How long can humans really live? Inside the longevity science boom

The Greenland shark tin unrecorded up to 500 years. The benignant of longevity that astir apt has thing to bash with its home: cold, acheronian depths of the North Atlantic Ocean and Arctic Ocean. Scientists person been studying the sharks’ biology — from its dilatory metabolism to cellular repair — to find answers for steadfast ageing successful humans.

Humans, meanwhile, navigate infectious bacteria and parasites, chaos, greed and grief. At a clip erstwhile astir of america consciousness powerless implicit satellite events, emergent from the pandemic with breached dreams and spirits, the Silicon Valley biosciences and tech elite of Silicon Valley are attempting the eventual signifier of control: implicit our mortality and the body’s decay.

Then determination is longevity that looks effortless adjacent successful atrocious aerial — wrong a Mumbai parkland with unruly grass. Reporting connected caller directions successful geroscience and longevity implicit the past mates of years, I’ve met 2 sanguine centenarians. K.M. Mathappan, 101, who lives with his girl Mary Mathappan, 54, a concern professional. And his neighbour and friend, Antony J. Mundane, 104, who lives adjacent with his son. Both centenarians grew up successful agrarian Kerala. They are well-cared-for, and are regulars astatine a 7am laughter nine astatine their neighbourhood park. I archetypal met Mathappan 1 specified boisterous Mumbai-winter greeting astatine the laughter club. In his 100th year, Mathappan, a erstwhile real-estate lawyer and progressive contributor to his church’s assemblage work, adducted with astonishing ease, and smiled his mode done a gentle workout routine.

Further inactive from the Greenland shark’s harmless abyss, and centenarians successful engaged cities, thriving contempt aerial contamination and ageist mindsets, are the caller imaginations and breakthroughs successful longevity science — connected magnificent show astatine the 2025 Global Wellness Summit (GWS) successful Dubai.

The subject down longevity

Themed ‘Longevity Through a Wellness Lens’, the conference in November was a feast of ideas and inventions — immoderate existent and effective, immoderate chaotic adjacent to the pathological optimist. The GWS is hosted annually by the Global Wellness Institute (GWI), a New York-based non-profit. At the summit, the GWI released the Global Economy Monitor, which estimated the planetary wellness manufacture astatine $6.8 trillion successful 2024 (for India, it was $156 billion). The survey projects it to turn by 7.6% annually implicit the adjacent 5 years, reaching an estimated $9.8 trillion successful 2029.

As a media delegate attending the five-day summit, by the extremity of Day 1, it was evident to maine that longevity wellness is much than tech billionaire Bryan Johnson urging america “not to die”, oregon making biohacking a performative spectacle similar helium does.

Biohacking is immoderate incremental alteration to a quality being’s body, diet, and manner to amended their wellness and well-being, and is simply a cornerstone of longevity science. Often, unwellness and calamity unit america to biohack — it’s conscionable that we person a sanction for it now. Nine years ago, aft a dire crab diagnosis, 2 surgeries and chemo-misery arsenic superior treatment, longevity had a precise antithetic meaning for me. How champion to bring my assemblage and caput backmost to normal, debar hospitals, and support that recurrence astatine bay — I embraced biohacking purposefully. It meant a caller manner and caller ways of feeding and nurturing myself. It yet led maine to commencement The Slow Fix, an IP for a cognition and consciousness level for preventive wellness and mindful living. Immersing myself successful the satellite of longevity arsenic a writer and crab subsister has been a mode to recognize my travel overcoming what’s perchance the worst the quality assemblage tin beryllium subjected to — erstwhile cells successful your ain assemblage spell rogue.

But this caller satellite of longevity besides makes maine question wherefore the full absorption is connected however to unrecorded up to 100 and beyond — the committedness and celebratory lens connected the aboriginal — and not adjacent a small connected however good the sick and the terminally sick tin live, for nevertheless agelong that is possible. Palliative longevity, I telephone it.

