Media mogul Strauss Zelnick spends his days hyper-focused on making the most creative, innovative, best video games in the world.
As the CEO and Chairman of video game-maker Take-Two Interactive, he’s readying to release Grand Theft Auto 6 next month.
At home though, he doesn’t play games. He prefers to spend his time working out and staying healthy for a long time.
At Business Insider’s “The Long Play” event on Thursday, Zelnick said his formula for healthy aging is both simple and effective.
While he calls biohacker Bryan Johnson, the man behind the “Don’t Die” movement, a friend, he said trying to live forever is a pretty silly strategy.
“There’s almost no evidence that anything anyone is doing will increase your lifespan,” he told Business Insider’s Senior Leadership & Workplace Correspondent, Sarah Needleman. “How many of us really want to increase our lifespan from like 96 to 101? Look, that is not on my bucket list, thank you very much.”
Instead, Zelnick, who wrote a book on “Becoming Ageless” in 2018, focuses on the same core behaviors for “taking care of yourself” that longevity experts around the world swear by for maintaining health and happiness for the long haul.
1: Do not smoke
“Smoking is the factor most highly correlated with a short, unhealthy, and frankly, unhappy life,” Zelnick said. “Don’t smoke.”
2: Don’t abuse alcohol and drugs
These lead to “a bad old age, or no old age,” he said.
3: Get some exercise
Zelnick said: “You don’t have to do what I do,” with 6 a.m. wakeup calls for group training sessions, or twice-a-day workouts.
“I do what I do because I love it, it’s my passion,” he said. “If you walk 30 minutes a day, four or five days a week — just walk — you’re like 80% of the way there.”
4: Eat a “responsible” diet
Zelnick says he doesn’t have an “insanely healthy diet,” but he tries to maintain some balance. “I eat a lot of vegetables and salads and protein — I also like sweets, and I do eat carbs.”
5: Sleep at least 7 hours a day
Zelnick says he treats this as a non-negotiable for his business.
“If you’re getting less than six hours, you’re making bad decisions,” he said.
6: Have “some kind of emotional or spiritual life”
Longevity experts stress this is key for mental health, and establishing a sense of purpose in the world.
7: Find community
Zelnick said it’s critical to get support from “people who love you.”
8: Skip overhyped health hacks
Zelnick says don’t waste your time with all the overhyped, unproven health hacks.
“All the other stuff, like, peptides? A: No,” he said. “We have an FDA for a reason. Don’t take something that is not double-blind tested.”
And, he said, be careful with some of the internet’s most famous longevity gurus. He name-checked controversial Harvard professor David Sinclair, who has made bold promises about the anti-aging effects of unproven supplements, including resveratrol, a plant polyphenol found in grapes and red wine, and NMN, which is a precursor to NAD, the vital coenzyme that’s in every cell of our body.
“A medical doctor actually is a degree: M-D, an MD degree,” Zelnick said. “Not a David Sinclair degree, he is not actually a doctor.”
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