Barbara Waxman MS, MPA, PCC

06/26/2026

We've all met them. The 80, 90 year-olds rolling their own suitcases through the airport, traveling solo, living fully on their own terms. We tend to call them rare birds.
They don't have to be rare.
In my conversation with Neil Rerup on The Transitions Network, I talked about something the research makes clear: the wear and tear theory of aging is real. Time on this planet takes its toll on our bodies. But here's what often gets missed. When we use lifestyle as medicine, preemptively, we change what those later years look like. We can stay undiminished.
The shift starts in midlife, and it is never too late to begin. Put the right lifestyle in place now, and the years ahead become the ones where you collect your trophy. Not diminished. Not declining by default. Living.
It is possible. And it is within reach for far more of us than we've been led to believe.
🎧 The full conversation is live on The Transitions Network with Neil Rerup.

06/20/2026

AI (Artificial Intelligence) knows almost everything, but don't fall into the trap of thinking it knows you.

That's the mistake being made again and again, and it is the difference between using AI as a handy tool and using AI as the most capable ally you've ever had. Want to know how? Skip ahead and download the Study of One© Guide for AI.

You know the moment. A symptom you don't know what to do about. A number on a lab report that wasn't there last year. A sense that you aren't thriving. Every day, 40 million people bring health and wellbeing questions like this to AI, and research shows that most don't get the answer they need. That is what this newsletter is here to change.

Used well, AI is the most capable Study of One ally you've ever had.

Being a Study of One means moving beyond generic health advice, leaning on your data, and deeply knowing yourself to yield a bespoke, specific plan of action. Give it the full picture, and it holds the whole of what you're building: a strong, healthy body, and the elements that build a flourishing life in the long run.
But an ally is only as useful as the time, care, and attention you give it. AI has extraordinary capability if you understand how to share your baseline and what matters most: the life you're building and why.

That is your Study of One ally in practice. You arrive knowing yourself well enough to create AI prompts so that the answers actually mean something. You're no longer asking AI to think for you, or to hand you a protocol built for the general population. You're asking it to think with you, to design a life of your choosing based on the reality of your baseline.

Imagine sitting down with your Study of One ally and beginning a session by saying:

I'm 57. My blood pressure has been creeping up, and my sleep has been inconsistent for the past few months. I want to keep traveling, stay strong, and feel like myself well into my 70s. I've uploaded my most recent lab results, family history, and my doctor's visit notes. I'd like to start a conversation with you about my health and wellbeing, which I intend to carry on over time. Help me understand what these results might tell me and prepare for a more informed, productive conversation with my physician at my next appointment.

The context you brought to AI is what makes this powerful. Because the question is not whether AI can help you live longer. It's about knowing what you're living for and communicating that in ways that help this Study of One partner design a plan.
AI can organize the information. Only you can supply the meaning. That deeper work, designing a life of purpose, remains profoundly yours.

This is exactly the kind of work we do together at my Designing Longevity workshop in August at MEA:
https://www.meawisdom.com/workshop/longevity-by-design-august-2026/

MEA Foundations

06/18/2026

A new Edelman Longevity Lab report features Middlescence, the life stage I've spent years popularizing, and cites my Middlescence Manifesto.

Here's the finding that stops people: at 55, you may have 50 more years ahead of you. That's longer than a Millennial has been an adult.

Most of the longevity conversation treats those years as something to manage. I ask a different question. What if they're the years you design with the most intention you've ever brought to anything?

That's the difference between fighting aging and building toward something. The adults midlife and better I work with aren't running out of road. They're standing at the start of their most deliberate decades.

Tell me: what would you design if you knew you had fifty years ahead?

Explore Edelman’s 100-Year Life Report to see how longevity and the 55+ consumer are reshaping markets, culture, and brand growth.

05/30/2026

Americans are drinking less than at any point since 1939.

