Since 2016, Sergey Young has learned more and more about longevity by investing in companies that are working to develop technology that can increase healthspans.

Young has more than 20 years of experience as an investor and started a fund for longevity in 2019. His most recent fund, the BOLD Longevity Growth Fund, which he co-founded in 2023, is comprised of money from a number of different investors and examines around 200 companies in the field of longevity with the goal of investing in just five a year.

"90% of people that I know who started to develop interest in health and longevity all started with a personal health crisis," Young, who turns 53 this year, tells CNBC Make It. "I am no exception."

Back in 2016, Young's cholesterol levels were extremely high and his doctor advised that Young would need to start a daily medication.

"I said, 'No problem. Is it just for one month or two months or three?' He said, 'No, no, no. You don't get it. Every day for the rest of your life.'"

Young was only 45 years old at the time and this health scare sent him on a journey to learn about longevity. He says he's gained lots of knowledge on the topic over the years.

"I thought, 'What an enormous information flow that I have unique access to.' So I wrote a book called The Science and Technology of Growing Young," he says.

Young incorporates many of the practices he's learned in his own daily routine. Here are a few of his habits for a long, healthy life.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

'It's super important to enjoy every day, especially if we're bringing extra days to our lives'

CNBC Make It: What practices are you doing to stay physically healthy?

There are five things that I always do. Number one, in terms of importance, is medical screening. The most important day of our lives every year is not our birthdays anymore. It's the day of our comprehensive medical screening.

I will always advise people to dedicate at least one day of their life every year to that. And you can work with your insurance provider, with your network to do that.

Second, I call it passive longevity, or the easier version of it would be, 'Don't die stupid.' Not taking unnecessary risks is super important. Tobacco smoking, not wearing seatbelts and riding motorcycles can reduce years from your healthspan.

Number three is diet. There's a lot of disagreement in scientific circles on what actually works diet-wise. But there's only one agreement — restricting your caloric intake would actually add at least two to three healthy and happy years to your life. I fast from Monday evening till Wednesday morning every week. 36 hours.

Some people actually like intermittent fasting, which is window fasting. So you can consume a lot in, for example, six-hour windows, and then fast for 18 hours a day. I actually know a lot of people who find it much easier to manage.

Four is physical activity and I think it's important to bring some diversity in the physical activity menu as well. My rule is every day, I spend an hour in the morning dedicated to physical activity. Plus I do 10,000 steps a day.

I also do yoga and Pilates because it's both stretching and also some functional load on your muscles. And I strength train because I learned that muscle mass is super important for your longevity.

And then number five is what I call peace of mind. You want to live a longer life, but also you want this longer life to be full of healthy and happy days. So happiness and proper attention to mental health is super important.

That's perfect timing because I was going to ask you what you're doing specifically for your brain?

I try to stick to eight hours of sleep every night. I use an Oura ring to measure my sleep cycles. Every morning, I can learn what I've done the last day or the evening before that created a positive or negative effect on the quality and the structure of my sleep.

Meditation is extremely important. I have the beauty of doing the spiritual side, like sending all the positive vibes to Mother Earth, to all the people around, to our planet, being grateful.

Sometimes I just do breathing exercises by Wim Hof, The Iceman. It's only 11 minutes, three cycles. It's more like the technological way of meditating without necessarily bringing spirituality there.

Then finally, a sense of purpose. We created technologies to extend our lives, but we still haven't created the life that we want to extend. So I think having a sense of purpose, sharing more with this world than you take and doing great things is extremely important. It's super important to enjoy every day, and especially if we're working on bringing extra days to our lives.

We always hear about the importance of connections and making sure that you have positive relationships for brain health and longevity. What's your social fitness like?

I have four kids, so my baseline agenda for social fitness is spending time with my kids. Wherever I go, I'm trying to be home around 8 p.m. so I can put them to bed. And then I have my 10 minutes with each kid. It can be reading or it can be just chatting.

Also, I have a dog, and I chat with other dog and cat owners. It's not a big deal, but every day, I have an opportunity to meet so many different people, people I know and people I don't know. So that's beautiful as well.

For so many years I was basically neglecting these social connection opportunities to reconnect with my old friends, with colleagues from my previous projects. When I started to work in the field of longevity, I basically realized the importance of social connection.

So what I've done is every week I'm trying to dedicate one evening to meeting someone, in a group or one-on-one, for quality conversation. It actually brings a lot of joy and happiness to my life. I find it super important and recharging. And also it stimulates a lot of your thinking. It's an opportunity to learn so many new things.

You said there are specific foods people think are helpful for longevity. What do you eat?

I've done a lot of different experiments with diet. I'm not a biohacker. I'm much more conservative than that, but I've done a lot of experiments with diet in a safe way.

What I've discovered is that, number one, your sources of protein are extremely important. And if you can go for the organic version, or wild fish, ones which are caught in the ocean, not farmed, it's even better. My diet these days is actually much more centered around healthy proteins than if you compare it to my diet five or 10 years ago.

I try to factor in a lot of different plant foods. Cruciferous vegetables like Bok choy, different types of cabbage. Fermented foods: fermented cabbage, kimchi or kombucha. I try to integrate a little bit of that because it does help your digestive system and creates a healthy microbiome.

Healthy oils are super important. I'm a big fan. Every summer I try to spend time with the kids in Italy, and that's why I became a big fan of olive oil. Avocado is also great.

I just don't do anything sweet like sweet drinks and sugary drinks. I'm a big fan of desserts and cookies and candies. But unfortunately, given my chronological age of 53, I couldn't really afford to eat as many sweet products as I want.

I want to end with this fun question that I always ask. What are you reading?

I'm reading "Longevity Guidebook" by my partner in the fund, Peter Diamandis. It's literally just been published. I really like the way he structured all of this. It's about the importance of different scans. It's full of different gadgets that you can use. And so that's my current reading. I love total immersion!

A longevity investor's daily routine

Here are Young's daily practices for longevity:

• For his body: Getting a yearly medical screening, avoiding risky behaviors, restricting his caloric intake, walking 10,000 steps a day and prioritizing his peace of mind.
• For his brain: Focusing on the quality and quantity of his sleep, meditating and having a sense of purpose.
• For social fitness: Spending quality time with his kids, fellow pet parents and connecting with new people at least once a week.
• For his diet: Eating healthy proteins, diversifying his plant foods and avoiding sugary drinks and sweets.
• For his media diet: Reading about longevity for "total immersion" on the subject.

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