Hey Doc,

This is Newsletter 89. I skipped a few Sundays. It is 8:38pm sunday night, docs are waiting for the newsletter. I have to ship!

Nobody warned me about this. Building a physician community is the one of the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Harder than cardiac surgery. Harder than fundraising. Harder than building companies.

Getting doctors to trust something new doesn’t happen with a marketing campaign. It happens one conversation at a time. I speak with physicians around the world every day of the week. No exception.

10 physicians to 1,000 across 68 countries in two years. The movement is real. Now we need more rooms to gather, more experiences to connect, and more role models to show what’s possible.

One mission: making longevity medicine the new standard of care. Every doctor should be a longevity doctor.

That’s what we’re building. Newsletter 89.

Dr. David Luu - Founder, longevitydocs.™

Every Wednesday, we ship something new for this community. Features, experiences, and products built by physicians, for physicians. The platform grows because you do.

Rooms - The Digital Lounge for Longevity Docs

Launching this Wednesday

There used to be a place where doctors talked to each other. Not in a chat thread. Not on a podcast. In a room.

The hospital lounge is gone. Private practice replaced hallway conversations with isolation. The best clinical conversations you’ve had in the last year probably happened by accident, at a conference dinner, or between sessions.

We’re fixing that.

This Wednesday, we’re launching Rooms: 20-minute live audio discussions built for longevity physicians. Focused themes. Real cases. Genuine debate. Short enough to fit between patients. Deep enough to actually change how you practice.

Each week, leading physicians across the community will host sessions on clinical rounds, book clubs, practice growth, and emerging protocols. Kicking off the programming: Dr. Catherine Johnson, Dr. Mishal Reja, Dr. Omar Saleem, Dr. Jonathan Bastian, Dr. Mayoni Gooneratne, Dr. Anna Emanuel, Dr. Steve Murphy, Dr. Jila Senemar, Dr. Amanda Hill, Dr Giovanni Campanile, Dr. Sumita Jain, and more

I will open the first Room: “Do You Practice Longevity Medicine?” a live conversation on a very vibrant topic. Audio only. Physician-led. Open floor.

The lounge is back. Come in.

Each week, I try to explore one idea that could advance longevity medicine and hopefully support physicians in bringing it to life.

The Longevity Conference ROI: An Honest Audit

An honest audit of where conferences deliver and where they quietly drain you.

Sorry. This is partly our fault.

In April 2024, we organized one of the first conferences dedicated entirely to longevity medicine. Since then, the calendar has exploded. Every major city wants one. Miami. London. Dubai. Las Vegas. Cannes (our own Summit).

We helped start something. Now everyone wants in. And not all of it is good.

Some of these events are intimate, rigorous, and genuinely career-changing. Others are three days of panel discussions sponsored by energy drink brands, mattress company, wrapped around a networking dinner you didn’t need.

Your time is your most finite resource. Before you book the flight, here’s the honest audit.

5 Reasons to Attend

1. The Room Is the Product: No podcast replicates a well-curated room. The conversation that changes your practice rarely happens on stage. It happens between sessions, at dinner, in the hotel lobby. The right conference puts you in proximity to people you wouldn’t meet in five years of cold outreach.

2. Pattern Recognition at Speed: A focused conference compresses months of scattered reading into 48 hours of curated signal. You hear what’s emerging, what’s being debated, what forward-thinking physicians are actually doing in practice. Not what got published 18 months ago.

3. Clinical Confidence: Hearing a world-class clinician walk through a protocol in real time, with nuance, with pushback, with the messiness of real cases, builds a kind of confidence that a paper or course cannot replicate. That confidence changes how you show up for your patients on Monday morning.

4. Legitimacy and Visibility: Being present signals you are engaged at the frontier. For physicians building cash-pay or concierge practices, that visibility matters. Patients research their doctors. Colleagues notice who is in the room.

5. The Catalyst Effect: A partnership, a practice pivot, a collaboration, a referral network. Some of the most important decisions begin with a single conversation at a conference. You cannot predict which one. That’s an argument for being present.

5 Reasons to Think Twice

1. The Economics Rarely Add Up: Registration: $1,000 to $2,000. Flights and hotel: $1,500 to $3,000. Three days out of practice. A mid-tier conference easily crosses $5,000 to $10,000 with opportunity cost. Most physicians leave with a tote bag, a LinkedIn connection they’ll never message, and a vague intention to implement something. That is not a return. That is an expensive CME credit.

2. The Speaker Circuit Is Real: A growing number of longevity conference speakers are professional speakers first and clinicians second. Repurposed keynote. Same framework. Same book pitch. If you’ve attended more than three events in two years, you’ve almost certainly heard the content before, repackaged for a different city.

3. Sponsors Have Quietly Become the Audience Most conferences depend on sponsors, not attendees. The agenda is shaped by who is paying for it. Supplement companies, device manufacturers, and longevity tech startups are buying access to physicians.

4. The Information Is Already Everywhere The keynote will be on YouTube within a week. The panel will become a podcast. The citations will be in your inbox before you land. If information transfer is your primary reason, the conference is one of the least efficient ways to get it. The content has been commoditized. What hasn’t been commoditized is the room. But most conferences don’t deliver the room. They deliver a stage.

5. Community Without Continuity Is Just Networking The deepest failure of most conferences is what happens after. You exchanged cards. You had a great dinner conversation. You felt like you were part of something. Then you went home. And the isolation returned within a week. A conference without a living, year-round community behind it is a temporary sensation, not a structural solution to the professional loneliness that affects more physicians than the field will admit.

My personal checklist before deciding

The question isn’t whether to attend. It’s which conferences have earned your three days and your $10,000.

Before I book anything, I run through my personal checklist:

1. Will I learn something I don’t already know?

2. How fresh and relevant are the speaker perspectives or have I heard this keynote before under a different title?

3. Have I seen these speakers somewhere else recently (podcast, YouTube, another stage)?

4. Is there a real chance I’ll meet people who inspire me, challenge me, or become genuine collaborators?

5. Are the expo and sponsors curated or did they simply pay for a booth?

6. Is the format designed for conversation, not just consumption? Panels, workshops, and roundtables are not the same thing.

7. How many people are in the room? 2,000 attendees and 200 is a fundamentally different experience.

8. Is there a living community druing and after the conference?

9. Do I know anyone going? A warm room accelerates everything.

10. Is the city worth the trip? That counts too. Where you land shapes how open you are to everything that follows.

10 yes answers: block the calendar. Fewer than six: wait for the recap.

PS: Full disclosure - Longevitydocs organizes its own conferences. And yes, we try to check all ten boxes. You can hold us to it. Cannes, June 9–11.

Is Cannes Worth It?

Every week, the Longevity Docs Chat feels like a front-row seat to the future of medicine. Here’s what had doctors buzzing:

GLP-1 & Hair Loss

A physician shared a patient with prior severe hair loss who did well for ~8 weeks on re-challenge with tirzepatide. Now reporting scalp tingling and early shedding. Continue? Stop? Dose adjust?

The first wave of responses pointed to the well-established indirect mechanism:

“It’s not a direct result of the med. It’s rapid weight loss changes, similar to bariatric. People under-eat and get nutritional deficiencies. Low protein plus low ferritin/zinc → hair shedding.”

The consensus here: check ferritin, albumin, zinc, B12, thyroid. Go low and slow. Replenish. Hair comes back.

Then a dermatologist pushed back and the thread shifted:

“Women are 15–17x more likely to experience it. There is a theory GLP-1 is activating adipocyte-derived stem cells leading to inflammation and accelerated skin and scalp aging. Although most experts say it’s indirect, clinically I’m seeing something more in some patients. I just don’t know how to identify them before.”

Another member flagged a key co-mechanism:

“TE can unmask AGA in certain patients. I wonder if that’s happening in a subset of the hair loss we’re seeing.”

The dermatologist shared her full GLP-1 Hair Loss Physician Protocol. Within minutes, the requests flooded in from across the group. Her core philosophy:

“Remove the inflammatory triggers in personal care products first: sulfates, phthalates, preservatives are causing inflammation and making things worse. These patients are desperate so they are using all kinds of crazy things on their scalp. Less is more.”

On supplements:

“I don’t use the off-the-shelf hair loss supplements. I use targeted, personalized supplementation. Don’t need biotin in crazy amounts.”

What’s next

A dedicated Longevitydocs Room on GLP-1 and hair loss is being planned. Audio only, physician-led, open discussion. Stay tuned for the date.

“Hair is never just one thing.”

GLP-1RA and the possible skin aging

GLP-1 drugs (Ozempic, Wegovy, Zepbound) are triggering “Ozempic face” through four mechanisms: disrupting adipose-derived stem cells, reducing estrogen production in the skin, starving skin cells of energy, and accelerating collagen breakdown. It’s not just fat loss, there’s direct biological aging happening at the cellular level.

The twist: the same drugs reduce AGEs and systemic inflammation, which protects skin health. Two opposing mechanisms, same drug. Endocrine

Why it matters for physicians: What your patients are seeing in the mirror is real biology, not vanity. Screening for skin aging markers before and during GLP-1 therapy may become standard of care, and the dermatology-longevity overlap is wide open for clinical leadership.

Dasatinib + Quercetin Causes Demyelination in Mices

The popular senolytic combo D+Q (currently in multiple clinical trials) caused significant white matter damage in both young and old healthy mice. Oligodendrocytes (the cells that produce myelin) stopped functioning properly without actually dying, triggered by endoplasmic reticulum stress and the unfolded protein response.

Why it matters for physicians: D+Q is being prescribed and self-administered widely in longevity medicine. This study suggests neurological risk may exist even in healthy individuals, at any age. Clinical trials haven’t been designed to catch this. Until human data clarifies the risk, caution is warranted.

Molecular Evolution of Animal Aging

Nature has solved longevity many times over. Long-lived species (bowhead whales, bats, axolotls, naked mole-rats) share four common strategies: superior DNA repair, controlled inflammation, sustained regenerative capacity, and environmental resilience.

The most clinically actionable findings:

• Inhibiting the enzyme 15-PGDH restores muscle strength by 10–15% in aged mice within one month — and also protects against Alzheimer’s

• DNA double-strand break repair is the strongest molecular predictor of lifespan across species — and can be pharmacologically boosted

• Senolytic precision matters — some senescent cells are protective; removing all of them causes harm

• Gut bacteria drive immune aging through a microbiome-senescence feedback loop that’s potentially reversible

Why it matters: The biology of extreme longevity already exists in nature. The clinical opportunity is learning to replicate it — selectively, safely, and measurably.

Welcoming the Certified Longevitydocs Candidates

This week, three physicians from across the world made the decision. They just joined our Certified LongevityDocs program to earn their CLD certification. Different specialties. One decision.

Dr. Samireh Said is a double board-certified dermatologist with 33 years of experience, trained at the University of California Irvine. After decades of treating skin at the surface, she's now building the clinical framework to treat it at the root: through the lens of aging biology. She joins the CLD program to formalize what she's already seeing in her practice: longevity medicine and dermatology are the same conversation.

Dr Daniel Kessler is double board-certified in Family Medicine and Integrative Holistic Medicine, trained at Emory, with two years at the CDC researching environmental toxins and additional training at the Mayo Clinic. He founded the KADAN Institute when conventional care reached its ceiling. He joins the CLD program to build the evidence layer his root-cause practice has always needed.

Dr. Bryan Love is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, trained at Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, with a career spent at the sharpest edge of human physiology — keeping people alive under the most extreme conditions. He joins the CLD program because the next frontier isn't the trauma bay. It's what happens before patients ever get there.

Three different entry points. One direction. Get certified.

Join the April Cohort

Every week, I track funding, FDA approvals, product launches, and breakthrough announcements shaping longevity medicine.

AI & TECH

Epic launches real-time disease surveillance across 300M patient records

Epic has quietly deployed one of the most powerful disease surveillance systems in medicine. Using its Cosmos platform — 300 million patient records across 2,067 hospitals — it now monitors county-level diagnosis rates and issues public alerts when illness rates spike beyond statistical norms. The system has already flagged elevated rates of bronchiolitis, measles, strep, and viral gastroenteritis across multiple states. Alerts are clinician-reviewed before publication and use the Farrington algorithm, the gold standard in public health surveillance, to filter seasonal noise.

Why it matters for longevitydocs: Real-world surveillance at this scale changes the signal-to-noise ratio in population health. For longevity practices tracking systemic inflammation and immune resilience, this kind of longitudinal signal infrastructure is what evidence-based prevention has always needed.

RESEARCH

Nestlé enters the longevity science space

Nestlé and Nanyang Technological University Singapore are launching a multi-year joint research lab focused on targeted nutrition and biological aging. The collaboration will study metabolic health, mobility, sleep, and menopause — combining Nestlé’s global R&D infrastructure with NTU’s clinical research capabilities. The move signals that food companies are formally entering the longevity science space, not as sponsors, but as investigators.

Why it matters for longevitydocs: When Nestlé funds aging research, the field has crossed a commercial inflection point. The nutrition-longevity connection is becoming investable science — and physicians who understand this space will be positioned ahead of the partnerships that follow.

CULTURE

America is structurally unprepared for its own longevity crisis

In 2026, the oldest Baby Boomers turn 80. Roughly 80% of households with adults aged 60+ lack resources for long-term care. Fewer than 5% of U.S. homes have basic accessibility features. The healthspan-lifespan gap currently sits at 12.4 years. It means most Americans spend over a decade in poor health before death. Researchers are calling for longevity preparedness to replace retirement planning as the organizing framework for aging policy.

Why it matters for longevitydocs: This is the demand signal your practice exists to meet. The gap between what the system offers and what patients actually need is where longevity medicine lives, and it is only widening.

Mastermind Replays Now Available

3 Masterminds. 3 topics reshaping longevity practice: AI & Tech, Peptides, and Hormones - featuring the dozens of faculty. Trusted by hundreds of physicians

If you weren’t in the room, this is your second chance.

Access the Replays

Conferences

Jun 9–11 — Longevity Docs Cannes 2026”: Awards & Summit

Jun 29–Jul 1 — A4LI H-SPAN Summit · Washington, DC Longevity medicine meets regulation and policy.

Aug 24–28 — ARDD · Boston Where aging research meets drug discovery.

Oct 17 — Longevity Docs Skin Longevity Mastermind · New York, NY. Curated physicians. Deep science. One room.

TBA — Longevity Clinics Roundtables · Buck Institute Clinical practice meets research infrastructure.

The Home of Longevity Medicine

longevitydocs.™ is the world’s leading longevity physician community - 600+ doctors across 50 countries united by a single conviction: every doctor should be a longevity doctor. Founded by Dr. David Luu, the platform offers its members network, education, and experience with the mission to democratize longevity medicine.

Not a member yet? Join longevitydocs™

We’re a physician-only network. Curated. Vetted. Built on trust. If you’re committed to practicing longevity medicine with rigor, peer support, and shared standards → this is your community. Apply to connect with our team.

Apply to Join

Longevity medicine is the personalized, evidence-based practice of modifying the root mechanisms of aging (biological, cognitive, and psychosocial) before they become disease, extending healthspan, not just lifespan. Using advanced diagnostics, precision interventions, and AI-enabled monitoring, it translates measurement into action across every medical discipline. Success is measured in functional capacity, vitality, and disease-free years.

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Longevity medicine is moving fast. Every week, we bring you what matters: clinical insights, research signals, and perspectives from 600+ physicians across 50+ countries. One newsletter. Built for the physicians shaping this field.

Editorial Disclaimer:

This newsletter is published exclusively for licensed physicians and qualified healthcare professionals. It is not intended for consumers or patients.

All content, including the Buzz in the Chat section, is for continuing medical education and professional information purposes only. It reflects emerging research, science, and technology that may have implications for the practice of medicine. It does not constitute medical advice, clinical recommendations, or treatment guidance for any individual patient.

Peer-to-peer discussions reproduced in this newsletter represent the personal clinical opinions of individual physicians. They do not reflect the official position of Longevity Docs and have not been reviewed or endorsed by any regulatory, medical, or professional body.

References to specific therapies, compounds, devices, or protocols are provided for educational context only. Some may be investigational, off-label, or not approved by the FDA, EMA, or equivalent regulatory authorities in your jurisdiction. Physicians are responsible for independently evaluating all information in accordance with current evidence, applicable law, and the standards of their licensing board.

Longevity Docs does not promote, endorse, or recommend any specific product, treatment, or commercial entity. Nothing in this newsletter should be construed as a solicitation or as influencing prescribing behavior.

By reading this newsletter, you confirm that you are a licensed healthcare professional and that you will apply the information contained herein within the bounds of your clinical judgment, professional obligations, and applicable regulations.

If you are a patient or consumer reading this newsletter, please note that this content should not be used to make any health or medical decisions. Please consult your personal physician or a qualified healthcare provider for guidance specific to your situation.

Hey Doc,

It is 5pm. I just finished our annual lunch, surrounded by 30 people. Family. Friends. Every guest can bring a friend. No guestlist.