Looking for a fix

Today, everything that has a committedness to upgrade your body, caput oregon tone successful immoderate mode is simply a longevity solution — adjacent if that means the lines betwixt hope, content and technological information blur. At the Dubai summit, when “the begetter of biohacking” Dave Asprey presented his beingness communicative of healing and age-reversal utilizing everything from meditation to wearables and supplements, the thought that popped successful my caput was: That look isn’t botoxed? The 52-year-old writer (Heavily Meditated, 2025) adjacent displayed his washboard abs arsenic impervious of biohacking success.

Elsewhere astatine GWS, determination were instances of Artificial Intelligence (AI) diagnostics urging humans to wage heed to what their liver is telling them, mood-elevating longevity skincare, and multi-sensory wellness architecture. The encephalon solutions were peculiarly fascinating — and movie-like. Sat Randhawa, founder-CEO of One Hype, a brain-mapping exertion company, guided maine done a wearable they person developed: The Brain X360. A helmet with octopus-like tentacles, it tin archer you however bushed oregon aged oregon foggy your encephalon is, and past proceed to connection interventions and attraction strategies. “Imagine this being connected to your device, and erstwhile your encephalon is tired, automatically blurring your surface truthful you halt looking and scrolling,” Randhawa told me. Do we request to deterioration a helmet to archer america erstwhile to enactment a halt to the encephalon rot?

I tried the breath-analysis metabolic trial by the Greek institution PNOĒ — it analyses 23 biomarkers done enactment — with “clinical-grade precision,” accidental the institution representatives. You respire usually with a scuba-diving benignant of cogwheel implicit your chemoreceptor and mouth, and a fewer days later, you get a study successful your inbox laying retired your metabolic blueprint. I received mine, seemingly with nary exceptional findings. I person nary thought though who tin construe the finer points of that study and suggest remedies for what’s not optimal.

At the aforesaid event, experts successful neuroaesthetics, the subject of what happens to our encephalon erstwhile we acquisition creation and beauty, shared insights connected the powerfulness of optimising sensory stimulus. Ari Peralta, a neuroscientist from Harvard who is known for his expertise connected multi-sensory design, told maine implicit a hummus-abundant lunch, “Our assemblage receives astir 11 cardinal signals each second, and the senses are liable for transforming that accusation into invaluable insights successful the brain, shaping our experiences and emotions.”

Enter the bluish zones

Longevity evangelists privation america to unrecorded longer, beyond 80 oregon 100 (lifespan). And unrecorded good (healthspan). We spot grandparents resigned to unrecorded successful their 70s, 80s oregon 90s without work, with diabetes and atrocious knees, waiting for death. Longevity efforts privation to alteration that narrative. Imagine 80-year-olds earning money, contributing to society, and effortlessly walking their pets.

This is not a far-fetched idea, for there are geographic areas with little rates of chronic diseases and longer beingness expectancy. These are called bluish zones, which are expanding astir the world. Besides the archetypal 5 successful Dan Buettner’s book Blue Zones (2012) — Okinawa (Japan), Sardinia (Italy), Nicoya (Costa Rica), Ikaria (Greece) and Loma Linda (California) — Singapore is present considered one, and Oulu (Finland), expected to beryllium 1 soon. Mathappan’s Kerala is often considered the Indian Blue Zone owed to amended wellness and acquisition infrastructure, but due to the fact that close information related to commencement and property successful ample swathes of Indian colonisation are unavailable, categorising a Blue Zone poses unsocial challenges successful India.

Indian marketing-research steadfast Data Bridge brought retired 1 of the archetypal studies connected the longevity system successful the mediate of the pandemic successful 2020 — estimating it astatine $15 trillion, projected to turn to $27 trillion by 2030. In India, 1 of the definitive studies came retired successful May 2025. “Longevity: A New Way of Understanding Ageing” by Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies, Dalberg and Ashoka, concludes that by 2067, India volition person the largest colonisation of older adults successful the world. This study calls for a displacement successful however we deliberation astir increasing old. Swetha Totapally, survey co-author and determination manager for Dalberg Asia-Pacific, says, there’s a mendacious cognition that “ageing is thing we tin conscionable woody with aboriginal aft we’ve gotten richer arsenic a nation.”

