David Sinclair’s Longevity and Biohacking Routine

Professor David Sinclair is a Professor at Harvard University studying aging. 

His research focuses on epigenetic changes during aging – one of the 12 mechanisms of aging – and the sirtuin-NAD metabolism, including NAD-boosters like NMN. 

Note: Dr. David Sinclair is not affiliated with NOVOS. NOVOS has a diverse lineup of esteemed longevity scientists on its team, including revered scientists like Harvard Medical School and MIT professor, Dr. George Church, David Sinclair’s former MIT labmate, Dr. Matt Kaeberlein, and multiple others.

David Sinclair is well known for promoting the concept of the “Information Theory of Aging,” which refers to how epigenetic changes cause the cells to lose information and their identity, contributing to the aging process. 

We explain more about the role of the epigenome in aging here. 

He is well known in the field of aging and wrote a bestselling book called Lifespan: Why We Age — And Why We Don’t Have To. (You can find more great books about longevity and health here.) 

Professor David Sinclair does not promote or endorse any supplement products. We compiled this list from interviews and books in which Professor David Sinclair mentions supplements he takes. We don’t know if he still takes these supplements, or whether he takes additional supplements, that are not included on this list.

For example, in his book Lifespan, he mentions on page 304 that he takes NMN and resveratrol every morning, often mixed in his yogurt. 

Based on multiple interviews and his book, Dr. David Sinclair’s health routine probably looks as follows:

1. Nutrition

• A healthy, mainly plant-based diet, consisting of vegetables, mushrooms, pulses, whole grains, white meat, and fish. This diet has a lot in common with the longevity diet we describe here.  As stated in Lifespan, “I eat a lot of plants and try to avoid eating other mammals […] If I work out, I will eat meat.”

• He consumes a self-made probiotic yogurt, adding two spoons of probiotics in the morning. He also adds supplements like NMN and resveratrol to his yogurt (see further on).

• He avoids sugary drinks and sugary foods. 

• He recommends eating less food. David Sinclair often consumes only one to two meals per day. As stated in Lifespan, Dr. Sinclair states, “I try to skip one meal a day or at least make it really small. My busy schedule almost always means that I miss lunch most days of the week.”

• He practices intermittent fasting: fasting 16 hours and eating within a timeframe of eight hours. Sinclair believes we should feel much more “hungry.” We wrote more about the best way to fast here.

• He drinks little to no alcohol. 

2. Supplements

• Nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN): 1 x 1 gram per day, in the morning. We wrote more about NMN here. Dr. Sinclair declares that he takes “NMN every morning” in his book, Lifespan.

• Resveratrol: 1 gram per day, in the morning. Dr. Sinclair states that he takes resveratrol in his book Lifespan: “1 gram of resveratrol (shaken into my homemade yogurt).”

• Vitamin D3. In his book, Lifespan, Dr. Sinclair declares “I take a daily dose of Vitamin D,” but does not declare what dosage he uses.

• Vitamin K2. In Lifespan, Dr. Sinclair states that he consumes vitamin K2, but does not provide dosage, or specify the form (i.e., whether or not it is MK-7).

• Alpha lipoic acid (ALA). In a 2021 interview with Dave Asprey of The Human Upgrade with Dave Asprey, Dr. Sinclair states in an episode titled “How Harvard Researcher David Sinclair (and Dave Asprey) Manage COVID-19 Risk,” “His family let me in on a little secret, which was that Denham had been taking alpha lipoic acid for years, most of his life. Denham worked until his early 90s. I figured, well, if it didn’t hurt him….”

• Coenzyme Q10. Dr. Sinclair stated in a 2020 tweet that he takes CoQ10 every night, but doesn’t specify dosage.

We agree with many of these supplements he takes but also urge caution for some other ones. 

For an in-depth analysis and constructive critique of the supplements David Sinclair takes, refer to this article. 

3. Drugs

• Metformin: 2 x 500 mg per day, in the morning and in the evening.
  
  Dr. Sinclair states that he takes 1 gram of metformin in his book, Lifespan: “I take […] 1 gram of metformin,” but more recently states that his dosage is 800 mg, in episode 3 of his former podcast, Lifespan.

• Statin: he takes a statin daily since his twenties due to a family history of cardiovascular disease.
  
  On episode #1349 of “The Joe Rogan Experience,” Dr. Sinclair mentioned that he has high cholesterol and believes taking statins is worth it for him, despite the controversy surrounding them. He noted that at the age of twenty-nine, his cholesterol levels were exceptionally high, resembling cream more than blood. Sinclair highlighted the importance of diet in managing cholesterol, mentioning his own experience with dietary changes and weight loss.

• Low-dose aspirin: 1 x 83 mg per day. Dr. Sinclair states in Lifespan, “I take a daily dose of […] 83 mg of aspirin.”

We discuss the drugs David Sinclair takes here.

4. Tests

• Dr. Sinclair measures blood-based biomarkers, like cholesterol, LDL, HDL, triglycerides, HbA1c, us-CRP, and so on. As Dr. Sinclair states, “Every few months, a phlebotomist comes to my home to draw my blood, which I have analyzed for dozens of biomarkers”

We discuss the best blood tests here. 

5. Tech

• Freestyle Libre: to track glucose levels. This allows him to see which foods cause high sugar peaks, which can increase insulin resistance and accelerate aging. 

We discuss Continuous Glucose Monitors as a tool for longevity here.

6. Lifestyle

• Regular exercise, including weight lifting. We cover the different forms of exercise and their relation to longevity here.
  
  As he states in Lifespan, “I try to take a lot of steps each day and walk upstairs, and I go to the gym most weekends with my son, Ben; we lift weights, jog a bit, and hang out in the sauna before dunking in an ice-cold pool.”

• Cold therapies, as stated above.

• Regular meditation. We wrote the best tips for relaxation and happiness here.

Conclusion

At 54 years old, David Sinclair claims he has the blood profile of someone who is 20 years younger.

He may have taken epigenetic tests to determine his biological age, but to our knowledge, if he has, he has not yet publicly talked about his results.

Of course, looking younger for your age can be because you have “good genes.” However, it is predominantly due to lifestyle.

In fact, 10% of your rate of aging and lifespan is determined by genetics, the other 90% is lifestyle (R).

The only exception are centenarians; these are people who live to at least 100 years old. For centenarians, we see an important genetic component. That’s why some centenarians can surpass 100 years old despite smoking and eating hamburgers — something we would not recommend the rest of us doing!

We often see that people who look considerably younger for their age have the following things in common:

• They only eat two meals or less per day. Every meal you consume creates lots of inflammation, oxidation, glycation, and lipotoxicity, while the body tries to process all these nutrients, toxins, and phytochemicals entering the bloodstream and cells. 

• They exercise regularly, often at low intensity. So instead of going to the gym for two hours twice a week and working out like crazy, it’s better to exercise for 20 minutes every day, doing low to moderate exercises. This can just be a brisk walk. 

• They drink little or no alcohol. Alcohol can be toxic and very taxing for the body. 

• They have a positive mindset (learn more about positive thinking and happiness here). 

• They eat little meat. 

We compiled a whole list of things you can do to live longer here. 

Note: Dr. David Sinclair is not affiliated with NOVOS.