We cooked. We made fun of each others. We danced. Someone played guitar. Someone pulled out the dominoes.

One tradition I have kept. Before we eat, everyone stands and shares one word of gratitude. That is it. No speech. No performance. Just presence before the meal.

What struck me today was not the food or the music. It was the room. People who had never met, laughing like they had known each other for years.

This is my longevity way. A Sunday lunch that runs three hours longer than planned. Gratitude shared before the first bite. A community that feeds you before the food even arrives.

We talk a lot about health optimization. Today I wanna talk about life optimization.

Dr. David Luu - Founder, longevitydocs.™

Each week, I try to explore one idea that could advance longevity medicine and hopefully support physicians in bringing it to life.

Should Doctors Build a Personal Brand? 5 Pros and 5 Cons.

This cover story started in our chat. One doctor shared the social media agency he uses. Full production. Other docs chimed in. Some impressed. Some skeptical. Most asking the same thing quietly: should I be doing this too?

It made me think.

Doctors have always been a brand.

This is not new. This is ancient.

Hippocrates understood it. The physician’s reputation was sacred. How you showed up at the bedside. How you delivered a diagnosis. Whether you listened before you spoke. That was your brand before the word existed.

For centuries, doctors were recognized by five things: knowledge, expertise, service, bedside manner, and outcomes. Your patients knew it. Your community knew it. Referrals came by word of mouth. A doctor’s name carried weight in the village, the town, the hospital corridor.

No one called it branding. But that is exactly what it was.

The AMA banned physician advertising until 1980. But it did not matter. Reputations still traveled. Patients still chose their doctor based on what their neighbor said. Surgeons were still known for steady hands. Family physicians were still known for midnight house calls.

The brand existed. It just lived in conversations, not on screens.

How the brand metrics changed.

Not long ago, the markers of a great physician were clear. He trained at Harvard. She was featured in the New York Times. He published 100 scientific papers. That was the currency. Institutional pedigree. Media validation. Academic output.

Those things still matter. But they are no longer enough.

Today the metrics look completely different. Millions of followers. Celebrity patients. Brand partnerships. A lifestyle that signals success. Entrepreneurial ventures outside the clinic. Political positions. Cultural opinions. A personal story that people follow like a narrative.

The journey itself has become part of the brand.

A doctor used to be judged by where he trained and what he published. Now he is also judged by how he shows up online, what he believes publicly, and whether his story resonates. The CV still opens doors. But the personal narrative is what fills the room.

I am not saying this is better or worse. I am saying it is real. And ignoring it does not make it go away.

What changed.

The principle never changed. Where it lives did.

Google arrived. Suddenly your patients looked you up before they walked in. Your online presence became your first impression.

Social media followed. Doctors could speak directly to patients, to peers, to the public. Some embraced it. Most resisted.

Telemedicine removed geography. A doctor in Miami could treat a patient in Montana. But only if that patient could find them.

Now AI. Patients ask ChatGPT before they ask their doctor. The physicians whose thinking lives online are the ones AI surfaces. The invisible doctor becomes truly invisible.

Each wave raised the stakes. Each wave rewarded the same thing: the doctor who showed up with clarity about who they are and what they stand for.

What does building a brand actually mean?

Not a logo. Not a follower count. Not a production budget.

Your brand is your reputation. It is how people describe you when you are not in the room. It is the principles you defend. The positions you take. The way your patients feel after they leave your office and then search your name.

You already have one. The only question is whether you are shaping it or leaving it to chance.

5 Pros: Five reasons a brand can build you.

1. Trust. Medicine has always run on trust. But trust used to travel slowly: word of mouth, hospital corridors, a neighbor's recommendation. Now it travels at the speed of a Google search. Your brand is how trust scales. It communicates your principles before you speak. Your values before a patient books. Your personality before they walk through the door. The physicians patients stay with longest are not always the most credentialed. They are the most known, the most consistent, and the most believed.

2. Expertise. You can be the best longevity physician in your city and be completely unknown outside your zip code. A brand changes that. Every article you publish, every talk you give, every position you take publicly extends your clinical thinking beyond the exam room. Expertise without visibility is a ceiling. Your brand removes it. The physicians shaping this field are not necessarily smarter than you. They are just more visible.

3. Discovery. Your patients are searching right now. Not for a doctor. For an answer. For someone who understands what they are going through. If your name does not come up, someone less qualified fills that space. That is not a marketing problem. That is a patient care problem. A brand makes you findable by the right patients, at the right moment, before they ever pick up the phone.

4. Autonomy. The physicians with the most freedom are not the ones with the most credentials. They are the ones known for something. A strong brand gives you leverage over your schedule, your pricing, your patient selection, and your career trajectory. It is the difference between building a practice around your life and building a life around your practice. Brand is not vanity. It is the infrastructure of autonomy.

5. Opportunity. A brand compounds. Every talk builds on the last. Every published piece adds to the body of work. Every consistent post expands the network. Three years of clarity and consistency will transform your reach, your reputation, and the opportunities that find you: advisory boards, partnerships, media, speaking, investment. The physicians who built their brand five years ago are not working harder than you. They are just receiving more inbound than you. That gap closes the day you start.

5 Cons: Five Ways a Brand Can Break You.

1. Time. Building a brand is not a weekend project. It is a long game that demands consistent attention (content, presence, engagement, strategy) on top of a clinical schedule that already has no slack in it. The physicians who burn out on brand building are not the ones who tried too hard. They are the ones who underestimated the commitment before they started. A neglected brand does more damage than no brand at all.

2. Dilution. Slowly. That is how it happens. One compromised post. One paid ad. One position taken for reach instead of truth. You became a physician because you believed in something. The moment your brand starts chasing engagement instead of conviction, you begin trading your purpose for an audience. Your brand should amplify what you stand for. The moment it starts replacing it, stop.

3. Exposure. Everything you say publicly can be taken out of context, challenged, or weaponized. Trolls. Misinterpretation. Regulatory scrutiny. Licensing board complaints. These are not hypothetical. They are the reality of practicing medicine in public. Visibility is power. It is also exposure. Build your brand knowing both are true.

4. Investment. Branding building can costs up to tens of thousand dollar a month. That is what one physician in our group is spending on production alone. You do not need to spend that to start. But you do need to spend something: either money or an enormous amount of your own time. Photography. Video. Copywriting. Social management. SEO/AEO. The infrastructure of a serious physician brand adds up faster than it looks. There is no high-quality brand built on zero investment. Know what you are committing to before you begin.

5. Expertise. Nobody taught you content strategy, audience building, platform algorithms, or how to write a hook that stops a scroll. That gap is real. It humbles a lot of brilliant physicians who assume clinical excellence translates directly to online credibility. It does not. The skills are different. The learning curve is steeper than it looks. The physicians who succeed online are not just good doctors. They are also students of communication. That is a second education. Go in with your eyes open.

The Only Brand That Works.

Not the most polished. Not the biggest budget. The most true.

The doctors who will lead the next decade of medicine are not the ones who figured out the algorithm. They are the ones who had something real to say, to a specific group of people who needed to hear it, and kept saying it.

Figure out what you stand for. Then go stand there. Loudly, consistently, and without apology.

Measure your impact in outcomes, not impressions. Educate with generosity. Share opportunities. Care for the people you serve and guide them ethically — with the full weight of clinical judgment behind every word.

Hippocrates understood this a few years ago ;) The physician’s duty was never just to treat. It was to heal, to teach, and to guide.

That has not changed. The screen is just a bigger room.

The world does not have enough doctors doing that. Be one of them.

Every week, the Longevity Docs WhatsApp group feels like a front-row seat to the future of medicine. Here’s what had doctors buzzing:

GLP-1s Are Stealing Joy. Does It Matter?

The weight comes off. The inflammation drops. The metabolic markers improve. But something else changes too. Some patients on GLP-1 agonists report a quiet flattening of life. Food stops being pleasurable. Hobbies feel distant. The drive dims.

One physician shared it happened to her personally at just 2.5mg of tirzepatide. She linked it to her COMT met/met variant, a genetic profile associated with slower dopamine clearance. She stopped the medication.

“N=1, but it was real. The anhedonia was bad enough that I didn’t want to continue.”

Another physician pushed back. For her, the clinical calculus is clear: optimize hormones first, check CYP2C19 metabolism, and consider adjunct options before attributing emotional blunting to the drug itself.

“Estrogen and testosterone status matter enormously here. I’ve seen patients feel completely different once we address the hormonal picture alongside the GLP-1.”

A third perspective: the new oral GLP-1 partial agonist entering the market may sidestep this entirely. Unlike full agonists, it reportedly preserves the drive for things that bring joy. The mechanism is different enough to warrant attention.

“It doesn’t kill motivation the same way. That’s a meaningful clinical distinction if it holds up.”

The deeper question no one has answered yet: are we selecting the right patients for these drugs? COMT variants, dopamine profiles, hormonal status. The era of prescribing GLP-1s uniformly may already be over for sophisticated longevity physicians.

No MBA? We got you! Launching Longevity Docs Growth.

Last week a physician in our group told me he’s been running his longevity practice for two years. Fully booked. No idea what his CAC is. No idea what his LTV is. Just working harder every month hoping the math works out.

That’s what Longevity Docs Growth is built to fix.

A business track for longevity physicians stepping into the next era of their practice and their life.

Whether you’re building from scratch, scaling what’s working, or expanding beyond the exam room: this track gives you the frameworks, the numbers, the playbooks, and the peers to do it faster and smarter than going alone.

Every session is built for longevity physicians, taught by longevity physicians and operators who have done it.

Who it’s for:

• The physician ready to start their first longevity practice

• The clinic owner ready to scale beyond where they are

• The established doctor ready to diversify into speaking, products, partnerships, or platforms

The Sessions:

Session 1 — Strategy

“Build The Longevity Practice Blueprint” The 101 every longevity physician needs before they spend a dollar or see a patient.

Session 2 — Operations

“Operate Like a Formula One Team.” The operating system behind the world’s highest-performing longevity clinics.

Session 3 — Finances

“Know Your Numbers” ARR. CAC. LTV. CPA. The four numbers standing between you and a practice that actually makes you free.

Session 4 — Marketing

“Acquire Better Patients Faster” Stop chasing volume. Start attracting the patients who stay, pay, and refer.

Session 5 — Branding

“Build Your Brand Before You Need It” The physician who owns their name online never competes on price.

Session 6 Technology

“Download the Tech Stack” The exact tools the world’s best longevity clinics are running right now.

More than a generic MBA. Join us in Cannes. The Growth Track is included.

June 9–11. Cannes. You should be there.

Secure yours now →

GLP-1 Receptor Agonists

GLP-1 and dual/triple agonists (semaglutide, tirzepatide, retatrutide) are now first-line for type 2 diabetes and obesity, delivering up to 25% weight loss and meaningful HbA1c reductions. Large RCTs confirm significant cardiovascular and renal protection, independent of glucose control alone. Key concerns remain: muscle and bone loss with sustained weight reduction, weight regain after discontinuation, and long-term adherence data still limited to under 3 years. The frontier is expanding toward neurodegeneration, liver disease, heart failure, and cancer, but health equity and cost access remain unresolved. NEJM

Epigenetic Age Feedback & Lifestyle Change

Sharing personalized epigenetic age data with patients works: after one year, 72% felt healthier, 60% increased physical activity, and 63% improved health literacy. Not all epigenetic clocks are equal — massive variability across 14 models tested, with Zhang2019-BLUP selected as the most interpretable for patient-facing communication without triggering unnecessary anxiety. Behavior change was hardest in smoking and alcohol (only 3% and 26% improvement), confirming that deep habits need more than biomarker feedback alone. Community-based delivery through trusted local networks was a key driver of engagement and retention. Epigenonmes

Why it matters: Showing patients their biological age can be a powerful behavior change tools in your clinical arsenal. The clock you choose matters. Pick one your patients can understand and act on.

AI Scribes Reduce Clinical Time

Across 5 academic medical centers and 8,500+ clinicians, AI scribe adoption cut total EHR time by 13 minutes and documentation time by 16 minutes per 8-hour day, while adding roughly half a visit per week. Benefits were largest for primary care physicians, female clinicians, advanced practice clinicians, and those using AI scribes in more than half their visits. Notably, after-hours EHR time didn’t change significantly, suggesting AI scribes aren’t yet solving the burnout problem at its root. JAMA

Why it matters: AI scribes are a real but modest win — not a revolution. For longevity physicians running high-touch, complex consultations, the documentation burden is even heavier.

Welcoming the Certified Longevitydocs Candidates

This week, three physicians from across the world made the decision. They just joined our Certified LongevityDocs program to earn their CLD certification. Different specialties. Different continents. One decision.

Dr. Tiffany Moon (USA) is a board-certified anesthesiologist, entrepreneur, and cultural force who has built a platform that reaches far beyond the clinic walls. She understands that the future of medicine is not just about what happens in the exam room, it’s about who gets to shape the conversation. Her ability to bridge clinical credibility with mass reach is exactly the kind of voice longevity medicine needs more of. She’s bringing that energy here.

Dr. Paul Verrills (Australia) is a pain medicine and interventional specialist based in Australia, recognized internationally for his pioneering work in neuromodulation and advanced pain therapies. He represents something critical for this community: longevity medicine is not a US phenomenon. It is a global movement. Australia is on the map. So is everywhere else.

Dr. Gurmeet Soni Bhalla (India) is a longevity clinician, allergist, and Chief Medical Officer at Resolute, based in Bangalore, India. With over 25 years of clinical expertise in Allergy, Immunology, and Pediatrics, she is redefining preventive care by bridging evidence-based medicine with emerging insights in longevity and human performance.

These doctors didn't think about it. They are doing it. Get certified.

Join the April Cohort

Every week, I track funding, FDA approvals, product launches, and breakthrough announcements shaping longevity medicine.

CARE

Hims & Hers Expands Personalized Digital Healthcare Platform

Hims is building a consumer-first digital healthcare platform that integrates diagnosis, treatment and fulfillment into a seamless, technology-enabled experience. Its model connects patients with licensed providers through telehealth, enabling personalized treatment plans supported by digital prescriptions, online pharmacy fulfillment and continuous clinical management.

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AI & TECH

How A.I. Helped One Man Build a $1.8 Billion “Telehealth” Company

Matthew Gallagher built Medvi, a GLP-1 telehealth company, in two months with $20K and a stack of AI tools — Claude, ChatGPT, Midjourney, ElevenLabs — outsourcing medical, pharmacy, and compliance infrastructure to third-party platforms. Year one: $401M in revenue, 250K customers, 16% net profit margins. Year two on track for $1.8B. His only hire was his brother. No venture funding. No office.

Why it matters: A non-physician just built a $1.8B longevity-adjacent business by doing exactly what most doctors won’t — moving fast, using AI ruthlessly, and staying lean. The clinical infrastructure already exists. The technology already exists. The patients are already there. The only thing missing is the physician at the center of it. That’s the CLD. That’s Longevity Docs. The rails are being built whether we build them or not. The question is who controls them.

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RESEARCH

Hallucinated citations are polluting the scientific literature. What can be done?

A Nature analysis estimates over 110,000 scientific publications from 2025 contain invalid AI-generated references, with 2.6% of papers in some fields carrying at least one hallucinated citation — up tenfold from 2024. AI models stitch together fragments of real papers into convincing but nonexistent “Frankenstein” citations, making them hard to detect even for editors. Major publishers are now deploying screening tools, but detection remains imperfect and the problem is almost certainly larger in smaller, less-resourced journals.

Why it matters: The longevity literature is already noisy. If AI-generated citations are polluting the reference lists of papers your patients and colleagues are reading, your clinical judgment and ability to evaluate evidence critically has never been more valuable. This is exactly why physician-led, evidence-graded intelligence — like what we’re building at Longevity Docs — matters.

PHARMA/BIOTECH

Japan Approves the World’s First Treatment Made With Reprogrammed Human Cells

Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare officially granted conditional and time-limited marketing authorization to two regenerative medical products derived from reprogrammed iPS cells, marking exactly 20 years since the creation of mouse iPS cells. These will be the world’s first practical application of iPS cell-derived products. Wired

Why it matters: Within five years, longevity physicians will be fielding patient questions about iPS-derived therapies. Understanding the regulatory pathway Japan is building now prepares you to lead that conversation.

CULTURE

Ipsos Report: Strategic Implications of the Longevity Medicine Revolution

Ipsos: longevity medicine is no longer wellness. it is pharma’s next frontier.

Ipsos identifies five strategic categories now shaping the longevity market: molecular therapies (senolytics, NAD+ boosters), system optimizers (microbiome, immune resilience), experimental preventives (gene therapy, cellular reprogramming), diagnostics (biological clocks, biomarkers), and repurposed drugs (GLP-1s, metformin). Big pharma, biotech, platform R&D, and DTC companies are all converging on the same thesis: medicine is shifting from treating disease to preserving healthspan.

