15 Best Longevity Books for 2024

15 Best Longevity Books for 2024

Update 11/7/2023: This post has been updated since we originally published it in September 2020 and first updated it in April 2021. Several new best longevity books have been added to both the main list and honorable mentions sections, and the post has been cleaned up, and review ratings made current.

There are a lot of life extension and longevity books published every year.

A. Lot.

And most of them?

Utter crap.

Pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo about “spiritual healing” and “natural remedies” and “ancient secrets” peddled by scammy TV doctors abounds on the shelves of bookstores the world-over.

Their smiling faces with too-white teeth and dead eyes shout too-good-to-be-true promises from garish book covers.

“Did YOU know that high doses of [melatonin/vitamin D/magnesium/vitamin C/insert the author’s favorite supplement of choice] acts as a miracle anti-aging drug and can also cure baldness and work as birth control?!”

(Ok, that last one I could believe).

best longevity books

The hard reality is that 99% of these longevity books are premised on shaky science at best, and are outright promoting mistruths to sell dangerous health advice to vulnerable readers at worst.

So how can someone interested in the reality of life extension—the practical, sober, and evidenced-backed picture of what’s truly possible—separate the gold from the snake oil?

Well, you could painstakingly comb through all the hundreds of top-rated life extension books on Amazon, examining the claims, scientific credentials, and research-based data presented by the authors to find the ones that seem the most credible.

Or you could just let us do all that work for you.

Because that’s what we did, and we also went ahead and compiled our findings of the best anti-aging books into the list below for your convenience.

Affiliate Disclaimer: Longevity Advice is reader-supported. When you buy something using links on our site, we may earn a few bucks.

The best longevity books

I’ve broken up the life extension books below into two lists: one for books that are foundational for understanding the science and reasoning behind the life extension movement generally, and one for books that are especially relevant to longevity progress this year.

Both lists have their own selection criteria, and both are ordered alphabetically by the author’s last name.

Essential anti-aging books for any year

The foundational longevity books on this list were selected by the following criteria:

  • Pedigree of author(s): PhD or medical degree required
  • Average Goodreads ratings of at least 3.6
  • At least 500 Goodreads ratings
  • Must cite at least 1 peer-reviewed study within the Amazon preview length
  • Have a topical focus on actionable anti-aging therapies or interventions that have been supported by peer-reviewed studies, not just “aging gracefully”
  • Does not promote outdated or possibly dangerous science (i.e. the use of antioxidant supplements)

1. Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Dr. Peter Attia 

Outlive longevity book cover

Price: $16.99
Number of Goodreads Ratings: 21,944
Average Goodreads Rating: 4.43
Longevity topic covered: General longevity science and research, personal longevity recommendations
Publication date: 2023

Anyone listening to Dr. Peter Attia’s popular longevity podcast, The Drive, over the last couple of years will have heard him mention the amount of hard work he’s put into this life extension book. He finally published it in March of 2023. Luckily, it looks like the years of effort paid off, as Outlive became an almost instant New York Times bestseller. 

For those who follow Attia’s podcast, many parts of the book will be familiar. He mixes an accessible, story-telling style with a medical vocabulary that can be at first daunting, but then reassuring: he’s certainly done the research himself. As a practicing clinician, he sees a lot of the health issues that impact longevity first-hand, and he also has a good idea of what works and what doesn’t.

From discussions of which blood tests to get, to the importance of exercise for maintaining healthspan and preventing diseases of aging, to potential anti-aging interventions like fasting and metformin, Attia covers a lot of ground. And the length of the book shows it: at a print length of almost 500 pages Outlive counts as a “tome” but, for those serious about real, proven strategies for increasing their health and, hopefully, lifespan, it may be an indispensable one.

Outlive

$16.99 $32.00 47% Off

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2. The Telomere Effect: A Revolutionary Approach to Living Younger, Healthier, Longer by Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn and Dr. Elissa Epel

The Telomere Effect longevity book cover

Price: $11.99
Number of Goodreads Ratings: 4,912
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.8
Longevity topic covered: Telomere science, personal longevity recommendations
Publication date: 2017

Written by one of the people who literally discovered telomerase (and won a Nobel Prize for it) this book is an essential one for a good understanding of the science and biology behind aging.

The authors use a conversational writing style that makes the science approachable even for non-scientists (and the book’s status as a New York Times bestseller can attest to their success with this).

While much of the suggestions for increasing longevity in the book are uncontroversial (exercise, healthy eating, lowering stress), the science behind telomeres and telomerase presented in the book is increasingly important for life extensionists to understand given the various proposed telomerase therapies already being tested for slowing and reversing aging.

