Longevity Is Born in the Mind: Adopting a Longevity Mindset with Nick Engerer

Turns out, in longevity, it also all starts with why. Nick Engerer shares how a strong sense of purpose, mindset, and belief can shape a healthier, longer life. Learn more about his framework for building lasting wellbeing—and how it all begins with believing you deserve it.

Nick, it’s great to catch up after four years! How has your longevity journey evolved—personally and professionally—since our last interview?

I’ve actually made a big pivot in my life since the last time I spoke with GlycanAge. In fact, I’ve come from making longevity technology exploration a hobby into my main line of business. I was working in the solar energy field, where I did my PhD, undergrad, and master’s research. I had the opportunity to sell the business I’d built, and closed that chapter at the end of 2022.

From the start of 2023, there was this big question for me of “What do I want to do next?” And when I spent some time thinking about that, the answer was actually pretty clear: I wanted to go fully into this longevity space as my next area of professional exploration. So, I took my longevity blog that I was running and I’ve turned it into A Longer Life, which is the new brand—the new name of my adventuring through longevity—with a view of helping people change their mindset about what’s possible for their health’s future, as well as to guide them through this longevity journey.

The latter part is really important, because people may feel excited about living longer, but knowing how to begin isn’t easy. So I’ve pivoted into running A Longer Life to fulfill that role: change people’s mindset about what’s possible for aging healthfully, and guide them along the way. And I think the most important part of that is starting off with what I call a “longevity mindset” and implementing that in our life.

That sounds amazing—it really seems like you’ve come a long way in this journey. What were the first steps that led to A Longer Life, and how did it all begin to take shape?

My move into full-time work in the longevity space started in 2023, and one of the first things I did was take some of the proceeds from selling my business to back a project—a longevity docuseries called Reversed: The Race for Longevity, which we filmed in Costa Rica at the beginning of 2024. GlycanAge participated in the project as a sponsor, and we worked together to bring it to life.

The main goal behind the series was to make the conversation around living healthfully for longer more open and accessible. I wanted to show that everyday people can go on this journey and see real improvements in their health. That’s where I think the longevity movement is right now—helping get the message right so more people understand this is something they can truly take advantage of.

That’s exactly what I’m doing with A Longer Life. One key realization I try to share is that we don’t have to get weak and sick as we age. Many people believe in genetic destiny—that we’ll age based on having “good” or “bad” genes—but that’s not the case.

By maximizing longevity lifestyle factors—eating well, moving regularly, supporting mental health, sleeping well, and living in a healthy environment—we can add 5 to 10 years of healthy life. And it’s not just about living longer—it’s about living the second half of life in good health. I find real purpose in shifting that narrative, because we can reduce sickness, late-life disease, and even serious conditions like cancer, simply by helping people realize they can change their health’s future.

Was there a particular thing that inspired you to go all-in on longevity—or a turning point that made you want to take on projects like A Longer Life?

For me, what changed my life was my previous relationship. When my son was born, his mother was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. This was back in 2013. She underwent a major surgery—and again in 2017. Thankfully, because of modern medical technologies, she’s alive and well, and my son has a healthy mother in his life.

That experience really shaped how I see things. It made me start asking: why are late-stage disease diagnoses still so common? Around that time, while I was writing my longevity blog, Chadwick Boseman passed away from colon cancer in his late 30s. As you can imagine, he had access to every possible resource, but what he needed was to catch it a year earlier. 

Stories like that are far too common. And even back then, we already had the technology to detect most cancers and chronic diseases at early, treatable stages. And now, those tools are even better—yet late-stage diagnoses are still everywhere.
The problem is, people don’t know what’s possible, so they’re not demanding it. That’s why I believe getting this information out there is so important. If people realize they can access these technologies, they’ll start asking for them. And that’s what drives change.

That’s how I found myself joining the longevity movement. At first, it was about preventing illness and early death. But the deeper I went, the more I saw that it’s not just about detection—it’s also about learning how to live better and healthier for longer.

That realization was the turning point. I wanted to help share what’s possible. And the more I connected with scientists, technologists, and entrepreneurs in this space, the more inspired I became. Every day, I’m learning something new—and the pace of innovation is incredible.

While listening to your story, it really struck me how strong your “why” was for getting into longevity—and how naturally that connects back to mindset. You’ve also placed ‘longevity mindset’ as the very first step in your program. Why do you think developing that is so important as a starting point?

I’ve had my own madman moment trying to build A Longer Life—figuring out how to transition from just blogging about longevity to something that could actually help people. I had these sliding doors behind me covered in papers and post-it notes, trying to work out how to tell the story, how to make it simple and accessible. That’s where the four-part framework emerged.