Why it matters: The report confirms what longevity physicians already see in practice. The industry is moving from reactive to proactive. Pharma is repositioning existing assets around aging biology. Commercialization models are evolving beyond traditional HCP channels toward consumer-driven, prevention-first strategies. For longevity doctors, this means growing institutional validation, new diagnostic tools entering clinical workflows, and an expanding evidence base for interventions already being used in practice. The question is no longer if longevity medicine becomes mainstream. It is how fast.

Mastermind Replays Now Available

3 Masterminds. 3 topics reshaping longevity practice: AI & Tech, Peptides, and Hormones - featuring the dozens of faculty. Trusted by hundreds of physicians

If you weren’t in the room, this is your second chance.

Access the Replays

Conferences

April 11 — A4M SpringFest · Miami

Jun 9–11 — Longevity Docs Cannes 2026”: Awards & Summit

Jun 29–Jul 1 — A4LI H-SPAN Summit · Washington, DC Longevity medicine meets regulation and policy.

Aug 24–28 — ARDD · Copenhagen, Denmark Where aging research meets drug discovery.

Oct 17 — Longevity Docs Skin Longevity Mastermind · New York, NY. Curated physicians. Deep science. One room.

TBA — Longevity Clinics Roundtables · Buck Institute Clinical practice meets research infrastructure.

The Home of Longevity Medicine

longevitydocs.™ is the world’s leading longevity physician community - 600+ doctors across 50 countries united by a single conviction: every doctor should be a longevity doctor. Founded by Dr. David Luu, the platform offers its members network, education, and experience with the mission to democratize longevity medicine.

Not a member yet? Join longevitydocs™

We’re a physician-only network. Curated. Vetted. Built on trust. If you’re committed to practicing longevity medicine with rigor, peer support, and shared standards → this is your community. Apply to connect with our team.

Apply to Join

Longevity medicine is the personalized, evidence-based practice of modifying the root mechanisms of aging (biological, cognitive, and psychosocial) before they become disease, extending healthspan, not just lifespan. Using advanced diagnostics, precision interventions, and AI-enabled monitoring, it translates measurement into action across every medical discipline. Success is measured in functional capacity, vitality, and disease-free years.

Subscribe to the Longevity Docs Newsletter

Longevity medicine is moving fast. Every week, we bring you what matters: clinical insights, research signals, and perspectives from 600+ physicians across 50+ countries. One newsletter. Built for the physicians shaping this field.

Editorial Disclaimer:

This newsletter is published exclusively for licensed physicians and qualified healthcare professionals. It is not intended for consumers or patients.

All content, including the Buzz in the Chat section, is for continuing medical education and professional information purposes only. It reflects emerging research, science, and technology that may have implications for the practice of medicine. It does not constitute medical advice, clinical recommendations, or treatment guidance for any individual patient.

Peer-to-peer discussions reproduced in this newsletter represent the personal clinical opinions of individual physicians. They do not reflect the official position of Longevity Docs and have not been reviewed or endorsed by any regulatory, medical, or professional body.

References to specific therapies, compounds, devices, or protocols are provided for educational context only. Some may be investigational, off-label, or not approved by the FDA, EMA, or equivalent regulatory authorities in your jurisdiction. Physicians are responsible for independently evaluating all information in accordance with current evidence, applicable law, and the standards of their licensing board.

Longevity Docs does not promote, endorse, or recommend any specific product, treatment, or commercial entity. Nothing in this newsletter should be construed as a solicitation or as influencing prescribing behavior.

By reading this newsletter, you confirm that you are a licensed healthcare professional and that you will apply the information contained herein within the bounds of your clinical judgment, professional obligations, and applicable regulations.

If you are a patient or consumer reading this newsletter, please note that this content should not be used to make any health or medical decisions. Please consult your personal physician or a qualified healthcare provider for guidance specific to your situation.

Hey Doc,

Three years ago, I started Longevity Docs from a WhatsApp group of dozen physicians. The mission is still the same: to democratize longevity medicine and make sure every doctor has the tools, the knowledge, and the community to practice it.

This week feels like a milestone.

I just got back from Denver, from AAD, the largest dermatology conference in the world. The energy around longevity medicine was impressive. Dermatologists are not just curious anymore. They are ready. They are asking the right questions. They want the knowledge. They want the community. They want in.

The timing could not be better.

Today we are launching Longevity Docs 2.0, our new home for the most influential physician community in longevity medicine. And we are celebrating our first-ever Certified LongevityDoc, Dr. Naana Boakye, a dermatologist who saw this coming before most.

This is just the beginning.

Dr. David Luu - Founder, longevitydocs.™

PS: thank you for your patience … a few days late, I know. Travel has been intense lately. But when I see my son waking up on the deck in the morning sun, I remember exactly what this is all about. That is the type of longevity we are building towards.

Each week, I try to explore one idea that could advance longevity medicine and hopefully support physicians in bringing it to life.

Longevitydocs 2.0: We Built You a Home

In February, we asked you a simple question: what do you actually need? The answers were clear: a searchable forum, shared protocols, a resource library, direct messaging between members. Not a WhatsApp group. A real home.

You asked. We built.

Today we are announcing Longevity Docs 2.0: the evolution of our community from a chat thread into a fully integrated platform built by physicians, for physicians. The most influential community in longevity medicine now has a place where it belongs.

Why We Built This

WhatsApp was never the destination. It was the beginning. A 10-physician became hundreds members across 60+ countries. The conversations got sharper. The protocols got more sophisticated. The community got bigger than any chat app was designed to hold.

Brilliant clinical insights were disappearing into scroll history. Protocols were being shared without documentation. Connections were happening between phone numbers instead of physician profiles. We needed more.

What’s Live Now: Beta by Invitation

The beta is open. Not to everyone yet, intentionally. We started with our earliest members, our most active contributors, and our Certified Longevity Docs candidates. The OGs who showed up when this was still just an idea.

Here is what they are building inside right now.

• Chat: Rebuilt from the Ground Up. Every member has a real profile, not a phone number. Every message can be answered as a thread. Every thread can be saved. The conversation you’re having today won’t disappear tomorrow.

  

• Hippo: A learning assistant trained on our certification curriculum. Ask anything about longevity medicine and get an answer grounded in the science we’ve built together. Available to all members. Fully unlocked for CLDs (this is not a Clinical Decision Support)

• Intelligence Brief: Daily synthesis of what matters (PubMed, journals, media) filtered through a longevity medicine lens and organized by Research, Clinical, and Business. All intelligence in one place

  

  

  

• School. Our masterminds and our Certification program are now directly on the platform. One home for your clinical education.

What’s Coming

We’re building fast and are working on shipping a feature every week. Here’s what’s next

• Opportunities: curated hiring and consulting opportunities sourced specifically for longevity physicians.

• Practice: tools for solo practitioners and clinics to grow their practice, build membership revenue, and strengthen their community presence.

• Patients: a channel for physicians to communicate directly with patients.

The Next Era

The next era of longevity medicine will be collaborative, physician-owned, and science-first. As knowledge and software become commodity, physicians will always find a home in Longevitydocs.

We started with a conversation. Now we have a home.

The beta is live. Your invitation is coming.

Welcome to Longevitydocs 2.0.

Every week, the Longevity Docs WhatsApp group feels like a front-row seat to the future of medicine. Here’s what had doctors buzzing:

PRACTICE

Quest & Labcorp Rate Negotiation

Physicians in the community are actively negotiating better lab rates and sharing real numbers with each other. One member asked for “competitor pricing” after Quest pushed back on her rate request. Several colleagues stepped up to share their own contracts directly.

For longevitydocs: Running a longevity practice means managing margins. Knowing what your peers are paying is leverage. If you haven’t renegotiated your lab rates recently, you’re likely leaving money on the table. Connect with colleagues who have volume-based contracts. The community is your best benchmark.

INTERVENTION

Cord Blood Banking

A member’s daughter is expecting the community’s newest arrival. The conversation quickly turned practical: where to store umbilical cord stem cells. Cryocell came up as the top recommendation, with LifeBank USA flagged as the hospital-affiliated option.

For longevitydocs: Your patients are asking about this. Having a clear, evidence-informed recommendation ready (including what to look for in a storage provider) is a simple way to add value at a pivotal moment in a family’s life.

TECH & AI

1. AI Scribes & Clinical Documentation Freed AI, Heidi, Nabla, Plaud device. Freed winning on virtual visits, transcripts, and informed consent documentation. Heidi better for summaries and tables. Physical devices losing to apps.

2. AI & HIPAA. Claude Cowork not HIPAA compliant. Google Workspace and Vertex AI (Gemini) viable if set up correctly. N8N self-hosted on AWS/GCP the cleanest solution for HIPAA-safe automations.

3. Medical AI Tools for Clinical Decision Support Open Evidence (literature-based, PubMed-grounded) vs. ChatGPT (increasingly restrictive on medical questions) vs. Perplexity Health (strong on newer treatments). Always double check.

Last June, physicians, researchers, and founders from around the wordl gathered in Cannes for two days.

Watched the Mediterranean turn gold from the Majestic Pier. We ran La Croisette at sunrise. Had lunch with speakers on the beach. We left with protocols, partnerships, and friendships that don’t happen at any other event in medicine.

That was year one. This is year two, and it’s not slowing down.

The longevitydocs Summit & Awards is becoming the most important gathering in longevity medicine. Not because of the venue. Because of what happens when the right physicians and partners are together in the same room.

June 9–11. Cannes. You should be there.

Secure yours now →

Systemic epigenetic dysregulation as a driver of ageing and a therapeutic target

This framework reveals why therapeutics targeting epigenetic systems have consistent effects across multiple model systems and ageing phenotypes. The interconnected organization of chromatin regulation mechanisms creates concrete therapeutic targets to restore regulatory coherence. By providing mechanistic clarity on how epigenetic dysregulation drives ageing phenotypes, we aim to enable rational design of therapeutics that target the epigenetic systems that fail during ageing, rather than individual molecular defects. Nature Reviews

Trial Shows Lower LDL Target Cuts Heart Risks by 33%

Among patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, targeting an LDL cholesterol level below 55 mg per deciliter led to a lower 3-year risk of cardiovascular events than targeting a level below 70 mg per deciliter. Full Ez-PAVE trial results: NEMJ

Premature Menopause and Lifetime Risk of Coronary Heart Disease

In this cohort study published in JAMA premature menopause was associated with 40% higher lifetime risk of CHD in Black and White women. This suggests that premature onset of menopause is an important risk-enhancing factor for lifetime risk and should be routinely assessed in clinical practice to consider intensification of preventive efforts.

The First. But Not the Last.

Dr. Naana Boakye just made history. Here’s why it matters for every doctor reading this.

In October 2025, Dr. Naana Boakye made a decision that would change the trajectory of her practice. She enrolled in the Certified LongevityDocs program. Six months later, she made history.

Dr. Naana Boakye, MD, CLD, MPH is now the first-ever Certified LongevityDoc in the world.

She did it while running a full dermatology practice. Seeing patients every day. Showing up. That is what commitment looks like.

Why she did it

She didn’t need another credential. She needed a framework.

Like many of us, she saw the gap. Patients weren’t just asking about their skin anymore. They were asking about their energy, their aging, their future. They wanted a doctor who could see the whole picture.

In her own words:

“Patients sit back and they’re just like, no one has talked to me about this before. They’re so empowered. I’m connecting the dots. You’re inflamed now, so we have to do X, Y and Z, and I’ll see you back in three months. And they’re just like, whoa.”

That moment. That is why longevity medicine exists.

What changed for her

Dr. Boakye had been practicing lifestyle medicine for years. But something was missing.

“This just seems like a natural fit. The natural next step.”

The Certified LongevityDocs program gave her the clinical framework to connect the dots. Biomarker diagnostics. Metabolic health. Cellular biology. Regenerative protocols. All of it layered on top of the dermatology expertise she had already spent years building.

For a dermatologist, it is a natural extension. Skin is the most visible organ of aging. The biological mirror of everything happening inside. Dr. Boakye understood that before most.

What the Certified LongevityDocs program is

Not a weekend seminar. Not a marketing badge.

A rigorous, physician-grade certification built for doctors who believe medicine should be proactive, not reactive. That healthspan matters as much as lifespan. That every doctor, regardless of specialty, should be equipped to guide their patients through the science of aging.

Built for practicing physicians. Designed around your schedule. Delivered through our platform alongside a global community of physicians asking the same questions you are.

And when you complete it, you do not just earn a credential. You join a movement.

“There’s definitely a movement going on.” Dr. Boakye said it herself.

The movement

Longevity Docs started as a WhatsApp group of nine physicians in February 2023. Today it is a global community of over 1,000 physicians across 68 countries. All united by one belief.

Every doctor should be a longevity doctor.

The patients in your waiting room are already thinking about their biological age. Their cellular health. Their next 30 years. They are reading the science. They are asking the questions. The only question is whether their doctor is ready to answer them.

Dr. Boakye is ready. She proved that this week.

Your turn

Dr. Boakye started in October. She finished as the first.

The physicians joining the April cohort will be among the first Certified LongevityDocs in the world. They will know each other by name. They will build together. They will look back at this moment as the one where everything changed.

Be part of the longevity medicine movement

Join the April Cohort

Every week, I track funding, FDA approvals, product launches, and breakthrough announcements shaping longevity medicine.

CARE

Data show people racing to chatbots for health advice

A Rock Health survey of 8,000 consumers found 32% had used AI chatbots for health information, twice the number from a year ago. Of those, 56% used them to search for a diagnosis based on symptoms. This was before OpenAI and others launched dedicated health AI products. Your patients are showing up having already consulted a chatbot. That conversation happened before yours. Longevity physicians who integrate AI literacy into patient education - and who lead with precision data rather than general advice - will hold the clinical authority and trust that chatbots cannot replace.

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AI & TECH

Tom Brady Bets $200M on GLP-1s

eMed closed a $200M Series A at a $2B+ valuation. Brady is Founding Chief Wellness Officer and investor. Linda Yaccarino (ex-X CEO) runs the company. The model is employer-facing. GLP-1s are the most requested workplace benefit, yet only 1 in 5 companies offer it. PR Newswire eMed closes that gap with AI-managed clinical programs. 90% adherence, double the industry norm.

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WEARABLES

Oura Ring And Symptoms Radar

Symptom Radar could catch serious disease. The feature flags deviations from personal baseline vitals, no diagnosis, just a signal. It has now surfaced multiple cases of lymphoma and appendicitis in users who would have otherwise delayed care. The ring didn’t diagnose anything. It created the nudge to seek one. Condition-specific alerts may be the next frontier for Oura, and the company is already laying the groundwork. Through Oura Labs (in the Oura app), ring owners can opt into a clinical study focused on detecting high blood pressure. CNET

PHARMA/BIOTECH

FDA Approves Higher-Dose Semaglutide (Wegovy HD 7.2mg)

The FDA cleared Wegovy HD in just 54 days under its National Priority Voucher program. Same molecule. Higher dose. With semaglutide patents expiring in India and China and biosimilars incoming, Novo is building branded differentiation before the generic wave hits. Expect patients to ask for it. Have a clear protocol ready: who qualifies for the dose escalation, how you monitor, and how you counsel on the new skin sensitivity signal. Compounding access is already tightening.

Mastermind Replays Now Available

3 Masterminds. 3 topics reshaping longevity practice: AI & Tech, Peptides, and Hormones - featuring the dozens of faculty. Trusted by hundreds of physicians

If you weren’t in the room, this is your second chance.

Access the Replays

Conferences

Jun 9–11 — Longevity Docs Cannes 2026”: Awards & Summit

Jun 29–Jul 1 — A4LI H-SPAN Summit · Washington, DC Longevity medicine meets regulation and policy.

Aug 24–28 — ARDD · Copenhagen, Denmark Where aging research meets drug discovery.

Oct 17 — Longevity Docs Skin Longevity Mastermind · New York, NY. Curated physicians. Deep science. One room.

TBA — Longevity Clinics Roundtables · Buck Institute Clinical practice meets research infrastructure.

The Home of Longevity Medicine

longevitydocs.™ is the world’s leading longevity physician community - 600+ doctors across 50 countries united by a single conviction: every doctor should be a longevity doctor. Founded by Dr. David Luu, the platform offers its members network, education, and experience with the mission to democratize longevity medicine.

Not a member yet? Join longevitydocs™

We’re a physician-only network. Curated. Vetted. Built on trust. If you’re committed to practicing longevity medicine with rigor, peer support, and shared standards → this is your community. Apply to connect with our team.

Apply to Join

Longevity medicine is the personalized, evidence-based practice of modifying the root mechanisms of aging (biological, cognitive, and psychosocial) before they become disease, extending healthspan, not just lifespan. Using advanced diagnostics, precision interventions, and AI-enabled monitoring, it translates measurement into action across every medical discipline. Success is measured in functional capacity, vitality, and disease-free years.

Subscribe to the Longevity Docs Newsletter

Longevity medicine is moving fast. Every week, we bring you what matters: clinical insights, research signals, and perspectives from 600+ physicians across 50+ countries. One newsletter. Built for the physicians shaping this field.