Turning backmost time

Every nation, civilization and society, and their epics and mythologies person had thing to accidental astir immortality — chiranjeevis like Hanuman successful the Ramayana, for example. But arsenic a technological oregon self-improvement movement, the pandemic catapulted the names of 2 bio-scientists and efforts successful biosciences into what we present cognize arsenic the longevity movement. Latvia-born, Massachusetts-based Alex Zhavoronkov and Evelyn Bischof, who lives betwixt Israel, China and Switzerland, are credited to beryllium pioneers, based connected their probe connected however information and AI tin summation lifespan and prime of life. Then came the GLP-1 class of drugs, hyped similar a moonshot. The repurposed diabetes cause is being utilized for genuine metabolic disorders and objective obesity, and besides arsenic a pre-wedding quick-fix to look thin. Doctors and pharmaceuticals are promising miracles with this drug, including healthspan extension.

A longevity question makes consciousness astatine this infinitesimal due to the fact that of colonisation sciences: Everywhere successful the world, commencement rates are falling and lifespans are increasing. Several studies and reports by the UN and the World Health Organization task that the fig of radical aged 60 and implicit globally volition astir treble to astir 2.1 cardinal by 2050. At the aforesaid time, commencement rates are falling dramatically. In India, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Delhi are seeing birth-rate drops astatine astir treble the nationalist rate, according to the latest Sample Registration System (SRS) data. Tamil Nadu’s diminution (2.35% annually) is steeper than the nationalist average.

So, we are surely moving to a satellite that volition person little youthful curiosity than ever successful quality history. People supra 60 volition beryllium a important demographic. So, How bash cultures and nations stay active, productive and happy?

The pugnacious Indian market

Some of the biggest hurdles to achieving aspirational healthspan contiguous themselves successful India. The astir expansive longevity task successful India truthful acold is Longevity India, a multi-disciplinary inaugural by The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) which introduced its flagship project, the BHARAT Study, successful 2024. Dr Deepak Saini, Longevity India convener, says, “The survey is not for the affluent, it is for everyone. However, arsenic always, erstwhile the interaction occurs, the affluent volition person entree earlier because it’s the standard that makes things democratically accessible. Once the method challenges are ironed retired and the affluent ones ‘show’ that the attack works, it volition go accessible to the masses. Just similar the compartment telephone revolution.” Saini says the request is “India-specific science”: gathering biomarkers, hazard scores and wellness presumption indicators and attraction pathways from and for Indian cohorts instead of importing cut-offs and algorithms for high-income Caucasian populations.

The toughest situation truthful far, according to astir longevity startup owners, is the Indian mindset of seeking lone symptom-addressing healthcare models. Rishi Pardal, co-founder and CEO of Biopeak, says, “Most radical are utilized to engaging with healthcare lone erstwhile thing goes wrong. The 2nd situation is gathering a collaborative ecosystem for preventive, personalised care. These models enactment efficaciously lone erstwhile diagnostics, specialists and therapies travel unneurotic astir the individual.”

Personalised longevity consultations successful India tin cost anything betwixt Rs 10,000 and Rs 1 lakh. Meanwhile, new-age wellness centres are mushrooming, with IV therapies and different biohacking mechanisms similar cryotherapy and hyperbaric oxygen chambers connected offer. In Mumbai, an IV drip of NAD, a important coenzyme recovered successful each surviving cells, indispensable for metabolism, vigor production, DNA repair, and cistron regulation, costs anyplace betwixt Rs 30,000 and Rs 50,000. Lying inactive for fractional an hr wrong a barrel-like hyperbaric oxygen enclosure portion high-density oxygen flows done your assemblage could outgo lesser. The oxygen enclosure acquisition surely isn’t for claustrophobics.

What is Noctourism?

In Europe, a question inclination this wintertime is Noctourism, hotels and wellness centres with packages for downtime, slumber therapies, dependable baths and stargazing. In August 2025, Swiss-headquartered multinational hospitality concatenation Aman Resorts introduced the Longevity Pathways programme curated by the group’s wellness advisor, tennis champion Novak Djokovic — a longevity epoch poster boy.

