Time is unforgiving, but there may be ways to slow its march. A burgeoning medical field promises graceful aging and solutions to traditional care's shortcomings.
Trust in public health crashed during the COVID-19 pandemic. As Americans soured on standard medicine, interest in alternatives soared. Enter longevity clinics.
These health centers, which exploded across the U.S. in the early 2020s, offer specialty treatments and personalized medical protocols to slow aging and extend life. One estimate suggests there are as many as 800 longevity clinics nationwide.
Most longevity clinics provide preliminary diagnostic tests, including full-body MRI scans and DNA testing, to pinpoint potential health issues. Then, they use the data to craft tailored health plans. Standard interventions at these clinics involve hormone replacement therapy, blood plasma transfusions and stem cell therapy and other biohacking procedures.
Some patients, from athletes to elders, are reaping the benefits, but many medical professionals outside the longevity field find these services dubious.
Promises of vitality
Gainesville’s Azena Health & Longevity provides concierge medical care. CEO Daniel White said he founded the clinic two years ago to bring holistic care to North Florida at a consumer-friendly price. Azena offers an annual membership for $1,800, which grants access to in-depth consulting and lab interpretation, periodic follow-ups and discounted advanced labs. After a one-time $550 lab fee, its alternative plan is $150 a month.
Azena’s medical provider, Morgan Burns, said she treats about 120 clients monthly, many of whom are athletes looking to enhance their performance. She often creates personalized nutrition plans and administers hormone replacement therapy to help them achieve their goals.
The clinic is preparing to expand its services to include blood plasma transfusion, which is designed to clear toxins that contribute to aging from the bloodstream. Burns said Azena may add ozone therapy, which is intended to increase the body’s oxygen content, to its list of services.
Burns said she strives to help patients wean off medications, improve their physical fitness, lose weight and improve cognition.
“My goal is to get the body to where it heals itself by creating [an] optimal environment for it to do that by taking away things that may cause it to fire back and become inflamed,” she said.
Like Azena, the Jacksonville-based Anderson Longevity Clinic provides plasma transfers and hormone replacement therapy. Its founder and medical director, Brian Anderson, said his top priority is patient safety. He works in tandem with traditional medical providers to provide patients with comprehensive care.
He also ensures potential treatments are up to scratch by consulting literature in the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine.
“There are things maybe outside of our wheelhouse, so we would refer those to other physicians,” Anderson said.
The A4M, as it's commonly known, was established in the early 1990s to research longevity medicine and holistic care. It’s not affiliated with groups like the American Medical Association, which sets health industry standards.
Kyle Hulbert, chief operating officer of The Longevity Center FL, also emphasizes safety in his practice. His clinic has plasma replacement, vitamin IV therapy and hair restoration, all of which undergo rigorous testing prior to client use, Hulbert said.
“We test on myself first,” he said. “If we like the safety profile and the data surrounding it and the effects that we get, we offer it to patients.”
Doubts and concerns
Longevity clinics operate largely unregulated, a red flag to some aging specialists. Some of the more experimental services clinics offer are considered dangerous, with the potential to cause lung damage, infection and excess hormone buildup. Experts regard even less controversial treatments like stem cell therapy as risky.
Karyn Esser, chair of the UF department of physiology and aging, said she questions whether longevity clinics can guarantee results.
“I am not aware of any high-quality, really good, randomized clinical trials – or even really sound, rigorous pre-clinical research – that would provide a strong argument that these therapeutics are actually capable of doing what [longevity clinics] say they want them to do,” Esser said.
Treatments like peptide therapy, plasma transfusions and hormone therapy have proven somewhat effective, she said, but mainly in studies on mice and under conditions impractical for real-life application.
She said many commonly used therapies may merely act as placebos. But she wasn’t willing to condemn the practices as dangerous, as she hasn’t heard of adverse reactions to them.
“I feel like they oversell the benefits,” Esser said.
But she’s concerned clinics advertise treatments without certainty in their effectiveness. Financiers and consumers haven’t wavered.
Wellness, but at what cost?
Venture capital investment in longevity clinics more than doubled between 2021 and 2022.
The Longevity Science Foundation, a global nonprofit headquartered in Miami, is an intermediary between venture capitalists and researchers. It collects money from private donors and distributes it to scientists studying longevity science and chronic disease.
The foundation's president and CEO, Joshua Herring, said its ultimate goal is to make advanced health treatments more mainstream and affordable.
Custom medical care isn’t yet accessible to the masses. Most longevity clinics cater to wealthy, health-conscious clients, with ultra-lux memberships sometimes costing more than $100,000 annually.
“You're dealing with people that are playing with a larger capital pool,” Herring said. “So right now it's…very privatized.”
Health insurance doesn’t cover many longevity services, which aren’t considered standard medical care.
That’s why Fountain Life, a longevity center with locations in Orlando and Naples, caters to affluent, employer-insured people, said Roisin Branch, the company’s chief marketing officer.
Fountain Life’s APEX membership package, which includes around-the-clock care and AI-powered diagnostics, among other premium services, costs $21,500 annually.
“It has to start with people who are able and willing to go outside of the [existing] health care system and pay more out-of-pocket,” Branch said.
Contact Natalie Kaufman and Avery Parker at nkaufman@alligator.org and aparker@alligator.org. Follow them on X @Nat_Kauf and @AveryParke98398.
Avery Parker is a third-year English and History major covering university affairs for The Alligator. Outside of reporting, Avery spends his time doting on his cats, reading, and listening to music by the Manwolves.
Natalie Kaufman is the business enterprise reporter and a second-year journalism major. Outside the newsroom, you'll catch her drinking too much caffeine and running.