Editorial Disclaimer:

This newsletter is published exclusively for licensed physicians and qualified healthcare professionals. It is not intended for consumers or patients.

All content, including the Buzz in the Chat section, is for continuing medical education and professional information purposes only. It reflects emerging research, science, and technology that may have implications for the practice of medicine. It does not constitute medical advice, clinical recommendations, or treatment guidance for any individual patient.

Peer-to-peer discussions reproduced in this newsletter represent the personal clinical opinions of individual physicians. They do not reflect the official position of Longevity Docs and have not been reviewed or endorsed by any regulatory, medical, or professional body.

References to specific therapies, compounds, devices, or protocols are provided for educational context only. Some may be investigational, off-label, or not approved by the FDA, EMA, or equivalent regulatory authorities in your jurisdiction. Physicians are responsible for independently evaluating all information in accordance with current evidence, applicable law, and the standards of their licensing board.

Longevity Docs does not promote, endorse, or recommend any specific product, treatment, or commercial entity. Nothing in this newsletter should be construed as a solicitation or as influencing prescribing behavior.

By reading this newsletter, you confirm that you are a licensed healthcare professional and that you will apply the information contained herein within the bounds of your clinical judgment, professional obligations, and applicable regulations.

If you are a patient or consumer reading this newsletter, please note that this content should not be used to make any health or medical decisions. Please consult your personal physician or a qualified healthcare provider for guidance specific to your situation.

Hey Doc,

I just got back from disappearing. This is Sunday! I landed at JFK at 11:29pm last night. One week. No meetings. No agenda. No Zoom. Just me and one question I needed to answer.

I call it Architect Week. Once a quarter, I disappear. Not to rest but to think. The kind of thinking that’s impossible when the calendar is full and the notifications are on. The kind that only happens when you remove everything competing for your attention.

This quarter the question was this: How do we help physicians build the longevity practice they went to medical school to build

I think I found the answer.

It’s not a framework, courses, or protocols. It’s The Operating System, built specifically for physicians who’ve decided that fighting aging is the most important work medicine can do right now.

More on this soon.

In the meantime… if you haven’t tried it, consider your own Architect Week. Pick a place or stay home. Clear your calendar. Choose one question. Sit with it until something breaks open.

What would would your question? Respond to this newsletter, I read every single one.

Dr. David Luu - Founder, longevitydocs.™

Each week, I try to explore one idea that could advance longevity medicine and hopefully support physicians in bringing it to life.

The Longevity Clinic Gold Rush: 5 Pros, 5 Cons

In 2020, longevity clinics were a niche experiment. In 2026, they are a global industry.

Serotonin Centers crossed 100 franchise locations inside gyms. Next Health sold 50+ territories. Fountain Life raised $108M. SHA and Clinique La Prairie are expanding into Asia and the Middle East. Neko Health is making it accessible at scale.

But the stronger signal isn’t the startups. It’s the institutions.

Weill Cornell launched a 12-month Longevity Medicine Program. Northwestern opened the Human Longevity Clinic. Mayo Clinic is building its own program. Sheba Medical Center became the world’s first academic institution with a dedicated longevity center. Abu Dhabi created the first government regulatory framework for longevity medicine on the planet.

When governments regulate and medical schools curriculum, a field has arrived.

$8.5 billion deployed in 2024 across 325 deals. Average deal size jumped from $20M to $69M. UBS projects $8 trillion by 2030. Over 800 longevity clinics operating in the US alone.

This is no longer about who opens the nicest clinic. This is about who sets the standard, and who gets left behind when it’s set without them.

And with that shift come major opportunities and serious challenges.

5 Pros

1. Patients are already here. They walk in with Function results, Oura scores, and biological age reports they have already GPTed. Educated, motivated, and paying cash, the demand is not something you need to create.

2. Cash-pay finally works as a business model. Memberships, annual panels, and protocols built around outcomes rather than billing codes. No prior authorizations, no insurance battles, just a practice that gets paid to deliver results.

3. Standards are being written right now, with or without you. Weill Cornell, Northwestern, Mayo, and Sheba are building longevity programs because the demand justifies it. Physicians who engage now help shape the standards

4. Science has never been more actionable. GLP-1 beyond weight loss, multi-omics clocks, AI, senolytics, the research moves every month and the tools to apply it now exist outside of research institutions.

5. Tools are within reach of every serious clinic. Genomic sequencing, liquid biopsies, AI imaging, and continuous biomarker monitoring are now available at the individual clinic level. The gap between what is possible and what most physicians offer has never been wider.

5 Cons

1. Anyone can open a longevity clinic. MedSpas are rebranding, gyms are adding IV drips, and HNWI are opening clinics like passion projects. Patients will look for trusted partner and real clinical care.

2. Training gaps are a patient safety problem. Less than 1% of medical school hours cover nutrition. Zero cover longevity medicine. Physicians opening clinics with enthusiasm but no foundation are not practicing longevity medicine.

3. Patient acquisition has become a war of budgets. Paid digital is saturating fast. Word of mouth does not scale. The clinics winning on acquisition are spending at levels most independent physicians simply cannot match.

4. Outcomes data does not exist, and that grace period is ending. Every clinic promises biological age reversal and optimized biomarkers. Almost none can prove it with publication. Patients and regulators will start demanding evidence.

5. Regulatory scrutiny is arriving faster than most physicians realize. Peptides, compounding pharmacies, CLIA certification, marketing claims, the FDA has already issued warning letters. When the first serious adverse event hits a franchise location, the response will be swift and broad. Build on solid ground now or scramble to retrofit it later.

The Opportunity

There is a white space in this market that almost nobody is talking about.

On one side, you have capital intensive brick and mortar clinics spending millions on real estate, equipment, and overhead before seeing their first patient. On the other, digital platforms with no physicians, no clinical judgment, and no accountability for what happens when the protocol does not work. In between, concierge medicine practices with loyal patient bases but zero longevity expertise, and no roadmap to build it.

None of them is what the market actually needs.

What the market needs is the longevity physician who owns and runs their own practice, serves up to 400 carefully selected patients, operates with a small focused team, and builds something that no platform or franchise can replicate: a real clinical relationship, grounded in evidence, tracked with outcomes data, and scaled with the right tools.

This physician educates their patients continuously. They publish their outcomes. They participate in a global peer network that keeps their protocols sharp. They use AI to scale their attention without diluting their judgment. They do not compete on price because they do not need to. They compete on results.

That position is still wide open.

The institutions are building. The governments are regulating. The franchises are scaling. And in the middle of all of it, there is room for the physician who simply decides to do this right.

The only variable left is you.

Every week, the Longevity Docs WhatsApp group feels like a front-row seat to the future of medicine. Here’s what had doctors buzzing:

The questions we are still asking

Every week I try to summarize the best discussions and topics worth reading about from our physician community. This week I want to take a different approach: less about what we know, more about what we don’t. These are the questions your colleagues are actively debating, and the honest answer to each one is: we are not there yet.

Does spermidine promote cancer growth?

A new paper surfaced a potential mechanism linking spermidine, one of the most popular anti-aging supplements, to cancer cell proliferation. The group flagged it immediately. The pattern is familiar: a compelling mechanism, promising observational data, then an RCT or mechanistic study that complicates the picture. Antioxidant vitamins showed strong early promise before large trials returned mostly neutral or harmful signals. Metformin followed a similar arc for cancer prevention. The honest position right now: spermidine’s longevity benefits may be real, but we do not yet know whether the same pathways that promote autophagy could also accelerate tumor growth in susceptible individuals.

Is HRV becoming a moral compass rather than a clinical metric?

One member put it bluntly: “HRV is now less a metric than a moral compass, encouraging us all to drink less, inhale more, fetishise recovery and treat a late night like an act of self-sabotage.” The clinical question underneath is serious. Are we tracking HRV because it improves outcomes, or because patients and physicians find it emotionally compelling? Goodhart’s Law applies here: when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. Morning HRV and nighttime HRV measure different things. The goal is stress tolerance, not a better number on a ring.

Proceed with nuance. HRV is a useful signal. But conflating the metric with the outcome is a trap worth naming explicitly with patients.

How do you actually measure senescent cell load in a clinical setting?

The question came up in two parts: how do you determine the indication for senolytics, and how do you measure whether they worked? There is no validated, widely accessible clinical assay for senescent burden. p16, p21, and SA-beta-galactosidase exist in research settings. Circulating SASP markers such as IL-6, IL-8, and GDF-15 are used as proxies. But a clean, reproducible clinical tool for tracking senolytic response does not yet exist in the way we track LDL after a statin.

Even among the world’s leading longevity physicians, this question has no clean answer.

Last June, physicians, researchers, and founders from around the wordl gathered in Cannes for two days.

Watched the Mediterranean turn gold from the Majestic Pier. We ran La Croisette at sunrise. Had lunch with speakers on the beach. We left with protocols, partnerships, and friendships that don’t happen at any other event in medicine.

That was year one. This is year two, and it’s not slowing down.

The longevitydocs Summit & Awards is becoming the most important gathering in longevity medicine. Not because of the venue. Because of what happens when the right physicians and partners are together in the same room.

June 9–11. Cannes. You should be there.

Passes increase on March 29th.

Secure yours now →

Your brain talks to your skin, and stress is the messenger

A new study identified a specific population of norepinephrine-producing sympathetic neurons that directly innervate the skin and drive stress-induced flares of atopic dermatitis in mice via an eosinophil-dependent pathway. This is the first dedicated neuroimmune axis mapped between psychological stress and skin inflammation at this level of precision — and it opens the door to targeted interventions that block the neural pathway rather than broadly suppressing the immune response. For physicians managing patients with stress-related skin conditions, "reduce stress" is finally getting a clinical mechanism behind it. Science

Four biomarkers to predict heart disease before it starts.

A JACC study found that a single midlife measurement of CAD polygenic risk score, hsCRP, LDL-C, and Lp(a) predicts future coronary artery disease across both sexes and ages 40 to 69. It matches traditional clinical risk calculators while catching patients those calculators miss entirely. Most of your patients walk in with at least two of these already run. This gives you clinical justification to systematize all four as a standard longevity panel at first visit, especially in patients in their 40s where biomarker-based screening outperforms conventional tools the most. JACC

Epigenetic clocks changes predict long-term mortality

Multiple epigenetic clocks have been developed to quantify biological aging. However, whether longitudinal changes in epigenetic clocks carry independent information on health and survival has remained uncertain. Here, we show that longitudinal changes in several epigenetic clocks are independently associated with long-term mortality in a cohort that was followed for up to 24 years. Nature Aging

Real-world clinical utility of tumor whole-genome sequencing in solid cancers

In a real-world study of 888 solid cancer patients, whole-genome sequencing (WGS) succeeded in 89% of cases with a median turnaround of 6 working days, identifying actionable biomarkers in 73% of patients. Those who received biomarker-informed treatment lived a median of 96 days longer than those who did not. WGS was especially impactful in cancers of unknown primary, contributing to diagnosis or treatment options in 67% of cases. Overall, WGS-based diagnostics had meaningful clinical consequences for 41% of all patients tested, making a strong case for its routine use in oncology. Nature Medicine

Every week, I track funding, FDA approvals, product launches, and breakthrough announcements shaping longevity medicine.

CARE

Costco enters fertility care

As part of a monthly membership agreement, Costco members gain immediate access to Sesame fertility care coordination, complete diagnostic workups, and a clear path to specialty treatment. With a universal intake policy, every patient starts with Sesame and receives a comprehensive intake evaluation, coordinated diagnostic support, and a referral to highly-experienced specialty care with IVI RMA North America when clinically appropriate. Patients arrive at IVI RMA North America clinics informed, prepared, and ready to focus on personalized fertility planning and treatment.

───

AI

Perplexity launches a consumer health AI that connects EHR and wearable data

Perplexity, best known as an AI-powered search engine, has moved into consumer health with a dedicated tool designed to link electronic health records and wearable device data into a unified AI interface. The product is positioned as a personal health intelligence layer, allowing patients to query and interpret their own clinical and biometric data through a conversational interface. Modern Healthcare

───

SCIENCE

This overlooked organ may be more vital for longevity than scientists realized

In one study published on Wednesday in the journal Nature, researchers used artificial intelligence to analyze around 27,000 patient computed tomography (CT) scans and medical records to reveal that the health of the thymus may be linked to whether an individual develops cardiovascular disease or lung cancer or dies from any cause.

───

WEARABLES

A biotech turns to Apple Watch to study its Parkinson’s drug

PHARMA/BIOTECH

Lilly finds a hidden chemical reaction in compounded tirzepatide with B12

Testing across ten compounded tirzepatide samples obtained from pharmacies, medspas, and telehealth platforms found a previously unknown impurity in all of them. The impurity results from a direct chemical reaction between tirzepatide and vitamin B12, including methylcobalamin, hydroxocobalamin, and cyanocobalamin. Fierce Pharma

Mastermind Replays Now Available

3 Masterminds. 3 topics reshaping longevity practice: AI & Tech, Peptides, and Hormones - featuring the dozens of faculty. Trusted by hundreds of physicians

If you weren’t in the room, this is your second chance.

Access the Replays

Conferences

Jun 9–11 — Longevity Docs Cannes 2026”: Awards & Summit

Jun 29–Jul 1 — A4LI H-SPAN Summit · Washington, DC Longevity medicine meets regulation and policy.

Aug 24–28 — ARDD · Copenhagen, Denmark Where aging research meets drug discovery.

Oct 17 — Longevity Docs Skin Longevity Mastermind · New York, NY. Curated physicians. Deep science. One room.

TBA — Longevity Clinics Roundtables · Buck Institute Clinical practice meets research infrastructure.

The Home of Longevity Medicine

longevitydocs.™ is the world’s leading longevity physician community - 600+ doctors across 50 countries united by a single conviction: every doctor should be a longevity doctor. Founded by Dr. David Luu, the platform offers its members network, education, and experience with the mission to democratize longevity medicine.

Not a member yet? Join longevitydocs™

We’re a physician-only network. Curated. Vetted. Built on trust. If you’re committed to practicing longevity medicine with rigor, peer support, and shared standards → this is your community. Apply to connect with our team.

Apply to Join

Longevity medicine is the personalized, evidence-based practice of modifying the root mechanisms of aging (biological, cognitive, and psychosocial) before they become disease, extending healthspan, not just lifespan. Using advanced diagnostics, precision interventions, and AI-enabled monitoring, it translates measurement into action across every medical discipline. Success is measured in functional capacity, vitality, and disease-free years.

Subscribe to the Longevity Docs Newsletter

Longevity medicine is moving fast. Every week, we bring you what matters: clinical insights, research signals, and perspectives from 600+ physicians across 50+ countries. One newsletter. Built for the physicians shaping this field.

Editorial Disclaimer:

This newsletter is published exclusively for licensed physicians and qualified healthcare professionals. It is not intended for consumers or patients.

All content, including the Buzz in the Chat section, is for continuing medical education and professional information purposes only. It reflects emerging research, science, and technology that may have implications for the practice of medicine. It does not constitute medical advice, clinical recommendations, or treatment guidance for any individual patient.

Peer-to-peer discussions reproduced in this newsletter represent the personal clinical opinions of individual physicians. They do not reflect the official position of Longevity Docs and have not been reviewed or endorsed by any regulatory, medical, or professional body.

References to specific therapies, compounds, devices, or protocols are provided for educational context only. Some may be investigational, off-label, or not approved by the FDA, EMA, or equivalent regulatory authorities in your jurisdiction. Physicians are responsible for independently evaluating all information in accordance with current evidence, applicable law, and the standards of their licensing board.

Longevity Docs does not promote, endorse, or recommend any specific product, treatment, or commercial entity. Nothing in this newsletter should be construed as a solicitation or as influencing prescribing behavior.

By reading this newsletter, you confirm that you are a licensed healthcare professional and that you will apply the information contained herein within the bounds of your clinical judgment, professional obligations, and applicable regulations.

If you are a patient or consumer reading this newsletter, please note that this content should not be used to make any health or medical decisions. Please consult your personal physician or a qualified healthcare provider for guidance specific to your situation.

Hey Doc,

This is Sunday!

What I heard: octors want to build their own tools. Knowledge bases. Patient education. Clinical workflows. AI and longevity medicine are converging and the physicians who move first will own their practice completely.

What I saw: the Longevity Docs Cannes Pioneers lineup is coming together. Every name we are announcing has built something, leads something, or funds something in longevity medicine. Not influencers. Operators.

What I believe: the next generation of doctors will not work harder. They will work smarter. They will own their technology, their operations, their patient relationships. All of it. Built on their own terms. That is the future of medicine and it is already happening.

Welcome to the home of longevity medicine!

Dr. David Luu - Founder, longevitydocs.™

In this week newsletter:

• Cover Story: 10 DIY AI tools every doctor needs right now

• Cannes 2026: the pioneers we are bringing to the stage

• Buzz in the chat: Lp(a) management in practice

• Research radar: gut-brain axis, orforglipron, new dyslipidemia guidelines

• Intelligence: Amazon, Microsoft, WHOOP

• Community: Dr. Jila Senemar-Meyer

We did not invite speakers. We invited pioneers.

