A 2026 study from Harvard, analyzing 30 years of data from 100K+ Americans, found that diversifying your movement may have a big impact on your lifespan. The researchers found that people that did the highest variety of exercise––whether walking, gardening or weightlifting––had a 19% lower risk of premature death compared to those who engaged in the lowest variety, even when total physical activity was held constant. The findings add a new dimension to the well-established link between exercise and longevity.
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A large observational study (2025) from Australia’s Monash University, spanning a decade and involving over 10,000 people over 70, found that people who listened to music most days slashed their risk of developing dementia by 39% compared with those who did not. The regular music-listeners also had a decreased risk of experiencing general cognitive decline and performed consistently better on memory tasks and cognitive function tests. Playing a musical instrument was also linked to a 35% reduction in dementia risk.
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Obesity has boomed in industrialized nations over the last century, and a common explanation is that we’ve become more sedentary, so we burn fewer calories. But a major new study (2025) finds that this is not the case. Global researchers compared the daily total calorie burn for people from 34 different countries and cultures around the world––from hunter-gatherers and farming populations with low obesity rates, to people in sedentary jobs in Western countries, where obesity is widespread––and found that, surprisingly, the total calories burned per day is really similar across these populations, even though their activity levels are extremely different. The findings have big implications for obesity. If differences in calorie burn can’t explain why some countries have higher obesity rates than others, then it must be diet. The big question becomes, what is it about the diet? The researchers argue that the public health message should focus on changing what’s on our plates.
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A large, long-term study from the Mayo Clinic, tracking 2,750 adults (aged 50 and over) for an average of five and a half years, found that chronic insomnia leads to changes in the brain that result in a much faster decline in memory and thinking. Chronic insomniacs were 40% more likely to develop cognitive impairment or dementia over the study period than people that got good sleep. Participants underwent brain scans each year that measured two markers of future cognitive trouble: the buildup of amyloid plaques, and spots of damage in the brain’s white matter.
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A 2025 study from Vanderbilt University Medical Center (on 85,000 predominantly Black and low-income participants) found that just 15 minutes of brisk walking daily were linked with a nearly 20% reduction in mortality. The positive effects of walking have been endlessly documented, but this research revealed that walking quickly delivers health benefits in a very short timeframe. Slow walking for more than three hours daily was associated with only a 4% reduction in mortality. Fast walking reduced premature death from all causes but was particularly effective at reducing deaths from cardiovascular disease.
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Nightmares Linked to Rapid Biological Aging and Early Death
A 2025 study from Imperial College London, analyzing 183,000 adults and 2,400 children, found that those who had bad dreams once a week or more had shorter telomeres, associated with faster cellular aging. They also found that those who experienced regular nightmares were three times more likely to die before the age of 70 compared with those who did not––concluding that nightmare frequency may be a stronger predictor of premature death than smoking, obesity, poor diet or lack of physical activity. The researchers note that the release of the stress hormone cortisol during bad dreams, and the disruption of restful sleep which upsets the body’s overnight cellular repair processes, could play roles in the accelerated biological aging. But the researchers note that future studies are needed to determine whether treating nightmares could actually slow biological aging and reduce mortality risk in the general population.
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