Ezekiel Emanuel: My father lived into his 90s. He understood something many successful men miss

The wellness industry wants you obsessing over biomarkers and supplements. One physician's life offers a simpler—and more effective—blueprint for aging.

Data drives the modern corporation. As the saying goes, you can’t manage what you can’t measure. This may be good advice for getting a handle on a supply chain or making accurate financial projections, but it’s terrible advice for how to live a long and healthy life. On this Father’s Day, let me share some advice from my own father who lived into his 90s.

When it came to staying happy and healthy, he never followed a diet or embraced a strict supplement regimen or an exercise program. Instead, my father stayed socially engaged, physically active in ordinary ways, and intellectually curious. He understood that wellness was not about performance or perfection, but rather about long-term consistency and enjoyment while prioritizing family and community.

The modern wellness industry, however, thrives on the idea that healthy aging requires constant, obsessive measurement and optimization through supplements, wearable devices, expensive scans, or influencers promising to unlock the secret to longevity. This is profitable for the industry but not for your wellness.

The Fundamentals That Really Matter

The fundamentals that truly matter for healthy aging are far simpler and less glamorous than our current wellness culture would have you believe. They are less demanding. They are the kind of practices my father lived. Here are some examples:

Nutrition has become a competitive sport. Americans are often pushed toward obsessive dietary perfectionism. In reality, good nutrition depends on allowing occasional indulgences and practicing sustainable habits consistently over time. My father was a consumer of my mother’s legendary cheesecake, but he never ate highly processed foods or drank sugary drinks. Reducing sugary drinks and highly processed snacks matters. Drinking 1 to 2 sodas a day increases your risk of developing diabetes by 20%. Maintaining a healthy weight matters. Fermented foods such as yogurt and kimchi appear to provide meaningful health benefits. A recent Stanford study showed that 1 additional daily serving of fermented foods increased microbiome diversity and decreased inflammatory markers, both of which are protective against obesity and diabetes. Small improvements sustained over decades generally matter far more than extreme short term diet optimization. My father never went on a diet.

Walking remains profoundly underrated because it is not glamorous or intense. However, walking after meals improves metabolic health and blood sugar regulation. Consistent daily movement improves cardiovascular function, sleep, cognition, and mood. These benefits accumulate quietly over decades, which makes them easy for many ambitious men to dismiss in favor of more dramatic interventions. But it really works. My father never had a gym membership, did not train for marathons, swim laps or do any particular fitness routine regularly. He was, however, forever known as “Speedy.” For most of his life, he walked a lot and walked fast. Every morning, he would go to multiple hospital

ls, examine a newborn baby, walk to the mother’s room to give his special “well baby talk,” and then zip to the next. And he was in great health. Late in life, when my father eliminated most of his walking due to a neck injury, he gained weight, developed Type 2 diabetes, and had a heart attack.

Sleep presents a goldilocks problem. Many professionals either focus excessively on optimizing and tracking their sleep, or view short nights as a badge of honor. Those who track their sleep expend excessive time and effort for little benefit. Their excessive optimization can often even produce worse sleep through worry, a condition called orthosomnia.

My father never tracked his sleep once. He didn’t practice perfect sleep hygiene, and he didn’t get eight hours every night. But he got enough- when he was tired, he slept. As for the professional men who treat sleep deprivation as evidence of commitment and ambition, they are doing themselves more harm than the over analyzers. Chronic sleep deprivation increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, depression, cognitive decline, and impaired immune function. Poor sleep also undermines decision making and emotional regulation, two capacities that many successful professionals depend upon every day for work and which are also essential for wellness.

Social connection is likely the most underestimated predictor of healthy aging among men. Research consistently shows that loneliness and isolation increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and cognitive decline. An analysis by University of Michigan’s Health and Retirement Study found that people with the highest number of close friends (an average of 7.8) had a 17% lower risk of depression and a 24% lower risk of dying compared with people who had fewer close friends (an average of 1.6). Social connection influences health outcomes as powerfully as many medical interventions. The character of the interaction and strength of the relationship are most important.

My father understood this intuitively. He stayed engaged with people, valued conversation, and community, and remained interested in the world around him throughout his life.

Whenever we went to a restaurant, my father would start talking with the people at the next table — he would ask about their occupations, their families, where they were from and what they liked about the place they lived. If no one was at the next table, he would start talking with the waitress. As a kid, I wanted to crawl under the table, but I now realize it was my father’s superpower. These social interactions were energizing and healthy for both my father and those with whom he was speaking.

It was genuine, too: he didn’t talk to every single person he passed because he thought he had to do it for his wellness. Rather, he did it because he was curious about people, their lives, motivations, and values. He approached the world with curiosity and openness, which led to him having these many meaningful conversations with strangers.

Finally, my father was able to achieve professional success and personal well-being because he knew his purpose: helping others, learning about the world, and supporting his family. Wellness was not an end goal but rather a helpful side effect of achieving his other purposes.

Watching my father age reinforced a simple lesson: health works best when it supports a rich and connected life without becoming the center of it. To my father, wellness was not a goal to be optimized, but rather something that came naturally with a curious, family-oriented, and altruistic existence. That perspective likely matters more than any expensive longevity intervention currently competing for your attention.

Living longer matters only if those additional years remain intellectually engaged, emotionally connected, and personally meaningful. Few people reach old age wishing they had spent more time optimizing every biomarker or chasing every new wellness trend. Many wish they had spent more quality time with their family, following their genuine passions and curiosity, and helping others.

On this Father’s Day, take a walk in the park with your kids or grandkids rather than going to the gym. Read an interesting news article in the morning instead of checking your sleep stats. And let yourself indulge in some ice cream while spending meaningful time with others.

That will likely do more for your wellness than anything the wellness industry is selling.

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This story was originally featured on Fortune.com