Most conferences book names to sell tickets. That is not what we are doing.

Longevity medicine is already being led by doctors. The next step is building the ecosystem around it. Institutions that fund it. Governments that prioritize it. Medical societies that adopt it. Platforms that scale it. Capital that believes in it.

Every pioneer on this stage is a mechanism in that machine. Like the flux capacitor, the device that made time travel possible in Back to the Future, none of this works without each part.

This is not longevity medicine conference. We are building it in real time, in that room.

SARANYA WYLES, MD Medical Director, Mayo Clinic

Dr. Wyles leads dermatology and longevity medicine at Mayo Clinic, one of the most trusted medical institutions on the planet. She’ll take the stage to share how Mayo is building a dedicated hub for skin and longevity, and what it means when a world-class institution puts its full weight behind this field.

SAEJU JEONG Co-Founder & Executive Chair, Noom

Saeju co-built Noom into the fastest-growing behavioral change company in the world. In Cannes, he joins us for an entrepreneur session on the business and science of behavior change — and why he’s now turning his attention to longevity. A rare founder’s perspective that every physician in the room will want to hear.

RAFID FADUL, MD Chief Medical Officer, ARPA-H

ARPA-H exists to fund the medical breakthroughs that no one else will. Dr. Fadul will lay out the U.S. government’s current strategy and priorities on aging research — where federal investment is going, what’s being built, and why now is the most important moment in longevity policy history.

AMI BHATT, MD Chief Innovation Officer, American College of Cardiology

Medical societies shape how medicine moves. Dr. Bhatt will address how professional institutions can actively support longevity science and medicine — from clinical guidelines to technology adoption to physician education. A session for anyone who wants to understand how the establishment becomes an ally, not an obstacle.

MICHAEL CLINTON Founder, ROAR / Former President, Hearst Media

Michael Clinton spent decades leading one of the world’s most powerful media groups as President of Hearst Media. In Cannes, he moderates key panels and brings a perspective the medical world rarely gets: how culture, narrative, and media shape the way longevity reaches the people who need it most.

JESSICA SHEPHERD, MD Chief Medical Officer, hims & hers

Dr. Shepherd is one of the most prominent voices at the intersection of women’s health and direct-to-consumer care. She’ll cover how DTC models are reshaping access to women’s longevity medicine — what’s working, what’s missing, and how physicians can lead in a space that’s moving fast.

GIOVANNI CAMPANILE, MD Chief Medical Officer, CorAeonn

Cardiovascular disease remains the number one cause of death globally. Dr. Campanile will deliver a practical playbook for heart longevity — the clinical strategies, biomarkers, and interventions every longevity physician should have in their toolkit to keep patients’ hearts younger, longer.

GEOFF COOK CEO, Noom

Geoff leads the platform that has brought evidence-based health behavior to tens of millions of people online. His session will explore how digital care platforms can democratize longevity medicine — making what was once reserved for elite clinics accessible to a far broader population.

DIANE TY Managing Director, Milken Institute

Diane brings the Milken Institute’s lens on health economics and policy to Cannes as moderator of our institutional panel. She’ll guide the conversation on what it takes to build a longevity ecosystem at scale — bridging capital, policy, research, and clinical practice in one room.

ZAHI FAYAD, PhD Director of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging, Mount Sinai

Dr. Fayad represents the full force of Mount Sinai’s innovation engine. He’ll bring Mount Sinai’s voice across three dimensions: cutting-edge clinical research, applied patient care, and the future of physician education in longevity medicine. Institutional innovation at its most concrete.

EVELYNE BISCHOF, MD, PhD Sheba Medical Center

Dr. Bischof is making the case that longevity medicine doesn’t belong only in private clinics. Drawing from her work at Sheba Medical Center, one of the world’s top public hospitals, she’ll show how longevity care can be delivered at scale within the public health system — and why that’s the next frontier.

DAWN MUSSALEM, MD Chief Medical Officer, Fountain Life

Dr. Mussalem is at the forefront of longevity medicine’s most urgent operational challenge: how do you scale a world-class longevity clinic without compromising clinical standards? At Fountain Life, she is building the answer. In Cannes, she’ll share the blueprint for scaling longevity care with Mayo Clinic-level rigor — and why getting this right is the difference between a trend and a transformation.

More pioneers coming. We are building the home of longevity medicine.

Build with Us - Cannes 9-11

Each week, I try to explore one idea that could advance longevity medicine and hopefully support physicians in bringing it to life.

10 DIY AI tools to build your longevity practice

Imagine your entire practice running on technology you built yourself. Patient education. Onboarding. Follow-up. Billing. Lab visualization. Calendar. Team management. Revenue tracking.

No enterprise software. No six-figure IT contract. No developer on retainer.

You. A laptop. The right tools.

That world exists today. I live in it. Here are the ten tools that get you there.

From basic to advanced:

1. Wispr Flow: I haven’t typed a full sentence in few weeks. I dictate everything and it transcribes instantly, in my voice. If you spend more than an hour a day typing, this pays for itself in week one.

2. Gamma: Grand rounds presentation in 48 hours and no deck? Gamma builds it from a paragraph of text. Clean slides, smart structure, zero design skills required.

3. Perplexity Computer: Forget Googling. Perplexity searches, synthesizes, and cites. Deep literature pulls, quick clinical questions, competitive research. It’s what Google should have become.

4. Claude Cowork: Your AI desk partner. Feed it your documents, protocols, research. It creates local agents that know your context. Think of it as a brilliant assistant who has read everything you’ve ever written.

5. Obsidian: Obsidian is a local, offline knowledge base where you connect your notes, research, and protocols into a personal thinking system that compounds over time: your clinical brain, organized and searchable, with no cloud and no data exposure.

6. Manus: Rapid AI prototyping. Spin up a product idea before committing to full development. Two hours to a working prototype you can show investors or partners.

7. Paper: I replaced Figma with this. Mock up patient decks, presentation visuals, brand assets in minutes. Fast, elegant, no design degree required.

8. Cursor: A code editor powered by AI. You don’t need to be a developer. Describe what you want, it builds it. I’ve shipped functional tools without writing a single line from scratch.

9. Vercel: One click to publish anything to the web. Tools, landing pages, apps. No IT department. No dev team. If you’re building a practice, a product, or a brand, this is your infrastructure.

10. Openclaw: AI infrastructure for teams. Connect your systems, automate workflows, run backend operations. Not for day one, but when you’re ready to scale, you’ll know why it’s on this list.

Bonus: NotebookLM: this is Google’s AI research tool. Upload your papers, guidelines, protocols, and it reads them, finds connections, and lets you interrogate your own knowledge base like a conversation.

Conclusion

You don’t need all ten. You need two or three that solve your biggest friction points right now. Start with Wispr Flow if you’re drowning in admin. Start with Claude Cowork if you want a smarter research partner. Start with Gamma if you have a deck due tomorrow. Play with them. Invest time. Build your personailzed stack.

Want to go further?

If you want to see how doctors are actually coding their own tools, automating their clinics, building patient apps, and shipping products, join our AI chat group. This is where it gets real.

Join our AI Chat

Every week, the Longevity Docs WhatsApp group feels like a front-row seat to the future of medicine. Here’s what had doctors buzzing:

Lp(a) management: what Longevity Docs are doing in practice

From emerging clinical signals to stubborn non-responders. Here is how our physicians are approaching one of the most complex lipid challenges in longevity medicine.

• Lp(a) declining on rosuvastatin 5mg and a GLP-1, no PCSK9 inhibitor. One physician is seeing this across a growing cohort and wants to correlate with serial imaging. The question: is the GLP-1 anti-inflammatory effect doing what we assumed required targeted therapy?

“Same lab, same units, 3 months apart. All other inflammatory markers level. I am continuing to see this across my fairly large group of patients.”

• CTA one year apart introduces too much variability. Use CIMT instead. The statin paradox: up to 30% of patients see Lp(a) rise on statins. The hypothesis is that the anti-inflammatory mechanism is driving the reduction, not the statin itself. For extreme cases: apheresis.

“Statins in general are hit or miss with Lp(a), and up to 30% of patients actually increase. I am curious if the GLP anti-inflammatory effect is doing this.”

• Meta-analysis of RCTs supports the ApoB/A1 ratio as a better treatment target than isolated Lp(a). Target: 0.2 to 0.3 in high-risk patients, with documented disease reversal as the result.

“In my patients with elevated Lp(a) and ASCVD, I aim for an ApoB/A1 of 0.2 to 0.3. I have been seeing significant reversal of disease using this approach.”

“When Repatha moved Lp(a) only from 169 to 145 nmol/L after two months, the playbook emerged: lower total ApoB below 60, add ezetimibe, rule out masked hypertension, assess insulin sensitivity. Do not fixate on the number. Optimize everything around it.”

• Olpasiran shows 90 to 95% Lp(a) reduction in trials. But the right question is being asked before the hype takes over.

"Niacin and Repatha have been shown to moderately reduce but no proven outcome benefit yet. Are we treating just a number? Is the juice worth the squeeze? TBD."

3 takeaways

1. An unexpected anti-inflammatory pathway may be lowering Lp(a). Emerging signal, not settled science. Track it prospectively. If you are imaging, consider CIMT, not CTA at short intervals.

2. ApoB/A1 ratio may be the better target. A ratio of 0.2 to 0.3 in high-risk patients, with documented reversal, is a practical framework worth adopting, especially when Lp(a) will not move.

3. Until olpasiran arrives, the playbook is clear: lower ApoB aggressively, blood pressure below 120/80, optimize insulin sensitivity, measure arterial stiffness with pulse wave velocity.

Ready to practice longevity medicine the right way?

The Certified Longevity Doctor (CLD) program gives you the clinical framework, the evidence base, and the community. Join the next cohort.

Explore the CLD Certification

New ACC/AHA dyslipidemia guidelines (March 2026)

Key changes: lower LDL targets across risk tiers (below 55 mg/dL for very high-risk), a new PREVENT-ASCVD calculator replacing models that overestimated risk by 40 to 50%, and Lp(a) now recommended for at least one lifetime measurement in all adults. ApoB recognized as a better risk estimator in metabolic conditions.

Why it matters: if you are not screening Lp(a) routinely, this guideline gives you the institutional backing to start. The risk calculator change also affects how you communicate cardiovascular risk to patients.

Gut microbiome drives age-related cognitive decline

Stanford researchers identified a specific mechanism: the bacterium Parabacteroides goldsteinii increases with age, activates myeloid inflammation, impairs vagal signaling, and disrupts hippocampal function. Old mice treated with a vagus nerve activator, including GLP-1 and capsaicin, performed cognitively like young animals. Nature

Why it matters: another mechanism linking GLP-1 to cognitive protection. The vagal pathway is becoming a serious longevity target. Watch this space.

Orforglipron beats oral semaglutide on every endpoint

Lilly’s ACHIEVE-3 trial: orforglipron, a once-daily non-peptide oral GLP-1, reduced HbA1c by 2.2 points versus 1.4 for semaglutide, and body weight by 9.2% versus 5.3%. No food or water restrictions. Separation visible by week 4. FDA decision expected April 2026. Lancet

Why it matters: if approved, this changes patient adherence conversations entirely. A GLP-1 with no fasting protocol is a different product in a patient’s daily life.

Most comprehensive cellular aging atlas ever published

Rockefeller researchers mapped nearly 7 million cells across 21 mouse organs at three life stages. Finding: aging begins earlier than expected and unfolds in a synchronized way across the entire body. About 40% of aging changes are sex-dependent, with females showing broader immune activation. Science Epiage

Why it matters: this data will anchor the next generation of aging clocks. And the sex-specific findings reinforce what many of you already see clinically in female patients.

Every week, I track funding, FDA approvals, product launches, and breakthrough announcements shaping longevity medicine.

CARE

Amazon launches health AI to all US customers

Free 24/7 virtual care for 200 million Prime members. Answers questions, explains health records, manages prescription renewals. Multi-agent architecture with real-time audit and HIPAA compliance. Fierce Healthcare

Human Longevity launches AI-powered app

Combines AI with longitudinal data from their Executive Health program. Continuous access to results, personalized insights, AI chat between visits. The annual checkup transformed into a continuous experience.

───

AI

Microsoft Launches Copilot Health

Combines wearable data from Oura and Fitbit, EHR access from 50,000+ US hospitals, and verified clinical information from Harvard Health. Health conversations isolated from general Copilot. Waitlist open now. Microsoft AI

───

WEARABLES

WHOOP adds women’s health biomarker panel

11 female-specific blood biomarkers including AMH, progesterone, prolactin, TPOAb, thyroid markers, leptin, B12, folate, magnesium, and phosphate. Results integrate with cycle tracking for personalized ranges. WHOOP Press Center

───

PHARMA/BIOTECH

Lilly’s orforglipron and retatrutide named defining GLP-1s of the next decade

Clarivate names both as the pipeline drugs to watch. Retatrutide, a triple agonist targeting GLP-1, GIP, and glucagon, is in Phase 3 for obesity and MASH. Pharmexec

Certified Longevity Docs Spotlight: Jila Senemar-Meyer, MD

Dr. Jila Senemar-Meyer is a board-certified physician who transitioned to a full longevity practice in under a year. Starting solo, she now runs a three-person operation to meet growing patient demand. She is an advisor to MindBodyGreen and a Certified Longevity Docs (CLD) Cohort 1 physician.

Why did you make the transition to longevity medicine?

“I knew what women needed. When you go into the self-pay model, it’s a different animal. Do they understand the value? Are they willing to invest or not? And the ones who do — they are above, they’re just over the moon with it because they’re getting the care that they’ve wanted for so long.”

What has been your experience with the CLD program?

“It’s weird — I thought I would have time to get right through it and I’m finding I’m all over the place, but it’s easy to get through the chapters. I’m almost at chapter six. The way you have it with the talking in the middle and then a few points — it’s little bits that you’re getting quickly. It’s not like listening because I’ve done these courses where it’s like you listen to someone talk for 45 minutes and they lose you. With this, the guy talks for like a minute and a half, and then right underneath it, what he’s discussing, it’s all written out in detail. Then the next point is two or three questions regarding it, which I find helpful.”

How have the case studies helped?

“The case studies are really to implement — the epigenetic testing and the biomarkers and all of that. When you throw out these words they’re kind of scary. But when it’s broken down, I’m like, oh okay, I know what these are. I’ve done these, now I can expand upon them. So I’m actually developing stuff as I’m going through the units.”

How has your practice grown since starting?

“I knew that there was a demand. I just didn’t realize how huge the demand was. I probably would have done things a little bit bigger because right now I’m already growing out of my space. I had one person working, I’m already up to three people with assistants and back end managers. The volume is insane and it’s just going up and up and up. People are already approaching me to scale it going forward.”

What do you wish you had known before making the transition?

“I wish I would have taken the demand into consideration a year ago. But here we are. We’re working with this. It’s already being built out to be bigger in the next eight months probably.”

Join the next CLD cohort

Mastermind Replays Now Available

3 Masterminds. 3 topics reshaping longevity practice: AI & Tech, Peptides, and Hormones - featuring the dozens of faculty. Trusted by hundreds of physicians

If you weren’t in the room, this is your second chance.

Access the Replays

Conferences

Jun 9–11 — Longevity Docs Cannes 2026": Awards & Summit

Jun 29–Jul 1 — A4LI H-SPAN Summit · Washington, DC Longevity medicine meets regulation and policy.

Aug 24–28 — ARDD · Copenhagen, Denmark Where aging research meets drug discovery.

Oct 17 — Longevity Docs Skin Longevity Mastermind · New York, NY. Curated physicians. Deep science. One room.

TBA — Longevity Clinics Roundtables · Buck Institute Clinical practice meets research infrastructure.

The Home of Longevity Medicine

longevitydocs.™ is the world's leading longevity physician community - 600+ doctors across 50 countries united by a single conviction: every doctor should be a longevity doctor. Founded by Dr. David Luu, the platform offers its members network, education, and experience with the mission to democratize longevity medicine.

Not a member yet? Join longevitydocs™

We’re a physician-only network. Curated. Vetted. Built on trust. If you’re committed to practicing longevity medicine with rigor, peer support, and shared standards → this is your community. Apply to connect with our team.

Apply to Join

Longevity medicine is the personalized, evidence-based practice of modifying the root mechanisms of aging (biological, cognitive, and psychosocial) before they become disease, extending healthspan, not just lifespan. Using advanced diagnostics, precision interventions, and AI-enabled monitoring, it translates measurement into action across every medical discipline. Success is measured in functional capacity, vitality, and disease-free years.

Subscribe to the Longevity Docs Newsletter

Longevity medicine is moving fast. Every week, we bring you what matters: clinical insights, research signals, and perspectives from 600+ physicians across 50+ countries. One newsletter. Built for the physicians shaping this field.