The Telomere Effect

$11.99 $17.99 33% Off

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3. Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime by Aubrey de Grey, PhD with Michael Rae

ending aging best longevity book cover

Price: $9.99
Number of Goodreads Ratings: 744
Average Goodreads Rating: 4.1
Longevity topic covered: General longevity science and research, personal longevity recommendations
Publication date: 2007

Despite having been published way back in 2007, this seminal text is still an important read for anyone interested in the science of longevity. Aubrey de Grey is justly famous as one of the most visible advocates for anti-aging research and interventions worldwide.

For years, he was a lonely voice calling for more funding, more research, and more serious discussion of radical human life extension, and his scientific, evidence-based reasoning has helped, probably more than anyone else, to drag longevity research from fringe crackpot theory to respectable science. 

As the founder of the SENS (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence) Research Foundation, de Grey has not only advocated for more life extension research, he’s put his own theories into practice by running and funding numerous studies into aging and rejuvenation interventions and therapies.

His book is a detailed walk-through of the seven types of damage caused by aging, as well as his ideas for how this damage can be mitigated and cleaned up to treat and reverse aging. Though at times technical, and also in places over-optimistic, de Grey’s engineering approach (we don’t have to fully understand what aging is in order to fix the damage caused by it) is one that has been adopted by large swathes of the longevity industry and a solid grounding in it will help anyone interested in human life extension better understand the advances and breakthroughs happening today.

Ending Aging

$12.99 $21.99 69% Off

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4. Lifespan: Why We Age and Why We Don’t Have To by David A. Sinclair, PhD

lifespan top life extension book cover

Price: $14.99
Number of Goodreads Ratings: 20,007
Average Goodreads Rating: 4.2
Longevity topic covered: General longevity science and research, personal longevity recommendations
Publication date: 2019

This 2019 bestseller has some of the most exciting science from the field of human longevity research, which shouldn’t be surprising given it was actually written by one of the foremost scientists doing that research. In several interviews, Sinclair has mentioned the discoveries covered in his book were occurring as the text was being written, so you can be sure this is as cutting-edge a life extension book as you’ll find anywhere.

Named one of Time‘s 100 most influential people in the world, Sinclair runs his own research lab at Harvard Medical School, where he studies the biological processes of aging and, more importantly, possible interventions to reverse them. He came to prominence initially for his research into the molecule resveratrol (found in red wine) but has since extended his remit to everything from stem cells to fasting.

His book covers his working theory of aging based on discoveries in his lab. He also discusses why aging is such a terrible disease and rebuts common ethical arguments against ending aging (“But overpopulation!”). Sinclair also breaks down his own life-extension regimen (yes, he takes resveratrol).

Lifespan

$18.49 $30.00 38% Off

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The best longevity books for 2024

I selected the below best-selling anti-aging books, which are especially relevant for readers in 2024, by the following criteria:

  • Average Goodreads ratings of at least 3.6
  • At least 30 Goodreads ratings
  • Must cite at least 1 peer-reviewed study within the Amazon preview length
  • Have a topical focus on actionable anti-aging therapies or interventions that have been supported by peer-reviewed studies, not just “aging gracefully”
  • Published within the last five years and does not promote outdated and possibly dangerous science
  • Especially relevant to current life-extension developments

5. Borrowed Time: The Science of How and Why We Age by Sue Armstrong

borrowed time anti aging book cover

Price: $9.99
Number of Goodreads Ratings: 243
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.8
Longevity topic covered: General longevity science and research, theories of aging
Publication date: 2019

This recent book is a “pop-sci” survey of the current research into and theories about aging by BBC science journalist Sue Armstrong. While other such explorations by journalists—meant as introductions to the space for a non-technical public—exist (including 2010’s Long for This World: The Strange Science of Immortality, 2016’s Spring Chicken: Stay Young Forever (or Die Trying), and even 2020’s Immortality, Inc.: Renegade Science, Silicon Valley Billions, and the Quest to Live Forever), Armstrong’s book is either more recent and/or more highly-rated by reviewers than other similar treatments.

She covers the main theories that scientists believe explain aging, from shortening telomeres, to cell senescence, to disposable soma and more. In addition to discussing the theories, Armstrong also interviews the scientists themselves and tells the stories of several important advances in the field including, for example, the discovery of the Yamanaka factors for inducing stem cells.

This book is ideal for the true beginner to the space, or someone looking for a non-technical introduction to our current theories of aging.