Gallup's latest data shows that only 54% of Americans now consume alcohol, the third consecutive year of decline. For the first time, a majority of Americans (53%) believe even moderate drinking is bad for health. Among young adults, that number jumps to 66%.

This is a cultural shift worth paying attention to. And it's a perfect moment to talk about something I teach in Designing Longevity at MEA that too few people understand: the difference between relative risk and absolute risk.

Relative risk tells you how much something changes the odds; absolute risk tells you what those odds actually are. Say a study finds that drinking a glass of wine a night raises your risk of a certain cancer by 40%. That sounds like quitting drinking is imperative, until you learn the baseline risk was 1 in 100, and now it's 1.4 in 100. Same 40%, very different story, given an understanding of the relative risk.

Why does this matter? Because for decades, headlines told us moderate drinking was "protective." That claim was based on relative risk comparisons that obscured a much simpler truth: the absolute risk of harm from alcohol, even in small amounts, was never zero.

Now the science has caught up. Higher-quality, more diverse datasets are making the picture clearer. And Americans are responding, not with panic, but with agency. Women and young adults are leading the shift. Even among those who still drink, weekly consumption has dropped to its lowest level since 1996.
This is what designing your longevity looks like in practice. Not perfection. Not deprivation. Understanding the data well enough to make choices that actually serve your life, not someone else's headlines.

Being a Study of One© means learning to read the research through the lens of your body, your life, and your longevity plan. Relative risk makes for compelling headlines. Absolute risk makes for better decisions.

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/us-alcohol-consumption-falls-to-85-year-low-driven-by-desire-for-better-health/

Gallop reported in August that since it began tracking the US drinking rate in 1939, it has never been lower than in 2025.

05/28/2026

How can you determine whether you are likely to be frail when you are older or even whether you might be on the road to frailty now?

I was surprised to learn that about 11% of people in their 50s already qualify as frail. By age 90 and above, that number rises to 51% –but it doesn’t have to.

Think about those two data points for a moment. They roughly correspond to two life stages I've spent my career studying and naming: Middlescence (the developmental stage from roughly 45 to 65) and the Trophy Years™ (the later decades most people are told to dread).

The article does something important: it tells you that frailty is preventable and that now is the best time to keep it in mind and design your plan.

Here is where I'd push the conversation further.

The article frames the goal as avoiding frailty. That keeps us in a scarcity mindset, organized around what we're trying to prevent rather than what we're designing toward.

What if the question wasn't "how do I avoid becoming frail?" but "how do I design a life where vitality is the throughline?"
Those are not the same question. And they lead to very different daily choices.

One practical starting point the research supports: grip strength. It is one of the most reliable indicators of overall vitality and a predictor of longevity. You don't need a lab. You need a hand dynamometer or even just awareness of whether opening jars, carrying groceries, or getting up from the floor is getting harder. That's data.

Strength training and adequate protein aren't just about muscle. They're about maintaining the physical foundation that keeps every other dimension of your life accessible: your movement, your independence, your ability to show up for the people and purposes that matter to you.

This is one of the Seven Lifestyle Levers™ I work with, and it's the one that quietly underlies all the others. Movement is the lever that keeps every other lever functioning.

Frailty is not a destination. It's a trajectory you can redirect, starting now, in your Middlescence, for the sake of your Trophy Years™.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/11/well/frailty-aging.html

Nearly half of older adults are at risk.

05/23/2026

This month, Chip Conley and the Modern Elder Academy hit a milestone: 100 episodes of the Midlife Chrysalis podcast, with nearly 2 million downloads.

Chip released his personal top 20 episodes to mark the occasion, and I'm grateful to be on that list alongside people I deeply admire. He also noted something that stopped me for a moment: that I'm MEA's longest-serving guest faculty member.

That distinction means a great deal to me. MEA has been a home for the work I care most about, helping adults live life a better, design lives that aren't just longer, but richer, more purposeful, and fully lived.

