Stop Drinking Olive Oil. Take This Instead.
One compound in olive oil fights aging at the cellular level. Your bottle barely has any.
For decades, researchers have been trying to explain why people who eat a Mediterranean diet live longer. The answer they kept landing on was olive oil. Olive oil is mostly fat, and the fat alone does not explain the longevity data. One compound getting serious scientific attention right now is called hydroxytyrosol (pronounced hy-drox-ee-TY-roh-sol). The way most people consume olive oil delivers almost none of it.
A 2025 study in GeroScience, one of the top peer-reviewed journals on aging, identified hydroxytyrosol as a potential geroprotective compound. That means it may target the underlying mechanisms of aging directly, not just the symptoms. Researchers examined how it interacts with several processes that drive biological aging: damaged DNA, failing mitochondria, senescent cells, and the chronic low-grade inflammation that quietly accelerates aging across every system in your body. Senescent cells are sometimes called zombie cells. They stop functioning but refuse to die, and they poison the tissue around them.
Most longevity compounds interact with one or two of these processes. Hydroxytyrosol appears to interact with several.
In the full version of this article you’ll get:
Exactly how much hydroxytyrosol you need per day to move the needle
Why olive oil, even good olive oil, almost never delivers a meaningful dose
The supplement form I use and how I stack it
How it may help protect your NAD, and why that matters if you’re over 35
What to look for on a label so you don’t waste your money
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