Do you have a spare $2 million dollars? Per year? That’s what it is likely to cost you if you would like to reverse your body’s age back to, medically, an 18-year-old one. However, forget the oily skin, acne, wavering voice, hormonal fluctuations and first love problems, a new punishing regime could be on its way to achieve everlasting youth.

Bryan Johnson, a 45-year-old Silicon Valley tech mogul, who topped up his piggy bank with $800 million as a nubile 30-year-old after selling his baby, Braintree Payment Solutions, a web-based payment system, to PayPal and then contemplated his future.

His future was war. Johnson decided to slow down the pace of ageing in his body by employing an army of 30 doctors and experts in what he calls, “Operation Blueprint”.

His goal is to reverse biology and make each of his 78 organs – including his brain, heart, lungs, kidneys, tendons, teeth, skin, hair bladder, penis and rectum – medically young again.

To achieve this, Johnson’s daily regime starts at 5am with a flotilla of more than two dozen supplements and medicines. Then there’s an hour-long workout, consisting of 25 different exercises, and a green juice packed with creatine, cocoa flavanols, collagen peptides and other goodies.

There’s a regimen and series of measurements for every part of Johnson’s body. He’s taken 33,537 images of his bowels, discovered that his eyelashes are shorter than average and probed the thickness of his carotid artery. Add to that, colonoscopies, blood tests, ultrasounds and at least seven anti-ageing skin creams each day, it has become a full time job for Johnson.

For many others, a full-time job is simply living. According to Dan Buettner, National Geographic writer and explorer, the secret to health and long life is simple. Find places in the world with the most centenarians and live like them.

The world’s longest-lived people don’t have to hire teams of medical experts to keep them healthy.  Instead, they live in environments that constantly nudge them into moving naturally such as the shepherds from Sardinia who tend sheep on mountain slopes. This low-grade physical activity keeps their bodies in shape in all kinds of weather, not just in a penthouses with blue-light emitters, beeping screens and the only kind of white coats are the ones on the sheep’s’ back.

Buetttner’s research showed that knowing your sense of purpose was worth up to seven years of extra life expectancy. The people on the island of Okinawa in Japan call it “ikigai” which translates to “why I wake up in the morning.”  

For one Okinawan woman, who had just turned 105, her “ikigai” was her great, great, great, granddaughter. The age difference of 101 years served to wake her every morning with “joy in my heart”.

Korea has developed a unique food culture connected to its long agricultural history. Interest in the health benefits of the Korean Diet, or “K-Diet”, based around their role in tradition, culture and in health.

While most of the interest in the K-Diet has been focused on the role in the use of raw ingredients, attention is now being paid to the preparation of these raw foods and their role in health, vitality, and wellness. Foods are generally prepared by fermenting and pickling which enriches food flavours and preserves foods. Possibly, the best known fermented Korean dish is kimchi.

Kimchi is a spicy, fermented dish which may contain a variety of vegetables such as cabbage, radish, and carrots all with the Korean flavours of garlic, ginger and chilies. It is a staple and usually served alongside all meals, including breakfast.

As a fermented food, it is full of living, healthy good bacteria which is said to boost immunity, energise the body and aid digestion.

One of Korea’s most interesting anti-ageing products is a skin care range made from snail mucous. After collecting the slime from live snails – or as they are called on product labels, Chilean earth snails – it is filtered and combine with other ingredients and added to facial cleanser, mosturisers, gel masks and skin serums.

Said to reduce facial wrinkles, heal damaged skin faster and reduce acne scars, some exclusive cosmetic day spas offer live snail facials where you can have up to six snails slither over your face leaving a trail of rejuvenated, blemish free skin and either, a long love or morbid fear of these shelled gastropods.

There is simply no need for invasive and expensive therapies to live a long and healthy life.

The combination of food, movement, fun for life, connection and love is something which costs little but has shown to give at least another decade of good health. Why not try it for yourself? No clever theories, diets, marathons or supplements, simply happy and vibrant long lives without a pill, or snail, in sight.