Editorial Disclaimer:

This newsletter is published exclusively for licensed physicians and qualified healthcare professionals. It is not intended for consumers or patients.

All content, including the Buzz in the Chat section, is for continuing medical education and professional information purposes only. It reflects emerging research, science, and technology that may have implications for the practice of medicine. It does not constitute medical advice, clinical recommendations, or treatment guidance for any individual patient.

Peer-to-peer discussions reproduced in this newsletter represent the personal clinical opinions of individual physicians. They do not reflect the official position of Longevity Docs and have not been reviewed or endorsed by any regulatory, medical, or professional body.

References to specific therapies, compounds, devices, or protocols are provided for educational context only. Some may be investigational, off-label, or not approved by the FDA, EMA, or equivalent regulatory authorities in your jurisdiction. Physicians are responsible for independently evaluating all information in accordance with current evidence, applicable law, and the standards of their licensing board.

Longevity Docs does not promote, endorse, or recommend any specific product, treatment, or commercial entity. Nothing in this newsletter should be construed as a solicitation or as influencing prescribing behavior.

By reading this newsletter, you confirm that you are a licensed healthcare professional and that you will apply the information contained herein within the bounds of your clinical judgment, professional obligations, and applicable regulations.

If you are a patient or consumer reading this newsletter, please note that this content should not be used to make any health or medical decisions. Please consult your personal physician or a qualified healthcare provider for guidance specific to your situation.

Hey Doc,

This is Sunday!

What I heard: “happy birthday!” I turned 46 yesterday. What I truly heard was something else. A milestone. I stood on the staircase of life, looked down at 45 steps below me and looked up at the steps still ahead. And I thought: the most important thing was never the destination: it is the journey! The people you meet. The impact you leave behind. Grateful for this life. Grateful for this community. Let's go.

What I saw: Peptide Sciences (one of the largest grey market peptide suppliers in the world) shut down overnight. The grey market that grew because demand outran regulation is collapsing. The market is telling us something: the Wild West phase of longevity medicine is ending.

What I believe: It’s time to go back to medicine. Real medicine. Evidence-based protocols. Physician-supervised care. Traceable supply chains. Clinical accountability. The science has never been more promising and you physicians will lead the translation to clinicial care.

Welcome to the home of longevity medicine!

Dr. David Luu - Founder, longevitydocs.™

In this week newsletter:

• Cover Story: Longevity Docs Cannes 2026 Theme - Back to Medicine

• Buzz in the Chat: HRT, CAC & the stroke debate | MedSpa madness | AI in the clinic

• Research Radar: OMICmAge biological aging clock | Whole-body MRI meta-analysis | iPSC 20-year review

• Intelligence:

• Community: Dr. Jeffrey Rousse

Each week, I try to explore one idea that could advance longevity medicine and hopefully support physicians in bringing it to life.

Back to Medicine.

This is the theme for Longevity Docs Cannes 2026.

Remember the Doc? Not a longevity doctor. The other one.

The one with the wild hair, the lab coat, the DeLorean, and an unshakeable belief that if you understood the mechanics of time, you could change what came next.

Doc Brown didn’t wait for the future to arrive. He built a machine, set the coordinates, and went back not to relive the past, but to rewrite it. To intervene. To correct the trajectory before it became irreversible.

But here’s what the film gets right that most people miss: it wasn’t one dramatic gesture that saved everything. It was small things. A letter left at the right moment. A wire strung between two clock towers. A conversation that happened… or didn’t. The butterfly effect of ordinary decisions, made with intention, changing everything downstream.

I’ve been a fan of Back to the Future my whole life. Not because of the time travel. Because of the conviction. The idea that the future isn’t fixed. That if you understand how things work (really understand them) you can go back to the moment that matters and change what happens next. And that sometimes, the moment that matters is right now.

The Delorean of longevity

The science has been building for decades. Epigenetic reprogramming. Biological aging clocks. Senolytics. GLP-1 receptor agonists. Next-generation biologics. AI-driven diagnostics that can read a blood panel the way a master clinician reads a face.

We have everything we need.

This is our DeLorean moment. We have the machine. We have the fuel. We have the coordinates. Now it’s time to build the future of longevity medicine — personalized, proactive, focused on the patient who doesn’t wait for disease to knock on the door. A system designed around positive outcomes. Around people, not pathology. Around intervening before the crisis, not after.

Doc Brown didn’t wait for someone to hand him the blueprint. He built the thing himself.

That’s what we’re doing.

The Back to Medicine paradox.

Here’s the paradox.

AI makes us faster. More knowledgeable. Better at catching what we’d miss. It reads the data, flags the patterns, cuts the cognitive load that was quietly burning us out.

And with that time back, with that mental space reclaimed, we finally get to do what we became doctors to do in the first place.

Know the patient. Really know them. Their environment. Their stress. Their sleep. Their relationships. The things that don’t show up in a panel but show up in a life.

Take time to care. To understand. To guide.

That’s the Back to Medicine paradox. The most advanced technology in the history of medicine isn’t pulling us away from our humanity. It’s giving it back to us. AI handles the noise so we can focus on the signal. And the signal was always the person sitting across from us.

Shaping the Future of Longevity Medicine

Every decision you make in the clinic is shaping the future of your patient’s life. Every standard you hold, every protocol you tighten, every conversation where you choose rigor over shortcuts. That’s not just good medicine. That’s the future of longevity medicine being written in real time.

You are not a bystander in this field. You are building it.

And you are not alone. Six hundred physicians across fifty countries are making the same small decisions every day. Together those decisions compound into something the world will look back on and call a movement.

Cannes is where the movement meets.

The only place in the world where physicians sit in the same room as the scientists, the government leaders, the investors, the industry builders and shape the direction of longevity medicine together. Not as an audience. As architects.

The DeLorean is ready. June 9-11, we go.

The home of longevity medicine is open.

Join the movement in Cannes →

Next week: the first speaker announcements.

The lineup we’ve assembled for Cannes 2026 is unlike anything this field has seen. Scientists who are rewriting what’s possible. Clinicians who are living the mission. Builders who are doing something about it.

Every week, the Longevity Docs WhatsApp group feels like a front-row seat to the future of medicine. Here’s what had doctors buzzing:

HRT, Coronary Calcium & The Stroke That Split the Room

I could have summarized this one. I chose not to. Some conversations deserve to be read in full. Jump to the takeaway if you're short on time.

SL brought a real patient case: 55-year-old menopausal female on transdermal estradiol patch (0.05 2x/week), oral prometrium 100, and vaginal estrogen. Feeling amazing. Then her CACS comes back at 92. Cardiologist starts rosuvastatin 5mg, she’s on losartan 25. SL recommended staying on the patch, added baby aspirin, ordered a stress test — but couldn’t shake the worry.

JE cut through first: “No increased clot risk with transdermal at that dose. In the HERS trial, oral CEE only increased risk in the first year then no difference.”

EY: “There is NO increased clot risk with transdermal estrogen! Only oral. And it is cardioprotective.”

RD reframed the case: “CAC of 92 in a 52-year-old female places her in the 97th percentile for age and gender. She has accelerated atherosclerosis. Does she carry any prothrombotic SNPs? I would consider CTA and/or CIMT.”

M: “CCTA with Cleerly or HeartFlow, advanced lipid panel including Lp(a) and ApoB, consider nattokinase and PCSK9 inhibitor.”

GC added a critical sequencing point: “I would recommend either Cleerly or Caristo FAI to assess for inflamed/vulnerable plaque. If there is significant inflamed plaque, this has to be addressed before initiating HRT.”

Then JO shared a personal case that changed the temperature of the room: “My SIL who is 49 literally had a stroke this week. PFO found. No changes in her health, except she started 0.05mg transdermal estradiol a month or two ago.”

S asked the right questions: “Where was the stroke? Basal ganglia or cortical? HTN? Migraine with aura?”

JO: “Lacunar stroke. Otherwise healthy. No migraine history. Lots of stress.”

S delivered a neurology-grade analysis: “It is highly unlikely that her PFO caused a lacunar stroke. PFO-associated strokes are characteristically cortical or lobar infarctions from paradoxical embolism. Lacunar strokes result from occlusion of small penetrating arteries: lipohyalinosis, microatheroma, arteriolosclerosis. Strongest risk factors: hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, smoking.”

GC (a former structural interventionist) went deeper: “25% of the population have a PFO. I’m not aware of data that young people without risk factors develop clots all the time. PFO closure is only 60% effective if the PFO is actually the cause. We used the PASCAL classification and RoPE score to identify who truly benefits: because if the PFO wasn’t the cause, the closure device increases atrial fibrillation risk, which raises overall stroke risk.”

S agreed: “Location of stroke makes it less likely PFO-related.”

SM raised another angle: “Did she have COVID or flu in the last 120 days?”

RR weighed in with force: “Please let’s not start demonizing transdermal HRT when the relative risk for blood clots is 0.9 or less. Estrogen in this form is protective!” She pointed to post-COVID vascular fragility: spike protein-induced endotheliitis, glycocalyx destruction, amyloid-beta microclot formation: “This is ongoing and smoldering.”

T reinforced: “The relative risk is 0.92. It is protective. She was going to have that stroke.”

EF added: “Oral estradiol has never been shown to cause blood clots. The relative risk is always less than one. Estradiol is not the same as Prempro or CEE: and it has many benefits above and beyond transdermal.”

RD offered a cardiologist’s perspective on the PFO: “PFO is the reason for stroke in young patients. We all form small clots daily, except PFO patients have a way to pass them into systemic circulation. I don’t think hormones are to blame. I have a patient like your SIL. She was able to get PFO closed.”

JO closed the thread with a response that deserves to be read in full: “I’m not demonizing it. I have been a full HRT supporter for two decades… AND nothing is 100% absolute. This just happened in my family. Try to discount it. Ignore it. Argue it. Do what you like. I’m just giving this group information from someone close to my heart. Keep it somewhere in your mind, cause it happened.”

S honored that: “I agree this is our place to have challenging and open conversations. Appreciate your willingness to share this case. There are some who are newer to HRT like myself and it’s important for all of us to look at this info. My neurology colleagues are still debating this topic. All in peace.”

This thread was the community at its best: clinical rigor meeting personal vulnerability, and neither backing down.

MedSpa Madness: “Jacked Up Patients” Everywhere

HM asked what many longevity physicians are thinking: “Anybody else tired of seeing jacked up patients coming from medspas? Or is it a Miami thing?”

L didn’t hesitate: “It’s everywhere in the world!”

SM: “Connecticut too.”

Then the conversation went deeper than aesthetics.

JJ flagged that Florida is actually doing something — enacting the Prescription Drug Oversight Act. But in the same breath, he shared something that made the whole group pause: “I just saw on social media a ‘famous’ CRNA injector in Miami Beach who owns a very prominent medspa and is now offering ‘stem cells.’”

Summary: A nurse anesthetist running a medspa is now marketing stem cell therapies to consumers. No physician oversight. No clinical trial framework. No outcome tracking. Just a brand, a following, and a syringe.

JJ’s response captured the frustration and the hope: “This is a step in the right direction for those of us doing things the right way.” He then shared SM’s recent essay on the peptide market, which concluded with a line that became the quote of the week: “The next phase will move in one of two directions. Either deeper into the shadows. Or back into accountable medicine.”

RP added: “Maybe even both and physicians and patients decide which side they want to be on.”

This isn’t just a Miami problem. It isn’t just an aesthetics problem. It’s a medicine problem.

The medspa industry has exploded into a $20B+ market with minimal physician oversight. What started as Botox and fillers has expanded into hormone pellets, IV therapies, peptide injections, exosomes, and now “stem cells” all marketed directly to consumers by providers operating at the edge of (or beyond) their scope of practice. The patients who walk into your longevity clinic afterward arrive with complications, mistrust, unrealistic expectations, and sometimes genuine harm.

The regulatory response is starting. Florida’s Prescription Drug Oversight Act. The FDA’s crackdown on grey market peptide vendors (Peptide Sciences). Warning letters to compounders. But regulation alone won’t solve this. The demand driving patients to medspas is real… they want optimization, prevention, and longevity interventions. They’re just getting them from the wrong places.

The Takeaway: The medspa boom is longevity medicine’s shadow twin: same patient demand, zero clinical infrastructure. Every patient who gets reckless peptide injections or unregulated “stem cells” at a medspa is a patient who should have been in a physician-led longevity practice. The downstream cleanup falls on us: the complications, the distrust, the conversations that start with “someone injected me with something and now I don’t feel right.” This is exactly why standards matter. Why certification matters. Why this community exists. The Wild West doesn’t end with regulation alone, it ends when enough trained, credentialed physicians offer a better alternative. That’s the mission. That’s what Back to Medicine means

Ready to practice longevity medicine the right way?

The Certified Longevity Doctor (CLD) program gives you the clinical framework, the evidence base, and the community. Join the next cohort.

Explore the CLD Certification

Whole-Body MRI for Opportunistic Cancer Detection in Asymptomatic Individuals: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

The first systematic review and meta-analysis evaluating whole-body MRI (WB-MRI) as a cancer screening tool in asymptomatic individuals. The study pools data across multiple cohorts to assess detection rates, false-positive burden, and clinical management implications of using non-contrast WB-MRI with diffusion-weighted imaging for multi-cancer early detection. Although WB-MRI shows potential as an opportunistic non-invasive cancer detection tool, modest detection rates, frequent incidental findings, unstandardized protocols, and lack of long-term outcome or cost-effectiveness data limit its current clinical utility. European Radiology

OMICmAge: A New Multiomic Biological Aging Clock Built from Medical Records

Using ~31,000 electronic medical records, researchers developed OMICmAge - a DNA methylation-based biological aging clock that integrates proteomic and metabolomic data through epigenetic proxies. Unlike existing clocks that rely on a single data layer, OMICmAge bridges multi-omic domains into a single scalable measure. It outperforms or matches existing biomarkers at predicting mortality, and is associated with both prevalent and incident age-related diseases. Nature Aging

Two Decades of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Research: From Discovery to Diverse Applications

A comprehensive review marking 20 years since Yamanaka’s Nobel Prize-winning discovery of iPSC reprogramming. The paper maps the full arc from basic science to clinical reality: iPSC-derived cell therapies now entering human trials for macular degeneration, Parkinson’s disease, heart failure, and diabetes. It also covers the emerging intersection with partial epigenetic reprogramming where the same Yamanaka factors used to create iPSCs are now being dosed in vivo to reverse cellular aging without full dedifferentiation. Cell Stem Cell

Every week, I track funding, FDA approvals, product launches, and breakthrough announcements shaping longevity medicine.

PHARMA/BIOTECH

CAR-T for Autoimmune Diseases

CAR-T cell therapy (originally built to kill cancer) is producing drug-free remissions in patients with severe lupus and myositis. Patients stopping all immunosuppressants entirely. Autoimmune inflammation is one of the strongest accelerators of biological aging. A one-time therapy that eliminates it at the source changes the healthspan equation for millions. The New Yorker

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POLICIES/CARE

Grey Market Peptide Giant Disappears

The largest grey market peptide supplier went dark after 12 months of FDA raids, 50+ warning letters, and new legislation banning research chemicals identical to FDA-approved drugs. This is the moment for physician-led peptide medicine with pharmaceutical-grade sourcing and clinical oversight. Longevity Insider with Dr Murphy

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WEARABLES

WHOOP Joins $34.5M ARPA-H Coalition for FDA-Grade Aging Score

Stanford-led THRIVE coalition building the first FDA-grade “Intrinsic Capacity” score: predicting mortality and functional decline up to 20 years out. Integrates wearable data, blood biomarkers, and functional assessments. Target: under $100 at-home. Whoop

───

MEDTECH

Science Corp $230M for Vision Restoration Chip

First commercial wireless retinal implant for geographic atrophy (late-stage AMD). Patients read letters and words after implantation. European launch 2026, FDA clearance pending. When your AMD patients ask “is there anything new?” the answer just changed. Medtechdive

───

SOCIETY

Difficult People Age You Faster

Spending time with a difficult person can impact your mood in the moment. But over time, these challenging social interactions might also have a detrimental effect on your physical health, possibly making you age faster, new research suggests. PNAS study: each “hassler” in your social network adds ~9 months of biological age and 1.5% faster aging pace via epigenetic clocks. 29% of people have at least one. Washington Post

Sex Span as a Longevity Metric

NYT explores sexual function as a clinical marker of vascular health, hormonal status, and neurological function - not lifestyle, but a systems check on the domains longevity medicine targets. Your patients care about this but won’t bring it up. ED predicts cardiovascular events. Libido loss tracks hormonal decline. Start asking. New York Times

Certified Longevity Docs Spotlight: Jeffrey Rouse, MD

Dr. Jeffrey Rouse is a board-certified forensic psychiatrist and Assistant Professor at Tulane University's Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. A native of New Orleans, he served as the elected Coroner of Orleans Parish from 2014 to 2018, where he modernized the office and championed the city's mental health infrastructure in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Today he serves as CMO of Shiftwave, working at the intersection of neuroscience and performance technology. He joined Longevity Docs as a Certified Longevity Docs (CLD) Cohort 1.