Our episode covers Middlescence, the role of mindset in longevity, lifestyle medicine, and why the question isn't how long you'll live, but why you want to live that long. It's one of the most listened-to episodes of the show, and I think the conversation holds up.

If you haven't heard it yet, I'd love for you to listen in. And when you do, tell me: what landed for you? I'm always curious what resonates most.

https://www.meawisdom.com/podcast/barbara-waxman-how-to-flourish-and-find-purpose-in-midlife/

05/22/2026

Do you know the #1 predictor of successful aging? It's not genetics, exercise, or supplements.

Yale researchers followed 11,000+ adults over 12 years. The strongest predictor of improved cognitive and physical function is your beliefs about aging.

And your relationships. Harvard's longest-running study on human development, spanning 85+ years, found one factor matters most: the quality of your relationships predicts both how long and how well you live.

Your mindset. Your relationships. These aren't soft variables. They're biological ones.

Are you ready to design your longevity? Join me and at this June in Santa Fe for the Designing Longevity workshop. Link in bio.

05/07/2026

Monday was one of those days that remind you why this work matters.

I had the privilege of speaking at Healthy Aging 2026, a full-day conference hosted by The Longevity Project and Stanford Lifestyle Medicine. The theme: Aging with Purpose, Power, and Play.

I joined a panel on "The Role of Connection, Attitudes, and Mindset in Healthy Aging" with JoAnne Moore of Corebridge Financial and Ken Stern of The Longevity Project as moderator. We talked about something I come back to again and again in my work: that the way you think about aging, the relationships you invest in, and the mindset you bring to this chapter of life are not peripheral concerns. They are central to your health and longevity. The research is clear on this.

The day spanned everything from the physiology of staying strong across the lifespan (Dr. Stacy Sims was remarkable) to the science of play and joy in later life (Kerry Burnight and Mia Sundstrom brought energy and evidence in equal measure). Alia Crum's session on mindsets and how they make us strong was a standout.

What I took away, and what I hope everyone in the room felt too: longevity is not just about living longer. It is about designing a life that makes the years ahead worth having. That is what I call Longevity by Design, and it is the foundation of everything I do through my Longevity Lifeplan.

If you're thinking about what it means to live well in midlife and better, I'd love to hear what's on your mind.


Stanford Lifestyle Medicine

02/02/2026

As some of us wrap up Dry (or Damp) January and rethink our relationship with alcohol, here's something worth knowing:
If all American adults limited themselves to less than one drink per day, we could prevent an estimated 17,000 alcohol-related cancer deaths, according to H.H.S. research.

Simple, clear advice that empowers informed choices. How will you integrate this information to create your own sustainable protocol?🥂

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/16/health/alcohol-men-women.html

Federal officials working on the new dietary guidelines had considered limiting men to one drink daily. The final advice was only that everyone should drink less.

01/14/2026

We often talk about relationships as “nice to have.”

The science indicates something different. They are essential elements of your longevity.

A recent study found slower epigenetic aging and lower levels of chronic inflammation among those with strong relationships.

Connection wasn’t just associated with feeling better.

It was associated with slower cellular aging.

This matters because it challenges a narrow view of longevity that focuses almost exclusively on individual behaviors and biological optimization. Diet, movement, sleep, and biomarkers matter, but they don’t operate in a vacuum.

Our relationships shape our physiology.

This is one of the reasons I talk about the Thirdspan of longevity. Beyond lifespan (how long we live) and healthspan (how well our bodies function), there’s a third dimension that profoundly influences both: connection, purpose, meaning, and how fully we inhabit our lives.

Longevity isn’t only built in the gym or in the lab.

It’s built in conversations, community, belonging, and the feeling that you matter to someone else.

The question worth asking isn’t just What am I doing to live longer?

It’s also: Who am I doing life with—and how nourishing are those connections?

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666354625001541?ref=pdf_download&fr=RR-2&rr=9bde4ab918eec4c6