The first step is developing a longevity mindset. Then comes creating a longevity strategy. After that, adopting the key lifestyle factors—good nutrition, fitness, stress management, mental health, sleep, and environment. And finally, longevity technologies you can begin to leverage.

Most people get excited and start at the end—taking supplements or testing their biological age. Testing is great but before all that, you need to go back to the beginning. You need to develop the longevity mindset. Once you understand what’s possible and take ownership of your health’s future—realizing the decisions you make now can add 5 to 10 years of healthy life—you begin to see the world differently.
Because longevity isn’t something we do for a few weeks or months and then stop. Longevity is a mindset. It’s something we carry with us for decades. It’s not something we simply accomplish. That’s why it requires a fundamental shift in belief.

Only then does it make sense to build your strategy, shift your lifestyle, and—if you choose—invest in the fancy stuff. And when you do, you’ll know exactly where to start, because you’ll know what your vulnerabilities are. That’s why the framework exists. And why it always begins with mindset.

For someone hearing this idea for the first time, what would you say are the key beliefs or perceptions that make up a longevity mindset?

Well, I'd start by saying—this is a lot to take in, and that’s why I created a free online course on my website to help people work through it.

What we’re really trying to do is shift our mindset—specifically, to adopt a growth mindset. There’s some wonderful work done by Carol Dweck, who introduced the concept of a growth mindset and compared it to a fixed mindset. A fixed mindset believes that your skills can’t change—you are who you are, hard work’s not going to get you anywhere, don’t take risks. Whereas a growth mindset says if I put in the hard work, I can change my mind, I can learn new skills. If I go to a place that might scare me a little, I can grow, I can adapt, I can learn.

What we’re looking for is for people to adopt a longevity-oriented growth mindset, and there are two key realizations that form its fundamental basis.

The first is: disease is not destiny. You don’t have to get weak and sick as you age. That sounds great, but most of us believe something different. That’s why we really dig into the nuts and bolts in the online course—why so many people believe this and how we can shift this mindset. As there’s abundant evidence of people in their 70s, 80s, and 90s doing amazing things. I call them “longevity legends”—they defy the stereotypes of aging, and I believe we all can.

The second is: the longer you live, the more technology is here to keep you healthy. If you live five more years, you get five more years of innovation. Ten more years, ten more years of breakthroughs. And things are moving really fast—we didn’t have these AI tools three years ago. AI, robotics, protein modeling, drug development—they’re all accelerating and being applied to healthcare and the evidence is all around us.

Put these two together: if you make good decisions now, you can live longer and healthier—and access even more tools to help you stay that way. So it’s not so crazy to think we might live to 120 or beyond. We’re just beginning to push the boundaries of human biology. And that’s what the longevity mindset is all about. Once people realize this, they start living differently—and that’s exactly what we’re helping them do.

That mindset shift—from “not dying” to truly living longer—is such a powerful reframe. It really shifts the focus to growth and possibility.

And speaking of growth, we, at GlycanAge know you love experimenting—our first collaboration even started during your 30+ plant protocol! Any recent experiments you’ve done? Has GlycanAge helped you track the results?

Yes, people get really excited about my 30+ plants experiment, which I measured using GlycanAge because the results were so clear and demonstrative of how one of the key ways we program our immune system is through diet.

But what’s been just as eye-opening are the results from my more recent GlycanAge tests. The last time I tested—during our docuseries shoot in Costa Rica—I had just gone through a very stressful divorce. Lawyers, settlements… It was an emotionally intense period. Not work stress or physical stress—this was deep emotional stress. And my GlycanAge jumped nearly 10 years.

That really caught me. It took some reflection and therapy, along with working closely with a great functional health practitioner, to realize how deeply stress had impacted me.

I tested again this January, after my life had settled down a bit; things still aren’t perfect, but much more balanced—and my GlycanAge dropped back down by three years.

I thought that was another really good example of how we can learn from testing our GlycanAge. Because we can see—is our immune system in a docile, happy state? Or is it up, feeling like it's got to defend?

I believe that I'm observing quite clearly that emotional stress can most certainly elevate your GlycanAge. And it's a great signal to follow and to reflect in your life like, “Why is my GlycanAge so high? Oh—way too much emotional stress. What am I going to do about that because it's impacting my health?” I can see that in the results and it excites me to change it.

It’s incredible how clearly stress can show up in your GlycanAge results—something we’ve also heard from many clients and partners.