Borrowed Time

$16.41 $18.00 9% Off

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6. Age Later: Health Span, Life Span, and the New Science of Longevity by Nir Barzilai, M.D.

age later aging research book cover

Price: $14.99
Number of Goodreads Ratings: 341
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.7
Longevity topic covered: General longevity science and research, theories of aging, diet, personal longevity recommendations
Publication date: 2020

Dr. Barzilai, who founded the Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, is another giant in the life extension research space (he’s running the TAME trial to see if metformin has anti-aging effects on humans), and his new book covers all his aging research findings and possible applications.

Beginning with his research on “SuperAgers” (centenarians who manage to stay healthy well into their 10th decade), and touching on theories of why we age, Barzilai then dives into the current state of longevity research funding and societal (and government) recognition. The book finishes with a lengthy treatment of how best to apply the lessons from his research including sections on diet, supplements, exercise, and medicines like metformin.

Age Later

$16.94 $28.99 42% Off

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7. The Switch: Ignite Your Metabolism with Intermittent Fasting, Protein Cycling, and Keto by James W. Clement, George M. Church (Foreword)

the switch best longevity diet book cover

Price: $9.99
Number of Goodreads Ratings: 376
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.9
Longevity topic covered: Diet, personal longevity recommendations
Publication date: 2019

While this book may look like every other junk-science “diet” book on the market, there’s a good reason I’ve included it in this list (well, several in fact). Author James W. Clement is a longevity research scientist who ran the Supercentenarian Research Study along with Professor George Church (of the Human Genome Project) and has his own lab in Florida where he collaborates on experiments with scientists from labs at Harvard, UCLA, Yale, and others.

Which is all to say Clement is a respected voice in the longevity space, not a scammy TV doctor, and his research into autophagy and mTOR activation forms the basis for this book. With recommendations from other life extension giants like David Sinclair (whose book, Lifespan, is also on this list), Steve Horvath (who invented the epigenetic biological age clock), and a forward by George Church, Clement’s book is certainly being praised by the right people.

In addition to detailing the science behind his beliefs on the role of autophagy and mTOR activation (the eponymous “switch”), Clement gives detailed recommendations for everything from diet and specific foods (macadamia nuts seem to be high on the “eat this” list), to intermittent fasting and protein cycling. For anyone wanting a good overview of current longevity science related to diet, with actionable recommendations, Clement’s autophagy book should be high on your list.

The Switch

$9.99 $16.99 41% Off

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8. The Death of Death: The Scientific Possibility of Physical Immortality and its Moral Defense by José Cordeiro and David Wood

ethics of life extension book death of death

Price: $24.28
Number of Goodreads Ratings: 41
Average Goodreads Rating: 4.9
Longevity topic covered: General longevity science and research, ethics of longevity
Publication date: 2023

Recently published in an English-language version, this philosophical and scientific book about life extension explores a lot in its 270+ pages. The authors—including the indefatigable José Cordeiro, whom we interviewed for our article on the diets of longevity experts—cover everything from the possibility of biological mortality, to the state of current longevity research, to the ethics of living longer, healthier lives.

Anyone interested in an up-to-date primer on the life extension field will find The Death of Death a great, if dense, read. However, it’s as a full-throated defense of the morality of extending our lives that the book really shines. From looking at the economic implications of immortality (the “longevity dividend”), to the moral imperative of ending the suffering caused by aging, Cordiero and Wood address most of the objections thrown at life extensionists by those who believe aging and death is not only inevitable, but good.

The Death of Death

$24.28 $27.99 13% Off

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9. The Path to Longevity: The Secrets to Living a Long, Happy, Healthy Life by Luigi Fontana

path to longevity book cover

Price: $25.99
Number of Goodreads Ratings: 90
Average Goodreads Rating: 4.1
Longevity topic covered: Diet, personal longevity recommendations
Publication date: 2020

Professor Fontana is a well-respected researcher and clinician in the longevity space. He’s credited with running the core studies that discovered the anti-aging potential of the 5:2 diet, a popular intermittent fasting regimen where practitioners drastically lower their caloric intake two days each week. His vast array of other research has also been instrumental in helping understand caloric restriction, protein intake, and even potential anti-aging supplements like resveratrol (spoiler: maybe not that great).

This is all to say he knows firsthand, through his own published research, many of the longevity interventions that can improve health (and those that can’t). And the 336 pages of his book go into most of them, from diet, to fasting, to sleep, and even to the importance of a robust social life for longevity.

