The health secret all the big biohackers and maxxers miss its totally free and backed by science

While biohackers are “optimizing” and Bryan Johnson is turning his life into one giant longevity experiment, regular people are left wondering how rigid their routines really need to be for better health and well-being.And in all the health “maxxing,” supplement stacks and high-tech devices, something crucial may be being forgotten. Ultimately, one of the most proven drivers of longevity is free, backed by science — and something you likely want to do. Dr.Eric Verdin, president and CEO of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, worries there’s too much focus on supplements, cold plunges, red-light panels and continuous monitoring.But there is no need to spend your hard-earned cash making life feel less enjoyable.Instead, he stresses, people should be focusing on sleep, movement, nutrition, stress reduction — and human connection. That’s because the simplest key to health may just be fun, friends and simply enjoying yourself.“You can’t buy it, track it on a wearable, or optimize it into a protocol — so the longevity-as-engineering crowd tends to skip past it, but the biology is real,” he told The Post.

“Loneliness and isolation drive chronic stress, and chronic stress drives inflammation, which is one of the core mechanisms of aging.”The data is legit — and the cost of not engaging socially is sobering. Those who feel they belong to a community are 2.6 times more likely to report good or excellent health than those without.Loneliness literally increases the risk of premature death by over a quarter, with a 2015 analysis of more than 3.4 million people finding that people who reported being lonely had a 26% higher likelihood of mortality.Another study from BYU found that social relationships improve your odds of survival by 50%.A lack of social connection may be as harmful to longevity as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day — and is more harmful than obesity.There are a few things at play.

For one, people with a social network may...