And so, you’ve already used the test to track dietary changes and stress. Are there any other areas you’ve been experimenting with where GlycanAge has helped you measure the impact?

Yes, actually right now I’m preparing to retest my GlycanAge and beginning a new experiment. I’ve started taking NMN (nicotinamide mononucleotide), and after that, I’m planning to increase my plant diversity to over 40 different types a week to see how my body will react.

Ultimately, I’m trying to demonstrate how people can use these tests. Because many people get curious—“What’s my GlycanAge? What’s my biological age?”—and that’s great. But as soon as you’ve done that, you realize that if you don’t test again, you don’t know if you’ve changed it. And that’s the most important thing you want to figure out—what can you do to improve your GlycanAge?

We had participants in the docuseries who saw incredible shifts. One guest, for example, had a very high GlycanAge. Through the interventions we guided him through and follow-up support, he ended up reducing it by nearly 20 years. He took on the mindset that what he does matters, and you can see the result: he’s glowing, lost weight, and feels better than ever.

People who are measuring it over time are realizing, “What I’m doing is working—or it’s not.” In my case: Too stressed? Ease that off. Or hey—eating a diversity of plants is really useful. I’d like to see more people using the GlycanAge test in that way, because there’s just not really another way to understand systemic, body-wide information about inflammation like there’s with a GlycanAge test. It gives you far more insight than you can get from a blood test, reactive protein, liver markers, or other ways of measuring inflammation. There’s far more information available through a GlycanAge test.

We’re really glad to hear that GlycanAge is helping you see a bigger picture—that’s exactly what we’re striving for, especially when it’s combined with all the other exciting technologies emerging in this space.

Speaking of which, what kind of tool or innovation would you love to see developed next—something that could give you even deeper insights or move the longevity field forward?

I’ve been quite surprised by how helpful speaking to an AI can be. The new Grok 3 model from xAI has a “Not a Therapist” mode where you can talk to it voice-to-voice. And honestly, I was shocked at how much empathy it showed. It gave me great reflections and advice—and even followed up later, asking how I was doing and if I’d taken its advice.

I really believe this could lead to the democratization of mental health support. There are so many people who can’t afford therapy or aren’t ready to open up to someone—and this could give them an empathetic voice to lean on. It is pseudoempathy, of course, but it’s already good enough at mimicking it that it feels real. Give that a voice, a face, and a personality—and who knows what kind of impact it could have.

In general, I think AI-based insights into health will go way beyond what most GPs or even functional medicine practitioners can offer today. You’ll still need to work with real people, of course—but this gives you so much more agency over your own health.

For example, I uploaded a historical series of my blood work to Grok AI, and it picked up on a few things—one in particular—that no health coach or practitioner had flagged before. It connected two markers in a way that surprised even the real humans I checked with. I’m really impressed by where this is heading.

It really is both crazy and promising where AI might lead us—even in longevity. With so many emerging tools and insights, the future looks more personalized and empowered than ever.

Now, to wrap up: for someone just starting their longevity journey and feeling unsure—maybe questioning if it’s really worth it, if it’s too complicated or expensive—what would you tell them? What are a few first steps they can take to move in the right direction?

I think the person that doesn't want to make healthy choices—they're not someone who can hear the message I have to share. The people who can are the ones already making health-conscious choices. They're going to the gym, trying to eat right. They're not perfect—they probably fail, beat themselves up, get on the bandwagon and fall off, but they get back in because something in them wants to care for themselves.

We've got things that throw us off the rails. The real question is—what makes you stop taking care of yourself? I'm currently enrolled in a psychotherapy course because I want to go deeper on mindset, help people change their beliefs. A lot of the disease we carry comes from what we believe about ourselves and past trauma. Some people don’t care for themselves because they don’t love themselves.

Others do better because they have self-care and self-respect—they’re really trying. Sometimes they just need a little encouragement. And, I’d say: longevity isn’t even that different. I'm going to tell you the same things—get your nutrition, fitness, and sleep right. The big shift is this: doing that consistently means you can not get sick when you get older.

Think of the people in your life who are taking six or seven pills, stuck on the couch, or in assisted living. You don’t have to be like that. You can choose to grow older and stay strong, healthy, and independent. And that’s worth it.

Where do you start? Adopt a longevity mindset. Believe what I just said, and something will switch on. You’ll make different decisions, think long-term, and realize there’s a bright future ahead. Opening our eyes to a positive view on aging is a very important part of this whole conversation.

Learn more about Nick’s program and longevity philosophy at A Longer Life.

Read Nick’s earlier story on his 30+ plants experiment and how his longevity journey began here.