Two Nobel prize recipients 4 morning habits that can extend your lifespan

At 79, Jeffrey Bland is not just a survivor of time—he's a flag-bearer of a healthier, smarter way of life. Dubbed the "father of functional medicine," Bland has devoted his life to asking what appears to be an antiquated but revolutionary question: Can it be done? Can health care be prodded to turn its focus away from treating disease and simply prevent disease in the first place?

It is a philosophy that he developed while working with two-time Nobel laureate Linus Pauling during his period of work at the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine in the 1980s. That initial work resulted in co-founding, with his wife Susan, of the Institute for Functional Medicine in 1991 and eventually the Personalized Lifestyle Medicine Institute. Now, at close to eight decades old, Bland not only constructs the future of medicine—he lives the ethics of it daily. Health Begins with Self-Worth

Health, to Bland, isn't physical—it starts in the brain. "I believe you have to wake up every morning feeling like you're worth being healthy," he explained to CNBC Make It in a sketch of his own morning routine. This teeny-tiny but powerful change in mindset is the secret to longevity in his book. "To wake up and be thankful for another day—that sets you up for all the things that are going to happen later on."

An Hour a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

Bland exercises for an hour a day. Perhaps run-walking, aerobics, or reformer Pilates classes with his wife. He doesn't cut corners on exercise. "It doesn't need to be extreme," he says, "but it does need to be deliberate."

He also suggests maintaining a health diary—a simple but useful device for tracking what works best for your body. Eating, exercising, sleeping, having individual tendencies under the magnifying glass can be the key to how to be vibrant and energized in the long run.

Eat the Rainbow, Literally

Nutrient density is Bland's number one nutritional concern. Not in the sense of platter assembly—but quality nutrition. "Rainbow foods and vegetables contain phytonutrients," he insists. Phytochemicals that color food deep red, orange, and yellow offer fewer chronic disease threats of heart disease, cancer, and dementia.

From ruby-red strawberries to emerald-green kale, Bland's food is the rainbow of nature, not only designed for pleasure, but for cellular well-being.

Relax with Purpose

There is no work ever done—but Bland is convinced of completing the day as much as beginning it. In the evening, he indulges in an hour "meditating relaxation." For him, most often that amounts to some kind of light reading—adventure novels or the outdoors, a departure from the day's technical novels.

"I don't lie there brooding about that last e-mail," he says. Instead, he seeks inner peace—letting go of heightened mental activity, and a signal to the body to let go and restore itself.

Live Beyond Yourself

Above all, maybe, Bland's approach has a powerful sense of purpose. Functional medicine isn't as much a vocation to him—a calling. Through education, through religion, or through the ministry, he believes you must find something that gets you connected with something greater than yourself.

It's giving yourself over to the possibility that you're part of something much, much bigger than yourself," he says. "Whatever you leave behind will remain here."

In a culture obsessed with hacks and biohacks, Jeffrey Bland offers a more mature, deepening path to wellness. It's not about trying to turn the clock back, but in creating practices honoring the body, awakening the mind, and feeding the soul.

And at the tender ripe age of 79 and agile, a protégée of a Nobel laureate shows us that true health comes not through gimmicks—but through thanksgiving, exercise, and diet, and for more than the self.