Why did you start the CLD program?

“Most of my advice is non-pharmacological anyway — how to maximize exercise and recovery and all of the other things for brain health. Being able to better understand the multiple molecular mechanisms of aging has proven very, very useful in patient discussions.”

What has been your experience?

“I love the program. The formatting in small chunks is very useful because you’re directing this to a busy physician audience that’s trying to fit it all in. I find it comprehensive. I’ve learned a lot. I really don’t have a lot of negatives around the content.”

What would you like to see in the future?

“To make it a hub that other companies or entities could come into and say, where is the psychiatrist that’s interested in longevity? And they could get me and several others and choose. I will mention Longevity Docs as a way that all of these disparate attendees, if they’re interested in following up with a physician who is longevity minded back in their towns, this would be a central hub to find persons who are already along this journey instead of just being subject to Instagram or whatever directories they have.”

What does Longevity Docs mean to you beyond the certification itself?

“You’ve really done a great job creating a hub for everyone to come together. I’ll be speaking on longevity at a medical cruise to the Norway fjords in May and I’ll be mentioning Longevity Docs as the central hub for anyone who wants to find a longevity-minded physician back in their town. Instead of Instagram or random directories — a place where the work has already been done.”

Ready to practice longevity medicine the right way?

The Certified Longevity Doctor (CLD) program gives you the clinical framework, the evidence base, and the community. Join the next cohort.

Explore the CLD Certification

Mastermind Replays Now Available

3 Masterminds. 3 topics reshaping longevity practice: AI & Tech, Peptides, and Hormones - featuring the dozens of faculty. Trusted by hundreds of physicians

If you weren’t in the room, this is your second chance.

Access the Replays

Conferences

Jun 9–11 — Longevity Docs Cannes 2026": Awards & Summit

Jun 29–Jul 1 — A4LI H-SPAN Summit · Washington, DC Longevity medicine meets regulation and policy.

Aug 24–28 — ARDD · Copenhagen, Denmark Where aging research meets drug discovery.

Oct 17 — Longevity Docs Skin Longevity Mastermind · New York, NY. Curated physicians. Deep science. One room.

TBA — Longevity Clinics Roundtables · Buck Institute Clinical practice meets research infrastructure.

The Home of Longevity Medicine

longevitydocs.™ is the world's leading longevity physician community - 600+ doctors across 50 countries united by a single conviction: every doctor should be a longevity doctor. Founded by Dr. David Luu, the platform offers its members network, education, and experience with the mission to democratize longevity medicine.

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We’re a physician-only network. Curated. Vetted. Built on trust. If you’re committed to practicing longevity medicine with rigor, peer support, and shared standards → this is your community. Apply to connect with our team.

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Longevity medicine is the personalized, evidence-based practice of modifying the root mechanisms of aging (biological, cognitive, and psychosocial) before they become disease, extending healthspan, not just lifespan. Using advanced diagnostics, precision interventions, and AI-enabled monitoring, it translates measurement into action across every medical discipline. Success is measured in functional capacity, vitality, and disease-free years.

Subscribe to the Longevity Docs Newsletter

Longevity medicine is moving fast. Every week, we bring you what matters: clinical insights, research signals, and perspectives from 600+ physicians across 50+ countries. One newsletter. Built for the physicians shaping this field.

Newsletter Disclaimer:

The content shared in this newsletter, including the "Buzz in the Chat" section, is for educational purposes only. It is derived from peer-to-peer conversations among physicians within the Longevity Docs community and is intended to inform and engage our network of doctors.

Please note that these discussions do not reflect the official position of Longevity Docs and are not to be interpreted as medical advice or recommendations. The insights and opinions shared are those of individual physicians and are provided as part of our mission to foster collaborative learning and dialogue among healthcare professionals.

We encourage all readers to consult qualified healthcare professionals for personalized medical advice and to evaluate any medical information in the context of their clinical expertise and patient needs.

Hey Doc,

Welcome to the home of longevity medicine!

What I saw: an insipiring response from Dr. Mayoni Gooneratne in the BMJ Science of Longevity article. A must read.

What I heard: RFK discussing peptides regulations change on a podcast. things are moving fast, as doctors, we all need to upskill ourselves.

What I believe: analog care will become the ultimate strategic positioning. When everyone has access to AI-driven health intelligence, the scarcest resource won’t be data or diagnostics. It will be a physician who listens, understands context, and delivers care with both precision and compassion.

Dr. David Luu - Founder, longevitydocs.™

In this week newsletter:

• Cover Story: Ambient Longevity

• Research Radar: 55% of lifespan heritable l shingles vaccine & dementia l GLP-1 receptors linked to aging l immune aging clock.

• Intelligence: ARPA-H's $144M aging bet l FDA's one-trial shift l Oura's women's health AI

• Buzz in the Chat: statins l TRT aromatization

• Community: Shout out to Dr. Emeline Opoku

Each week, I try to explore one idea that could advance longevity medicine and hopefully support physicians in bringing it to life.

Ambient Longevity: What If Your Life Was Already Measuring Your Health?

What if the data needed to guide you toward a longer, healthier, happier life already existed… and nobody was using it?

That’s the premise behind Ambient Longevity. Not a new device. Not another dashboard. A continuous, personal health intelligence that monitors and analyzes the data your life already generates, and uses it to guide you toward your objectives, in real time, without adding friction.

Imagine if we could stop asking patients to reorganize their lives around their health. Instead, embed health intelligence into the life they’re already living.

What It Could Look Like

Five layers of data (most of which already exist) feeding one unified model:

1. Biology. Your genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and routine biomarkers: from annual panels to imaging etc. Thats the foundation.

2. Lifestyle. Already measured by wearables and devices you own. Sleep, HRV, activity, recovery, VO2 estimates. Oura, Whoop, Apple Watch, Garmin they’re collecting it. But they dont unify.

3. Behaviors. How you eat, what you buy, how you move through your day, your social patterns, your screen time. Apple, Amazon, Google, and your phone already know this in extraordinary resolution.

4. Environmental. Light exposure, EMF, PM2.5, PFAS levels, water quality, air quality, UV index. We measure all of it. We just don’t connect it to individual health trajectories.

5. Life milestones and goals. Your voice, your intentions, your life stage. Are you training for a marathon or recovering from a divorce? Planning a pregnancy or navigating menopause? The same biomarkers mean different things depending on what you’re optimizing for.

What It Does

Once these layers are unified, Ambient Longevity drafts personalized recommendations based on your objectives, not generic population averages. And it deploys specialized agents to guide execution:

• A mental health agent that tracks mood patterns, stress markers, and cognitive load

• A physical performance agent that adapts training to recovery, sleep, and biological age

• A nutrition agent that adjusts recommendations based on what’s actually in your kitchen, your metabolic response, and your goals

• A travel and environment agent that anticipates jet lag, altitude changes, air quality shifts, and adjusts protocols before you feel the impact

You get it you could train agents to provide n-of-1 guidance.

The Key Insight

This data already exists. It sits in Google, Amazon, Oura, Whoop, your EMR, your banking app, your calendar. What didn’t exist was a way to analyze it in real time, across all domains, for one individual.

Today, it does. And it does it better than any human could. Not because AI is smarter than physicians, but because no physician can monitor five data layers continuously, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and adjust recommendations in real time.

The Hard Question

If the data exists and the technology works, the question isn’t technical. It’s ethical. How do we make it ethical? The data must serve the individual, not the platform. Your health model should be proprietary to you, not owned by a corporation monetizing your biology.

How do we make it equitable? The current longevity model serves the wealthy. Ambient Longevity runs on infrastructure that already reaches billions. It doesn’t require concierge memberships or $10,000 panels. It requires a new philosophy about whose interests the data should serve.

How do we keep it controlled by the individual? Open-source models., decentralized architecture, federated learning… where your data trains your model locally without ever leaving your device. No central database. No corporate ownership. Your biology, your intelligence, your control.

Ambient Longevity isn’t the future. The data exists. The AI exists. The infrastructure exists. What’s missing is the commitment to making personal health intelligence ethical, equitable, and individually controlled. When knoledge and data become ubiquitous, the predict physician could bring wisdom, experience, and guidance.

Every week, the Longevity Docs WhatsApp group feels like a front-row seat to the future of medicine. Here’s what had doctors buzzing:

Is the statin debate finally settled?

The most active thread of the week. JJ shared a massive review of 23 RCTs showing most statin side effects are nocebo: memory problems, depression, sleep issues, and weight gain appeared equally in placebo groups. Only a few side effects showed any real link to statins, and even those were rare.

That ignited a multi-day debate. The sharpest exchanges:

GC delivered a comprehensive clinical rebuttal of the Lean Mass Hyper-Responder (LMHR) framework, citing the Keto-CTA trial data showing non-calcified plaque progression even in metabolically “pristine” LMHR patients. His conclusion: ApoB particle burden offsets metabolic health.

RD shared a new JACC study: among patients with high polygenic risk scores, 50% had plaque, 75% mixed plaque, 27% high-risk: average age 56.

JJ reframed the value proposition: “The misconception is that the juice is in the lipid lowering. It’s not. It’s decreased inflammation, plaque stabilization, and improved endothelial nitric oxide function.” He uses low-dose rosuvastatin 3x/week alongside PCSK9 inhibitors specifically for pleiotropic effects.

Key Takeaway: The statin debate isn’t binary. Low-dose statins have real pleiotropic value beyond lipid lowering. Dismissing them entirely is clinically irresponsible. Prescribing them reflexively is equally lazy. The answer lives in deep phenotyping, genetic risk assessment (PRS, CAC, CIMT), and individualized shared decision-making.

The TRT Aromatization Question

One doc posted a complex case: 49-year-old male, all the classic low-T symptoms, slightly overweight, on CPAP. Started on testogel and DHEA. Three months later: zero symptom improvement, testosterone barely moved (346 ng/dl), and estradiol kept climbing.

The group delivered a complete treatment algorithm in hours:

DE: Switch to IM or SubQ injections (100mg/week, split dosing), target ~700 ng/dl. Stop the DHEA immediately: “In many men, oral DHEA causes significant rise in estradiol.”

SM challenged the reflex to suppress estradiol: “A lot of the cardioprotective effect of testosterone in men is actually related to estradiol. I like the T:E ratio to be at least 10:1.” He warned against reflexive aromatase inhibitor use and pushed for mass spec estradiol testing over immunoassay.

RP confirmed: “Are you using mass spec? I find it much more sensitive and consistent.” SM “110%. Immunoassay is not that reliable.”

KB introduced a novel angle: impaired intestinal permeability and elevated beta-glucuronidase disrupting Phase 3 estrogen metabolism in the gut.

TR espectfully challenged the evidence base for gut-directed interventions in this context - a perfect example of peer review in action.

TL delivered the clinical anecdote of the week: a male patient with inexplicably off-the-charts estriol. The culprit? His wife’s vaginal Ovestin cream (E3) absorbed during intimacy. “He was trying to figure out his emotional volatility.”

Key Takeaway: TRT management is nuanced. Topical testosterone underperforms for many men. DHEA can amplify aromatization. Estradiol isn’t the enemy: it’s cardioprotective, and the T:E ratio matters more than the absolute number. Test with mass spec. And always... take a thorough history.

Not a member yet? Join longevitydocs™

We're a physician-only network. Curated. Vetted. Built on trust. If you're committed to practicing longevity medicine with rigor, peer support, and shared standards → this is your community. Apply to connect with our team.

Apply for Memberships

Half Your Lifespan Is Genetic

A landmark study in Science reanalyzed twin data from Denmark, Sweden, and US centenarian studies. Finding: ~55% of lifespan variation is heritable, more than double the previous consensus of 10-25%. Previous estimates failed to separate extrinsic deaths (accidents, infections) from intrinsic aging (organ decline, DNA damage).

For longevitydocs: If half of lifespan is genetic, genetic risk profiling become foundational. This validates considering genomics, PRS, and pathway-specific genetic analysis into your longevity assessment. It also reframes the “just do lifestyle” argument, genetics sets the playing field.

Shingles Vaccine and Dementia

A new Lancet Neurology study of 464,000+ Canadians confirmed that the Zostavax shingles vaccine reduced dementia by 2 absolute percentage points over 5.5 years. Using birth-date eligibility cutoffs in Ontario vs. provinces without a vaccine program, this is the strongest causal evidence yet: the 4th independent natural experiment.

For longevitydocs: A $200, FDA-approved vaccine with robust dementia prevention data. If you’re not discussing this with patients over 50, you’re missing one of the most evidence-backed longevity interventions available today.

GLP-1 Receptors Genetically Linked to Aging Itself

An AI-driven multi-omic framework from Insilico Medicine used Mendelian randomization across 12 age-related diseases and found causal genetic support for the GLP-1 receptor in aging-related traits: alongside IL6, IL6R, NLRP3, and TLR4. Chronic inflammation was the #1 enriched hallmark. Separately, Harvard reported GLP-1s showing 40% relative risk reduction in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.

For Longevity Docs: GLP-1s just graduated from weight loss drugs to potential geroprotective agents, backed by genetic causal evidence, not just mechanistic speculation. Combined with expanding trial data in liver disease, sleep apnea, and addiction, this drug class is becoming central to longevity practice.

Every week, I track funding, FDA approvals, product launches, and breakthrough announcements shaping longevity medicine.

AI/TECH

Oura launches a proprietary AI model focused on women’s health

Oura has launched a proprietary AI model integrated into its Advisor chatbot, delivering personalized women’s health insights powered by biometric data (sleep, activity, cycle tracking, pregnancy) combined with clinically reviewed guidance from board-certified experts. The model covers the full reproductive spectrum from menstrual cycles through menopause.

Why it matters: This is the convergence of continuous biometric monitoring with clinical-grade AI, exactly the kind of ambient health intelligence I describe in this week’s cover story. Wearables are no longer just collecting data. They’re interpreting it. The question for physicians: are you part of that interpretation loop, or outside it? Read more →

POLICIES

FDA rewrites drug approval rules and longevity stands to gain

FDA Commissioner Marty Makary has ended the longstanding “two-trial dogma,” allowing a single pivotal clinical trial to support drug approval. The agency is simultaneously implementing AI-driven reviews and offering expedited one-month approvals for medications serving “national interests.”

Why it matters: This fundamentally lowers the barrier for longevity therapeutics targeting biomarkers of aging (inflammation, metabolic health, immune function) rather than traditional disease endpoints. Faster approvals mean faster access to geroprotective agents. Read more →

RESEARCH

ARPA-H & FDA Launch PROSPR: First Phase 3 Trial Targeting Aging Itself

ARPA-H partners with FDA to run the first Phase 3 clinical trial in people without a specific disease diagnosis, testing rapamycin, SGLT2 inhibitors, and GLP-1 agonists as geroprotective agents. A landmark moment for aging-as-a-target.

Why it matters: This is the regulatory moment longevity medicine has been waiting for. If these trials succeed, aging-as-a-target gets an evidence pathway and every geroprotective protocol you’re running gains legitimacy.

CULTURE

How New Longevity Tech Could Help You Reach 100

Men’s Health published a deep dive on the emerging longevity technology stack featuring the concept of Ambient Longevity and how continuous, frictionless health intelligence could reshape how we think about prevention and aging.

Why it matters: When mainstream media covers longevity with this level of depth, patient demand follows. Your patients are reading this. Are you ready for the questions? Read the article →

Dr. Emeline Opoku from Ghana, West Africa.

Our newest Certified Longevity Doctor (CLD) on her vision to start a longevity-focused clinic in Accra, Ghana.

Dr. Opoku, tell us a little about who you are and what your practice looks like.

I’m Dr. Emeline Opoku, a General Practitioner with a decade of clinical experience in Family Medicine. I’m based in Ghana-West Africa, and currently advancing my expertise in public health, functional medicine, and longevity medicine.

What drives you in this direction?

I’m deeply passionate about helping people improve their health and extending their quality of life through personalized longevity approaches without relying on reactive one-size-fits-all healthcare.

How did you find Longevity Docs?

I stumbled on Dr. David Luu’s LinkedIn profile and was immediately drawn to the vision of LongevityDocs.

What did that moment feel like?

As a pioneer in this space in Ghana, I am eager to learn and often felt professionally isolated, so finding a community with such international reach was deeply meaningful.

And when you looked at the CLD program specifically, what stood out?

What stood out most about the CLD program is, it’s one-year program with strong grounding in research, practical integration of geroscience, and precision diagnostics into real-world clinical care.

Why does that matter to you personally?

This supports my long term vision of building a longevity focused clinic.

The Certified Longevity Doctor (CLD) program gives you the clinical framework, the evidence base, and the global physician community to make longevity medicine real in your practice.

Explore the CLD Certification

Next cohort is forming now. Seats are limited.

Mastermind Replays Now Available

3 Masterminds. 3 topics reshaping longevity practice: AI & Tech, Peptides, and Hormones - featuring the dozens of faculty. Trusted by hundred of physicians

If you weren’t in the room, this is your second chance.