The Path to Longevity

$11.78 $25.99 55% Off

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10. The Illusion of Knowledge: The paradigm shift in aging research that shows the way to human rejuvenation by Harold Katcher

theory of aging book illusion of knowledge

Price: $18.24
Number of Goodreads Ratings: 47
Average Goodreads Rating: 4.2
Longevity topic covered: Theories of aging, General longevity science and research
Publication date: 2021

Dr. Katcher has been at the heart of a lot of fascinating anti-aging research happening recently, particularly related to blood dilution and other novel blood-based interventions. In a pre-print paper published in 2020, Katcher and his team claimed to have reversed the biological age (as measured by a series of epigenetic age clocks) of rats by up to 54% using an injection of young blood plasma.

Since then, he’s worked diligently on furthering his research, leading to a record for the longest-lived laboratory rat, and to a new study, published in 2023, suggesting an average biological age reversal of 67% in rats injected with “plasma from young adult pigs.”

Katcher’s book is an exploration of not just the exciting research he’s been doing, but also a primer on his particular theory of why we age, which is very similar to Josh Mitteldorf’s (author of Cracking the Aging Code, listed below), that aging is triggered by signaling molecules in the blood, rather than simply by damage accumulation over time. Given the success of his research, he may just be on to something.

As a side note, I’ve personally started using Katcher’s Neel Gel, based on some of his research into copper peptide delivery methods, and I’ll report back on the results in a later article on skin aging!

The Illusion of Knowledge

$18.24

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11. True Age: Cutting-Edge Research to Help Turn Back the Clock by Morgan Levine PhD

true age biological age book

Price: $14.75
Number of Goodreads Ratings: 80
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.6
Longevity topic covered: General longevity science and research, theories of aging
Publication date: 2023

A giant in the field of biological age testing, Levine is the eponymous creator of Levine’s Phenotypic Age Clock, a biological age clock which is based on a study she did to identify aging biomarkers. While biological age tests using DNA methylation can cost as much as $400, her simple, blood-based clock can be done for $75 or less using common blood tests that you can order at your annual doctor’s visit (a process we detailed in our deep-dive into aging biomarkers).

With such a pedigree, her book is a must-read for spanners who want a deeper understanding of how to measure, and reverse, their biological age. While the meat of the book is in the what, how, and why of measuring biological vs. chronological age, Levine also manages to touch on foundational strategies for slowing and reversing biological age, including fasting, diet types, exercise, and sleep strategies.

True Age

$14.75 $18.00 18% Off

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12. Juvenescence: Investing in the Age of Longevity by Jim Mellon and Al Chalabi 

juvenescence longevity book cover

Price: $9.99
Number of Goodreads Ratings: 45
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.8
Longevity topic covered: Longevity market and businesses, personal longevity recommendations
Publication date: 2017

This one is a little older (published in 2017), and different than the other longevity books on this list, but I’ve included it since it’s still the best book-form overview of the many companies and individuals involved in the longevity industry right now.

Jim Mellon’s name may be familiar to you if you’ve been following the life extension space for a while, and it’s because the British billionaire has himself co-founded a longevity-focused biotech company named, aptly, Juvenescence, and invested in others like AgeX Therapeutics. He’s also donated to Aubrey de Grey’s SENS Research Foundation, the Institute of Healthy Ageing at UCL, and the Methuselah Foundation.

In addition to the requisite introduction to current (in 2017) anti-aging findings and strategies, and recommendations around diet, exercise, and preventive screenings, the bulk of this book is an overview of over 60 different biotech and life sciences companies active in the human life extension space. From BioViva to Calico to Elysium, and scores more besides, Mellon and co-author Al Chalabi, through actual interviews with founders and on-site visits, paint a picture of the longevity industry as a whole.

While this book can be read for its investment and/or its life extension recommendations, it’s probably better used today for longevity enthusiasts as a primer and overview of the longevity market and the many (many) different approaches currently being tested to extend human life.

Juvenescence

$9.99 $16.49 39% Off

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13. Cracking the Aging Code: The New Science of Growing Old – And What It Means for Staying Young by Josh Mitteldorf PhD and Dorion Sagan

cracking the aging code anti aging book cover

Price: $9.99
Number of Goodreads Ratings: 175
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.8
Longevity topic covered: General longevity science and research, theories of aging
Publication date: 2016

This 2016 aging book by theoretical-biologist Josh Mitteldorf and co-author Dorion Sagan (son of Carl Sagan) has new relevance for life extension after the pre-publication, in May 2020, of a paper whose results seem to vindicate at least a portion of Mitteldorf’s theory of aging.

