman evidenceEmerging therapy
NAD+ (direct supplementation)
A small pilot study shows a six-hour NAD+ infusion changes the plasma NAD+ metabolome — pharmacology, not benefit. No controlled trial shows any health outcome from oral or intravenous NAD+, and IV drips are an unregulated wellness service, not a licensed therapy.
2 claimsHuman evidenceSupplement
Fisetin
In aged mice, fisetin reduced senescence markers and extended late-life health and lifespan. No completed randomised human trial has yet shown any benefit; several — in breast cancer survivors, frail older adults and other groups — are in progress. A rational buyer would wait for them.
2 claimsNo human evidenceSupplement
Coenzyme Q10
In chronic heart failure, the Q-SYMBIO trial found fewer major cardiac events on CoQ10 as adjunct therapy. In elderly Swedes with low selenium status, combined selenium and CoQ10 reduced cardiovascular mortality with effects persisting years later. Both are specific clinical contexts; evidence for healthy adults taking CoQ10 for ageing is absent.
3 claimsHuman evidenceSupplement
Berberine
Meta-analysis of randomised trials supports modest improvements in fasting glucose, triglycerides and waist circumference, mainly in people with metabolic dysfunction. The GLP-1 comparison is marketing: berberine has no trial evidence remotely comparable to semaglutide's, for weight or anything else, and no lifespan evidence.
2 claimsHuman evidenceSupplement
Curcumin
Meta-analyses support reduced knee osteoarthritis pain versus placebo and lower C-reactive protein — both from small, heterogeneous trials using assorted formulations. No evidence connects curcumin to ageing outcomes, and 'inflammation' on a blood test is a marker, not a disease.
3 claimsHuman evidenceLifestyle
Cold exposure
Winter swimmers show altered brown-fat activity and enhanced cold-induced thermogenesis; a 2025 systematic review of cold-water immersion found effects on stress and wellbeing that were small, short-lived and based on low-quality trials. No hard health outcome, and no ageing outcome, has been demonstrated.
2 claimsHuman evidence
03The living layer
The Pulse: evidence, as it changes
Briefs when a trial reports, checks when a claim goes viral, notes when a grade moves. The feed that keeps the grades honest.
Hype check
The taurine reversal, explained
In 2023 taurine was a Science-paper sensation. In 2025 a large human analysis reported evidence against its central premise. What actually happened, and what it teaches about longevity headlines.
5 min read
Evidence brief
The biggest longevity trials ever run were null — and almost nobody talks about them
D-Health randomised 21,315 people to vitamin D. VITAL randomised 25,871 to fish oil. Both are landmark answers to longevity questions, and both found nothing. Why null results are the field's most underrated information.
6 min read
Evidence brief
Rapamycin is longevity's best cautionary tale — because its evidence is genuinely good
Two promising randomised trials, then a failed phase 3 on the same idea. Rapamycin shows what 'mixed evidence' really means — and why early trial success is not a purchase signal.
6 min read
04Beyond the reading
Tools built from published methods
Calculators implemented from their source papers, live trial data, and population statistics with a download button — each stating plainly what it can and cannot tell you.
Calculators
Published formulas, implemented from source and unit-tested. Your values are processed in your browser and never sent to us.
Clinical trials
Live from ClinicalTrials.gov, with recruitment status, phase and the outcome each trial actually measures.
Browse trials →Longevity data
Life expectancy by country and year from the World Bank, charted with definitions, limitations and a CSV download.
Explore the data →05The reading room
Learn to read this field
Plain-language guides to the evidence — how studies mislead, why animal results rarely transfer, and what the tests and supplements can actually show.
Best longevity supplements UK: what the evidence actually shows
A claim-by-claim look at the supplements most often sold for longevity in the UK — what human trials have found, what rests on animal data, and what remains untested.
9 min read
How to read a longevity study
A practical checklist for reading ageing research without being misled: subjects, endpoints, size, duration, replication and funding — with real examples.
8 min read
Why animal lifespan results do not prove human benefit
Mice, worms and flies live longer on dozens of interventions that have never been shown to help humans. Here is why the translation fails so often — and what animal research is genuinely for.
7 min read
Weekly, when it matters
The research digest
What was published, whether it was human research, how good the study was, and — the question that matters — whether it changes anything.
See what you would receiveRadical transparency
How to check our work
Every grade is produced by a published rubric from recorded study facts, not by editorial impression. Where an editor departs from the rubric, the reason is shown. Every citation links to PubMed.
Content last rebuilt 22 August 2026.
Commercial disclosure
Longevity Record is commercially connected to Vitality Supplements, a company that sells food supplements. Evidence assessments are produced under a published methodology and are never influenced by whether a product is sold. Where a commercial option exists it is labelled as such and separated from the evidence.
Full commercial relationships →Evidence grades used on this site
- Strong human evidence
- Consistent findings from multiple well-conducted human trials, or meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials, with adequate sample sizes and a clinically meaningful endpoint.
- Moderate human evidence
- More than one human trial pointing the same way, but limited by sample size, duration, risk of bias, or reliance on surrogate endpoints.
- Early human evidence
- One or a small number of small, short or preliminary human studies. Directionally interesting, not yet dependable.
- Mixed evidence
- Human studies disagree, with credible trials on both sides, or results reverse under better methodology.
- Preclinical only
- Evidence comes from animals, cell cultures or modelling. No human trial has tested this claim. Animal lifespan results do not establish human benefit.
- Insufficient evidence
- Too little credible research exists to judge the claim either way.
- Evidence against the claim
- Well-conducted human research indicates the claimed effect does not occur, or is too small to matter.