What luxury longevity clinics really offer

Iain Tait is not obsessed with his health. Likes drinks and parties; doesn’t wear a fitness tracker.

But Mr. Tait, 50, pays more than $20,000 a year for a membership at Hooke, a London-based private health clinic that emphasizes longevity.

The discovery that he had high cholesterol and the sudden death of a friend from a heart attack convinced Mr Tait, the estate manager, to take his health more seriously. “Something has changed that makes you feel a little vulnerable,” he said, “and then you think about your own mortality.”

It turns out that many people are willing to pay a lot of money to stave off the feeling of mortality: high-end health and longevity clinics are growing. Company data on the industry is thin, but estimates say yes as many as 800 such clinics in the United States alone. In some countries, people pay five-figure annual membership fees to gain access to a range of medical tests and personalized health recommendations. In other cases, à la carte anti-aging treatments can cost thousands of dollars per session.

Patients say the interventions make them feel rejuvenated, and while the volume of data can be overwhelming, it ultimately helps them feel more in control of their health. But experts worry that these clinics are exploiting people’s fear of aging and dying without offering many real benefits because almost none of them are covered by insurance or proven to prolong life.

It’s almost like being turned inside out.

The first step in many longevity clinics is a thorough evaluation, which may include several types of imaging (such as CT scans, MRIs and DXA scans), blood panels, fitness assessments, cognitive tests and genome sequencing that can determine more than just health status. your health now, but what you may encounter in the future.

“Our first responsibility to our clients is to make sure you don’t go off a cliff with something you had no idea about, but is completely preventable and treatable,” said Dr. David Karow, former president of Human Longevity, a clinic with locations in San Diego and San Francisco. (Dr. Karow stepped down from his position this month). A one-year membership to Human Longevity’s top-tier program costs $19,000 and, in addition to testing, includes behavioral health recommendations, concierge basic care, and treatments such as hormone and peptide therapy, an umbrella term for a class of medications that includes everything from collagen supplements to medications such as Ozempic).

Tests carried out at Hooke showed Mr Tait had calcification in the arteries of his neck and an increased genetic risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Based on his results, Hooke’s team created a personalized plan focused on improving his diet, exercise and sleep.

They don’t try to “reassure you everything’s OK,” Tait said. “It’s almost turned inside out in search of things that might happen to you in the future.”

“And then you just feel this sense of gratitude,” he added, “because you felt a little vulnerable and you took advantage of the program that gave you the best chance to solve the problem.”

“Mr Tait represents many people seeking long-term care,” said Kate Woolhouse, Hooke’s chief executive. While some of them are millennial biohackers, most are over 50 years ancient and often come to us with health concerns, she added. For many, the goal is not to live longer, but to stay robust as they age.

That was the motivation of Joe Nevin, 78, a patient at Human Longevity. Mr. Nevin, who runs a senior ski program in Aspen, Colo., is dismissive of the word “longevity.” Instead of trying to prolong his life, he said, he wanted to answer the question: “How do you know you’re robust?”

“There’s a huge difference between what you look like on the outside and what’s going on on the inside,” Nevin said.

During his first visit in 2017, it turned out that he had a tumor in his left kidney. Dr. Karow referred him to an interventional radiologist, who removed the growth. Since then, Mr. Nevin and his wife have returned to Human Longevity every year.

It’s about “treating the risk, not the disease.”

If tests offered by longevity clinics can detect a chronic disease early, it could assist someone live longer. Although a thorough health assessment is relatively low risk, some experts say it is largely unnecessary for people with no symptoms or a family history.

Dr. Deborah Korenstein, senior medical director at Mount Sinai Solutions, which oversees Modern York’s concierge primary care program, said we often hear “anecdotes of people who truly believe that these things have saved their lives and may have was . But what we don’t see is everyone else who did it and found nothing.

She and other experts also raised concerns about the results being misleading or useless; for example, the dozens of blood tests ordered by clinics may not provide actionable information on which people can act. And some wondered if preventive genome sequencing it actually has a positive effect on people’s health.

There is also “no evidence to suggest that obtaining a full-body MRI improved any outcomes, including mortality,” said Dr. Catherine Livingston, an associate professor of family medicine at Oregon Health & Science University who serves on the American College of Preventive Science and Translation Committee medicine. However, she added that full-body MRI does high rate of false positive results. The American College of Radiology and American College of Preventive Medicine I currently discourage this practice.

These false positive results can cause people great stress and anxiety and even lead to unnecessary procedures or biopsies. In other cases, a real tumor can be identified, but Dr. Livingston calls it an “accidental oma” – a growth that is benign or would never grow enough to affect someone’s health. However, once the disease is detected, the patient is treated.

According to Dr. Karow, these types of results are not necessarily a bad thing. “Precision medicine is about treating risk, not disease,” he said.

However, he added that his clinic tries to avoid unnecessary procedures. “Before we ever stick a needle in someone or refer someone for a consultation or further tests, we want to be sure that it is something that is of concern. With all this data, we can do it.”

– I don’t think it’s snake oil.

When recommended treatments following these studies include behavioral changes such as improving diet and exercise, they cause little harm, Dr. Korenstein said. However, when they start using novel – and often unproven – therapies, the situation may change.

At Extension Health’s Manhattan clinic, such treatments include hyperbaric oxygen therapy, plasma exchange and ozone therapy, as well as a litany of supplements, peptides and hormones.

Craig Linsley, 67, a retired hairdresser, first came to Dr. Jonathan Kuo, a pain specialist and founder of Extension Health, more than a decade ago for assist with his back pain and wrist arthritis. It started with conventional pain management, but as Dr. Kuo’s interests expanded into regenerative medicine and longevity, so did Mr. Linsley’s treatments.

He has now undergone several rounds of platelet-rich plasma therapy, an experimental therapy that uses a patient’s blood plasma to heal damaged tissue. He also takes two different peptides to assist with inflammation, which Mr. Linsley says also improves his skin, hair and nails, as well as overall stamina. He spends between $5,000 and $10,000 a year on treatment.

“What they are doing is very real,” Mr. Linsley said. “I don’t feel like it’s snake oil at all.”

There are no FDA-approved treatments for aging, but many products offered at longevity clinics are approved to treat other conditions and may be used off-label.

For example, plasma exchange (also called plasmapheresis) is used to treat certain blood diseases and autoimmune diseases. The procedure, which costs $12,000 per session at Extension Health, involves drawing the patient’s blood, separating the red blood cells from the liquid plasma, and then returning the cells and replacement plasma to the body. It has become popular among biohackers and longevity enthusiastswho claim that it can cleanse the blood of toxins. However, Dr. Kuo admitted that “there is no specific FDA approval for its routine apply for longevity or detoxification.”

The lack of evidence is a warning sign for many geriatricians. People are looking for something “that will assist them make the passage of time more smoothly for them,” said Dr. Alison Moore, chief of geriatrics, gerontology and palliative care at UC San Diego Health. “I understand the desire, but there really is no evidence base” for most of the treatments offered.

Dr. Karow and Dr. Kuo said they apply “biological age” tests in their clinics as a measure to show patients that their interventions are working. However, both also admitted that such tests are flawed and have restricted accuracy. But doctors insisted that their treatment could make people feel younger.

This was Mr. Linsley’s experience. “I started feeling feeble, feeble,” he said. “And it all disappeared.”

“I know I’m not getting any younger,” he added, “but I feel like I’m holding up beautifully.”