Longevity is the Future of Health

Why Aging is the Ultimate Medical Challenge

I entered longevity almost unexpectedly. As I scrolled through my twitter feed, I stumbled upon a promotion post for Zelar City. I took a glance at the website. Futuristic. Punchy. Colorful. In large characters: "Working together toward a future where aging is optional". Below: "Join the world’s leading longevity entrepreneurs, scientists, and investors' community to dive deep into defying death and disease.

I had mixed impressions. This wasn't what a serious website about health and medicine is supposed to look. A serious website about health and medicine is supposed to look cold, smooth, neutral - almost sterile. White, blue, grey are acceptable colors, and any warm colors are to be seen with suspicion. And what about this insane claim of solving aging? 

Yet, the event had some serious people backing it. Harvard professors. Unicorn founders. Medical Doctors. It had a clear program: learning, building, meeting people. It provided food and accommodation, at an affordable price. In short, it seemed cool and ambitious.

So I filled the form, prepared my bag, and went. I put myself on exploring mode, and tried to gather as much information about health and longevity as I could. 

What did I know about health? 

I knew a few things. I had my own experience of body transformation, sport injury and mental strength, through years of intensive competitive swimming and weightlifting. I had practiced emergency care for a few summers. I've had a course in cell biology at university, and followed attentively the latest health and performance superstars, the Andrew Hubermans and Bryan Johnsons. 

I also noticed what didn't work. I noticed doctors being, in many cases, unable to treat or recognize the real cause of suffering - often reduced to mere painkiller prescribers, alienated from a deeper understanding of their patients. I noticed people being desperate about it, searching for solutions in the flourishing alternative medicine industry, a space where they would be recognized as complex human beings and gain agency over their own health. I noticed public authorities becoming neurotic about it, trying to defend established medicine by demonizing alternatives instead of investigating the case further. 

A personal tragedy brought this home: I lost a close relative to depression, where standard medical protocols - focused on symptom management through medication rather than understanding root causes - had devastating consequences. They had been prescribed an antidepressant known for strong side effects that severely impaired bodily functions, so that every moment was made painful. Without proper monitoring, they chose to end their life instead of suffering any longer.

Their story illustrated a broader truth: our medical system, while excellent at addressing acute problems, often struggles with complex, ongoing health challenges.

Progress in hygiene and vaccination eradicated most mass epidemics of the past, and reduced infant mortality to near zero. Progress in surgery made many heavy interventions banal, and considerably reduced the chance of dying from an accident. 

But what are we dying of now? 

Cardiovascular diseases. Cancer. Respiratory diseases. Neurodegenerative diseases. Diabetes. 

All of which modern healthcare systems have a very hard time solving. All of which are primarily caused by aging, i.e. the deterioration and loss of function of the cells. 

Modern medicine is focused on curing symptoms. It became really good at fighting exogenous causes of death - viruses, bacteria, accidents. Discrete events. But aging isn't a primarily exogenous phenomenon. It is a non-communicable disease, happening endogenously, amplified by exogenous risk factors such as environmental pollution, sedentarity or overeating. It is continuous. 

Solving aging means searching for all the endogenous causes of death, what triggers them, and finding how to stop them. 

That's what the longevity movement is about. 

The longevity movement is telling us that we still understand very little about the human body, and that we need a considerable amount of data, research and collective coordination efforts to go about it.

The longevity movement is telling us that the standards upon which we currently assess health are insufficient, and medical heuristics and technologies from the 19th and 20th century will not be enough for the 21st century.

Finally, the longevity movement is telling us that, ultimately, lifespan is the best KPI we have for improving health, and that we need to be much more serious about it.