Aging is a biological process and state characterized by morphological change, hypofunction and metabolic disorder, often accompanied by severe degenerative diseases, including amyotrophy, atherosclerosis, neurodegeneration, and so on. Age-related diseases not only decrease the life quality of the elderly, but also impose great burden on family and society. As population aging, we are increasingly coming to realize that the longevity we want should be healthy aging but not simple increase of lifespan. By researching on the yeast, C. elegans, drosophila, mice and humans, we get to know the mechanisms of aging and methods for anti-aging, such as dietary restriction and use of anti-aging drugs like rapamycin. In this review, we summarized mainly the studies on mechanisms of aging and elaborate associated anti-aging strategies and underlying mechanisms. DOI: 10.11855/j.issn.0577-7402.2017.08.16