Longevity clinics are popping up everywhere.
In academic medical centers, strip malls and luxury wellness resorts.
Theres no solid number or definition for these clinics.
Estimates say there are hundreds, if not more.
But theres no legal restriction on the use of longevity branding.
Heres what I found.
Turning back time
For most of her life, Anita Wheaton felt younger than her age.
She gained a touch of weight along the way, but who doesnt?
Around the time she turned 40, her back started aching first a little, then a lot.
At age 42, she learned the cause: severe endometriosis.
Her doctor also said she was suffering from a raft of autoimmune conditions.
She and her husband moved from Virginia to Florida in 2015, and severe fatigue set in.
I was gaining weight, she recalls.
To wake up with joint pain was not unusual for me.
Wheaton got a message from one pal after a 2021 group Zoom call (remember the pandemic?)
who was concerned that she seemed worn, and her face was puffy.
Ive never seen you look like this, the friend wrote.
Wheaton resolved to try something new.
She reached out to Danielle Ruiz.
Ruiz is the CEO and medical director of a longevity clinic called Everest Health in Vienna, Virgina.
Wheaton became one of its first clients.
I met Wheaton at Everest in October for her annual check-in.
She looked nothing like her two-year-old photos.
Shes lost more than 50 pounds, and says she feels as energetic as she did in her 20s.
The staff didnt seem to be rushing to the next appointment.
At the days end, 54-year-old Wheaton received an estimate of her biological age: 34.
These key measures gave Anita Wheaton a biological age of 34.
Longevity is a rapidly growing industry.
Problem is, the official definition of longevity clinic is still largely open to interpretation.
Others are promising, but unproven.
She studies direct-to-consumer marketing of unproven health remedies, including exosome therapies.
Exosomes are small structures inside the body.
Same with detoxification and high-priced IVs.