The paper, “Reversing age: dual species measurement of epigenetic age with a single clock” is the result of a study run by Steve Horvath (of Horvath’s Clock fame) and the above-mentioned Harold Katcher that used injections of a young blood plasma fraction in rats to reduce the measured epigenetic age of rats by 54%.

Mitteldorf may already be familiar to you—if you’ve been following the longevity space for any period of time—for his writing on his top life-extension blog called “Aging Matters” and his talks at several longevity conferences. In his book, as on the blog, he makes the case for his theory that aging is not, primarily, a result of accumulated damage, inflammation, or any of the other commonly proposed mechanisms of age-related decay, but rather something that is programmed into our cells through a genetic “clock” and transmitted throughout the body by molecular signaling mechanisms in the blood.

He argues, using evolutionary theory, that the body retains the “knowledge” of how to be young, even as its aging clock coordinates the slow shut down of cells and eventual death. The rat blood plasma study mentioned above is thus an interesting possible indication that this theory is correct, as a young blood plasma fraction seems able to “reset” the aging clock and activate youthful genes and pathways that appear to reverse the measured epigenetic age of rats.

Cracking the Aging Code

$9.99 $16.99 41% Off

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14. Life Force: How New Breakthroughs in Precision Medicine Can Transform the Quality of Your Life & Those You Love by Tony Robbins, Peter H. Diamandis, and Robert Hariri

life force tony robbins longevity book

Price: $15.82
Number of Goodreads Ratings: 1,888
Average Goodreads Rating: 4.05
Longevity topic covered: General longevity science and research, personal longevity recommendations
Publication date: 2022

For readers wanting a more accessible, conversational introduction to longevity science,  well-known self-help guru Tony Robbins’s new book, published with the aid of famous futurist (and X-Prize founder) Peter Diamandis and neurosurgeon Robert Hariri, is worth a look.

Robbins has teamed with a veritable who’s-who of life extension researchers to make sure the interventions he discusses are scientifically sound. With an advisory board including heavy-weight longevity influencers and scientists like David Sinclair, Rhonda Patrick, and George Church, it’s clear Robbins has done his homework on the longevity space.

True to his brand, Life Force offers a more actionable longevity plan than many books on this list, covering specific tests, medicines, supplements, and routines, in addition to a more general overview of anti-aging science. 

Potentially worrisome is that the book is also paired with a new company of his offering a comprehensive longevity blood test, along with checkups, supplements, and consultations. That said, none of the strategies discussed in the book require buying anything from the Life Force company.

Life Force

$15.82 $32.50 51% Off

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15. Ageless: The New Science of Getting Older Without Getting Old by Andrew Steele, PhD

ageless top anti aging book

Price: $13.50
Number of Goodreads Ratings: 1,124
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.8
Longevity topic covered: General longevity science and research, theories of aging
Publication date: 2021

Ageless has been doing fantastic work to help bring the idea of radical human life extension into the public view. With glowing reviews from major mainstream publications like The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, and The Guardian, Steele has managed to grab the attention of the media gatekeepers.

Steele has a background in biology research, having studied lifespan in roundworms and used machine learning to analyze genetics in humans, but his current career is as a science writer.

His book itself reads like an updated version of Aubrey de Grey’s Ending Aging, making similar arguments, but with the advantage of being able to draw on the intervening 14 years of additional scientific breakthroughs in anti-aging research to state his optimistic case. And optimistic Steele is: he thinks the first real anti-aging drugs that are marketed as such (possibly senolytics) could come within the next ten years.

Ageless

$13.50 $29.00 53% Off

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Honorable mentions for top life extension books

With all the hundreds and thousands of top longevity books out there, in culling this list down to a manageable size it was inevitable I’d have to leave out some good, even foundational texts. Those that I think are worth mention but that were, for various reasons, not included (not written within the last five years, superseded by newer science, too recent to have enough reviews, or duplicative of books already in the list) I’ve added here so you can check them out:

And just for fun: A bonus life extension novel and free download

  • The Golden Age by John C. Wright: In a post-singularity future where life extension technology has made every human effectively immortal, the theft of a portion of his memories sends Phaethon on a quest throughout the transformed solar system.
  • 5 Science-Based Tests to Measure Your Vitality At Home by J.P. Medved and Rachel Burger: If you’re feeling a little crunched for time, check out Longevity Advice’s own 100% free ebook on how to test your youthfulness without leaving your house. The science behind the tests is peer-reviewed and you might be surprised by what you find. 

Any other top longevity books for 2024?

Which of your favorites did we miss? What do you recommend and why? 

Shout out your favorites in the comments so that we can consider them for inclusion in our regular update of this piece. 

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