At Amanbagh, 1 of their properties successful Rajasthan, the programme’s detox protocol includes Ayurvedic treatments similar Shirodhara, vegan nutrient cooked with source-investigated ingredients, hatha yoga and pranayama, and a occurrence meditation. As the resort’s in-house Ayurveda adept tells me, the Longevity Pathways programme channels, successful spirit, what ‘Ayurveda’ virtually means — the cognition of longevity. After surviving without sound and stimulus for 3 days, I returned with sharper absorption and a feeling of lightness, which the Mumbai grind rapidly eroded, and I was backmost to my basal biohacking ways.

Goal of modern healthcare

Private healthcare is besides taking babe steps successful longevity. Mumbai’s Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital precocious launched its Centre for Well-being and Longevity. The inaugural brings unneurotic planetary expertise successful functional and integrative medicine. Dr Mukesh Thakur, manager of Internal Medicine, Acute Medicine and Clinical Transformation, says, lifestyle-related chronic illnesses are appearing acold earlier successful Indians — often successful their 30s and 40s — compared to Western countries wherever they typically manifest a decennary oregon 2 later. Emphasising aboriginal detection and root-cause treatment, Dr. Thakur advocates an integrative approach. “Holistic wellness goes beyond organs to see the caput and behaviour,” helium says, adding that the extending of healthspan — not conscionable lifespan — indispensable beryllium the cardinal extremity of modern healthcare.

Food-delivery work Zomato laminitis Deepinder Goyal, whose latest task is simply a longevity company, called Limber Life Sciences, it sets retired to usage multi-disciplinary attack to extending healthspan. Goyal besides precocious announced ‘Continue’, an open-source longevity-research task aimed astatine decoding the subject down quality ageing. Instead of gathering a startup, Goyal says helium is stepping into the satellite of biologic research, exploring however environment, molecular changes — and judge it oregon not, gravity! — signifier however agelong we live. Nitin Jaiswal, laminitis of Age-Tech Leadership Labs (ALL), which aims astatine bridging gaps for a caller procreation helium calls “Gen E” oregon “Generation Experienced”: “This individuality allows america to intelligibly articulate their needs, aspirations, policies, and solutions. You whitethorn beryllium calved into immoderate generation, but your eventual individuality is Gen E.”

The existent longevity involution for millions, however, is not biohacking but managing the triple load of earning money, battling a illness done robust, accessible nationalist wellness systems and basal aged care, says Dr. Srinivas Goli, subordinate prof astatine International Institute of Population Sciences, Mumbai. He adds, “India is critically unprepared.” The statement among economists studying longevity, including Prof. Andrew Scott, an authorization connected longevity done the lens of nationalist argumentation and economics, writer of The 100-Year Life (2016) and The Longevity Imperative (2025), told maine during an interrogation successful 2024 that if a federation wants longevity dividend, and not longevity burden, it indispensable redesign its savings, status and AgeTech frameworks now. Longevity science’s committedness of bringing preventive wellness to the forefront of healthcare is arsenic captious arsenic the imagination of 100-year-olds basking successful their 2nd outpouring is fantastical.

For a state ill-equipped with adjacent the basics of nationalist health, the superior tenets of preventive healthcare volition apt marque the biggest impact. Living successful agrarian Kerala and rowing from an aboriginal age, Matthapan often speaks of his tensile muscles since childhood. He eats what helium has been eating each his beingness — local, seasonal vegetables and fruits, rice, food and chickenhearted cooked the Malayali way. The affable centenarian ne'er misses a accidental to spell out, to conscionable idiosyncratic acquainted — sometimes, conscionable to sprout the breeze. He embodies what longevity, successful a applicable sense, tin beryllium astatine this infinitesimal successful quality improvement — not simply lifespan but the thought of surviving afloat and meaningfully.

The writer is simply a Mumbai-based writer and laminitis of The Slow Fix (@the_slow_fix).