A gastroenterologist has claimed that a simple rule requiring just seven minutes a day could extend your life by a year. Dr Will Bulsiewicz, known online as Gut Health MD, shared the '5+2 rule' based on a study of nearly 60,000 people.
The study, published in January 2026, tracked 59,078 participants using wearable accelerometers to measure sleep, exercise, and diet quality over several years. Researchers found that small, consistent improvements in all three areas could lead to significant gains in lifespan and healthspan.
Dr Bulsiewicz explained: 'Five minutes of sleep. Two minutes of exercise. One more year of life.' He added that people who optimised all three factors—7-8 hours of sleep, 42 minutes of daily exercise, and a high-quality diet—gained an average of 9.35 extra years of lifespan and 9.45 extra years of healthspan.
The study, titled 'Minimum combined sleep, physical activity, and nutrition variations associated with lifeSPAN and healthSPAN improvements', concluded that modest concurrent improvements in sleep, physical activity, and diet were associated with meaningful gains in lifespan and healthspan. Dr Bulsiewicz emphasised that it is the combination of changes that matters most, not any single factor.
He urged people to start with small steps: 'Five more minutes of sleep tonight, a two-minute walk after lunch, and an extra handful of greens on your plate. The science says that's enough to start adding years.'