Access the Replays

Conferences

Jun 9–11 — Longevity Docs Cannes: Our flagship. Physicians, researchers, innovators, investors, policymakers

Jun 29–Jul 1 — A4LI H-SPAN Summit · Washington, DC Longevity medicine meets regulation and policy.

Aug 24–28 — ARDD · Copenhagen, Denmark Where aging research meets drug discovery.

Oct 17 — Longevity Docs Skin Longevity Mastermind · New York, NY. Curated physicians. Deep science. One room.

TBA — Longevity Clinics Roundtables · Buck Institute Clinical practice meets research infrastructure.

The Home of Longevity Medicine

longevitydocs.™ is the professional infrastructure for longevity medicine: a physician-only network uniting 600+ physicians across 50+ countries. We build the network, education, research, and culture that make longevity medicine the new gold standard of care.

Longevity medicine is the personalized, evidence-based practice of modifying the root mechanisms of aging (biological, cognitive, and psychosocial) before they become disease, extending healthspan, not just lifespan. Using advanced diagnostics, precision interventions, and AI-enabled monitoring, it translates measurement into action across every medical discipline. Success is measured in functional capacity, vitality, and disease-free years.

Our Pioneering Approach: Network, Education, Research, Culture

• Professional Network: A curated, physician-only circle of trust. Leading longevity physicians share protocols, collaborate on clinical challenges, and elevate each other across borders, specialties, and cultures. Shared intelligence as infrastructure.

• Medical Education: The Certified longevitydocs™ (CLD) is the first structured, physician-led clinical curriculum for longevity medicine. Comprehensive, evidence-based, and practice-ready. Continuous education programs delivered through structured cohorts and institutional partnerships worldwide.

• Clinical Research: A clinical research infrastructure enabling rapid generation of real-world evidence across the longevitydocs™ network. Patient registries, standardized outcome measurement, and multi-center collaboration frameworks that transform everyday practice into coordinated discovery.

• Cultural Experiences: From Cannes to New York, our Summits, Awards, Masterminds, and Jefferson Dinners convene top researchers, clinicians, investors, and government officials to shape longevity medicine’s growth, investment, and policy. We write the story of longevity medicine for the world.

• Intelligence: Weekly syntheses of scientific breakthroughs, clinical best practices, business signals, and global market analysis; the industry’s trusted source of strategic intelligence for physicians, institutions, and Fortune 500 companies.

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Subscribe to the Longevity Docs Newsletter

Longevity medicine is moving fast. Every week, we bring you what matters: clinical insights, research signals, and perspectives from 600+ physicians across 50+ countries. One newsletter. Built for the physicians shaping this field.

Newsletter Disclaimer:

The content shared in this newsletter, including the "Buzz in the Chat" section, is for educational purposes only. It is derived from peer-to-peer conversations among physicians within the Longevity Docs community and is intended to inform and engage our network of doctors.

Please note that these discussions do not reflect the official position of Longevity Docs and are not to be interpreted as medical advice or recommendations. The insights and opinions shared are those of individual physicians and are provided as part of our mission to foster collaborative learning and dialogue among healthcare professionals.

We encourage all readers to consult qualified healthcare professionals for personalized medical advice and to evaluate any medical information in the context of their clinical expertise and patient needs.

Hey Doc,

Welcome to the home of longevity medicine!

What I saw: this week, I watched a revolution in the tech world. Codex, Opus 4.6, OpenClaw, and a wave of AI coding tools changed how millions of people build software, literally overnight. Coding literacy that used to take years to acquire is now accessible to billions of people in a week. It will impact medicine tremendously.

What I heard: More physicians are asking the same question: how do I build a sustainable longevity practice? They want to know about clinical authority, patient experience, protocols, and business models. But there is no playbook but a lot of interest. I also heard from a highly respected physician/researcher who just returned from China. Her assessment: the biotech infrastructure, AI-driven drug discovery, and clinical trial quality she witnessed are now world-class and in some areas, ahead of where we are in the US or EU. The most important breakthroughs in longevity medicine won’t come from one country, they’ll come from physicians who are paying attention globally. Our job is to stay open-minded, explore the cutting edge wherever it emerges, and bring the best of it back to our patients. That’s what forward-thinking medicine looks like.

What I think: Analog care is about to become the ultimate luxury. Not because digital health fails, but because it succeeds and will become the norm. When platforms can automate diagnostics, prescribe medications, and deliver care at scale, the scarcest resource won’t be access, it will be attention. And for the first time in history, doctors now have the tools to practice truly good medicine at scale: data-driven, preventive, personalized. That makes me deeply optimistic.

Happy sunday!

Dr. David Luu - Founder, longevitydocs.™

In this week newsletter:

• Cover Story: The longevity care battle: physician vs digital platforms, with 4 investments physicians must make

• Research Radar: Publications on lifespan heritability, rapamycin, Lp(a) and vulnerable plaque, urolithin A vs spermidine

• Intelligence: Amazon/Lifeforce partnership, retatrutide, Clair hormone monitoring, AI-HIPAA privacy gap

• Buzz in the Chat: Physician community debates on retatrutide side effects, and vitamin K2

• Community: Shout out to Dr. Joseph Currier our newest CLD (Certified Longevity Doctor)

Each week, I try to explore one idea that could advance longevity medicine and hopefully support physicians in bringing it to life.

The Longevity Care Battle: Physician vs Digital Platform

The battle for longevity medicine has begun. On one side: digital platforms armed with venture capital, AI tools, and frictionless patient acquisition. On the other: physicians with 15 years of training, deep clinical knowledge, and a growing sense they’re being outflanked by apps and influencers.

One side optimizes for convenience. The other for clinical rigor. One scales with software. The other depends on relationships. I think there is room for both (if they deliver outcomes)

And if you’re a physician who believes longevity medicine should be led by doctors (not algorithms and checkout carts) you need to understand what’s actually happening, and what you need to do about it.

What platforms got right

In the past five years, digital health platforms launched a revolution. They diagnosed, prescribed, and changed behavior without requiring patients to see a doctor. Most of the time, a simple form was enough.

They had venture capital. They acquired patients at scale. They innovated with apps, tools, and AI. They improved the patient experience. And they filled the gap left by a healthcare system where convenience, access, and cost were never priorities.

Telemedicine platforms proved the model: if you reduce friction, patients will pay out-of-pocket for care that insurance won’t cover and primary care can’t deliver.

Now it’s happening in longevity medicine

What happened in telehealth is now happening in longevity. Platforms are offering MRI scans, advanced labs, wearable integrations, and prescription fulfillment (from statins, ED medications, GLP-1s, compounded hormones, even non-approved research peptides).

The patient journey looks like this: order labs online, upload wearable data, get a prescription, receive supplements and medications by mail. No appointment needed. No physician visit required. Just data in, drugs out.

And the patients? They’re younger than you’d expect. They’re not waiting for their doctor to bring up longevity. They’re getting information from TikTok, friends, and platforms. They’re reading -or at least skimming- research papers. They’re tracking their own biomarkers. They’re looking at outcomes.

Self-care became self-healthcare. And for many, that means physician-less healthcare.

The physician response

On the other side: physicians with updated knowledge, rigorous methods, and clinical training that platforms can’t replicate. They read JAMA, Nature, and The Lancet. They understand biology and medicine at a systems level. They learn from treating thousands of patients.

But they can’t answer the demand. They can’t compete on convenience. And many don’t want to play the visibility game.

One physician said: “I didn’t spend 15 years studying medicine to become an influencer.”

I get it. But here’s the reality: if you’re not visible, you’re invisible. And invisible physicians lose patients to platforms that are visible everywhere: subway, social media, podcast sponsorships, and even SuperBowl ads.

What physicians must do to stay relevant

It doesn’t have to be this way. But staying relevant requires a strategy. Here are the four investments physicians must make:

1. Educate yourself relentlessly

Clinical authority starts with knowledge.

If a patient asks about peptides and your answer is, “They don’t work,” you’ve already lost them. Not because you’re wrong, but because you sound uninformed, dismissive, or outdated.

Patients today are educated, curious, and online.

You need to understand mechanisms.
You need to distinguish between insulin and GLP-1 agonists (FDA-approved, well studied) versus research compounds with limited human data.
You need to explain regulation, side effects, and where the evidence truly stands.

Authority doesn’t mean being defensive.
It means being more informed than the patient and generous with that knowledge.

2. Educate Publicly. Be Visible. Build Trust. Not Followers.

Platforms spend millions educating the market about longevity. They don’t just sell, they shape perception. Physicians must do the same.

Write. Speak. Teach. Explain the science. Break down the mechanisms. Share what you’re learning.

Visibility is not about becoming an influencer. It’s about being discoverable to the patients who are already looking for someone credible.

You don’t need millions of followers. You need a trusted reputation.

In a world saturated with information, trust becomes analog. Patients don’t want a checkout cart. They want to feel heard, understood, and guided.

Be visible but stay grounded. Share your thinking. Share your cases. Stay humble. Keep learning.

3. Build a Circle of Trust. Optimize for Outcomes.

You don’t need to become the loudest voice. You need the best outcomes. That requires collaboration: physician networks, shared protocols, peer-learning, and ethical accountability.

Platforms optimize for acquisition. Physicians must optimize for outcomes.

That’s the moat. That’s the defensibility. That’s what technology can’t replicate.

Build a circle of trust with other physicians.
Review cases together.
Challenge each other.
Raise the standard.

The future: AI democratizes knowledge, not human care

AI will democratize access to medical knowledge. Patients/consumers will have tools that can interpret labs, suggest interventions, and track outcomes. Platforms will get better at personalization, recommendations, and automation.

But AI can’t yet democratize human care. It can’t democratize wisdom. It can’t replace the judgment that comes from treating hundreds of patients. And it can’t replicate the trust that develops when a physician truly understands a patient’s biology, psychology, and life context.

The future of longevity medicine will be deeply rooted in scientific knowledge and human-first care. Patients won’t be uneducated consumers following protocols. They’ll be informed partners expecting collaboration, not paternalism.

That’s where the competition is. Not in who has the best checkout experience. Not in who can ship drugs fastest. But in who can deliver the best clinical outcomes while treating patients as partners, not transactions.

Platforms will win on convenience. Physicians will win on outcomes. I believe the collaboration could actually make the longevity care a really in the next few years.

Every week, the Longevity Docs WhatsApp group feels like a front-row seat to the future of medicine. Here’s what had doctors buzzing:

Retatrutide: is research-grade worth the risk?

A physician asked for guidance after his friend developed generalized cutaneous hypersensitivity without rash a few days after starting retatrutide. The discussion quickly evolved into a broader debate about research-grade peptides versus 503b compounded options, optimal GLP-1 dosing strategies, and when to consider switching from zepbound to retatrutide. Multiple emergency medicine physicians weighed in with real-world side effect data, while others discussed retatrutide’s impressive liver-specific benefits (86% liver fat reduction in phase 2 trials) that distinguish it from pure GLP-1 agonists. The conversation also surfaced growing concerns about long-term glucagon agonism: increased heart rate, amino acid depletion through hepatic catabolism, potential renal hyperfiltration mimicking diabetic nephropathy, and theoretical cardiac myofibrosis through persistently elevated cAMP.

Key takeaways: Retatrutide’s glucagon agonism delivers 86% liver fat reduction but raises long-term safety questions about chronotropic effects, bone health (osteoblast activation), and kidney stress that may take years to manifest

Direct quotes:

“Adding KPV to Reta helps this. It’s a very common reaction. KPV has a local anti-inflammatory effect and mast cell stabilization.” Dr. J

“If targeting the liver specifically, then reta makes sense over Zep. The phase 2 data was staggering up to 86% liver fat reduction in just 48 weeks, with most patients dropping to normal (≤5%) levels. But I refuse to use it until FDA approval. Not a fan of research grade.” Dr. O

“All the serious side effects I experienced in pts that came to my ER were all from pts on max dose (of zepbound). My max is 10mg. And that’s an arbitrary number I created from experience.” Dr. J

About Retatrutide

Clinical & Regulatory Context:

Retatrutide (LY3437943) is an investigational first-in-class triple hormone receptor agonist developed by Eli Lilly that simultaneously activates GIP, GLP-1, and glucagon receptors. Unlike current FDA-approved treatments that target one or two of these pathways (semaglutide targets GLP-1 alone; tirzepatide targets GLP-1 and GIP), retatrutide’s addition of glucagon receptor activation is hypothesized to enhance energy expenditure and hepatic fat metabolism, which is why Phase 2 data showed up to 86% liver fat reduction that distinguishes it from existing agents.

Regulatory status: Retatrutide is not FDA-approved. It is still investigational, meaning it is only available and administered within clinical trials. Eli Lilly’s TRIUMPH Phase 3 program includes multiple ongoing trials, with the first positive readout (TRIUMPH-4) announced December 11, 2025, showing up to 28.7% body weight reduction at 68 weeks. Seven additional Phase 3 readouts are expected in 2026. Eli Lilly is expected to file for FDA approval in late 2026, with potential approval by early 2027.

Safety. The FDA has warned that products sold with labels saying “research peptides” are not intended for human use and should never be self-administered. Online products may contain unregulated powders that are not authentic Eli Lilly compounds, and home mixing raises serious contamination and infection risks. A new safety signal (dysesthesia) emerged in TRIUMPH-4 affecting approximately 20.9% of patients on the highest dose, a finding not reported in earlier Phase 2 trials.

For longevitydocs: Retatrutide’s mechanism is promising and the early data is compelling. But promising mechanism and Phase 3 topline results are not the same as an approved, safety-monitored therapeutic with established dosing, long-term adverse event data, and post-marketing surveillance. Our community’s discussion above reflects exactly the kind of rigorous, evidence-aware clinical reasoning this moment demands: weighing liver-specific benefits against unresolved questions about glucagon agonism, cardiac effects, and renal stress. Until FDA approval, retatrutide remains an investigational compound. Physicians discussing it should do so in that context, and patients seeking it outside of clinical trials are assuming unquantified risk.

For the latest trial data: Eli Lilly TRIUMPH-4 Announcement | ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT05931367

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We're a physician-only network. Curated. Vetted. Built on trust. If you're committed to practicing longevity medicine with rigor, peer support, and shared standards → this is your community. Apply to connect with our team.

Apply for Memberships

Rapamycin in Humans: What the Evidence Actually Shows

Lancet Healthy Longevity systematic review (Feb 2024) analyzed 19 human studies from 18,400 screened articles on rapamycin and rapalogs for aging. Findings: improved physiological parameters in immune, cardiovascular, and integumentary (skin) systems. No significant effects detected in endocrine, muscular, or neurological systems. Respiratory, digestive, renal, and reproductive systems not assessed. Notably, no clear dose-response relationship emerged across studies, suggesting optimal dosing protocols remain undefined.

For longevitydocs: Human evidence for rapamycin’s anti-aging effects is narrower than the animal data suggests. Before prescribing off-label for longevity, educate your patients that potential benefits might be limited to immune function, cardiovascular parameters, and skin aging, while neurological and metabolic benefits seen in mice haven’t translated to humans yet.

The Lancet Healthy Longevity

Inherited Risk of Coronary Artery Disease: Redefining Care with Imaging and Genetics

Nature Reviews Cardiology review (Feb 11, 2026) examining how family history captures complex genetic-environmental-lifestyle interplay in CAD risk. Despite high predictive value, family history remains inconsistently defined and under-recorded in routine risk assessment. Authors explore how cardiac imaging and polygenic risk scores can redefine cardiovascular prevention in high-risk families, moving beyond traditional risk calculators to precision assessment combining genomics with structural imaging data.

For longevitydocs: Time to standardize family history assessment and integrate polygenic risk scores + cardiac imaging for patients with premature CAD in first-degree relatives. This precision approach identifies high-risk individuals missed by conventional ASCVD calculators.

Nature Reviews Cardiology

Lp(a) Identifies Vulnerable Plaque That Calcium Scoring Misses

European Heart Journal imaging study (Fisher et al., Jan 28, 2026) analyzed 547 asymptomatic primary prevention patients with AI-guided quantitative coronary CTA. Elevated Lp(a) independently associated with low-density non-calcified plaque (LDNCP) -the vulnerable phenotype most likely to rupture- even after adjusting for age, sex, and other risk markers. CAC score predicted overall plaque burden and calcified plaque (P < 0.000) but showed no association with LDNCP. LDL-P and hsCRP showed no significant plaque associations in multivariable models.

For longevitydocs: Lp(a) and CAC score play complementary roles in risk stratification. For asymptomatic patients with elevated Lp(a) consider coronary AI-CTA even with zero calcium score to assess for non-calcified vulnerable plaque.

European Heart Journal - Cardiovascular Imaging

Urolithin A vs. Spermidine: Not All Autophagy Inducers Are Equal

Nutrition Research Reviews comparison (Dec 2025) clarifies distinct mechanisms of two popular longevity supplements.

• Urolithin A specifically targets mitophagy via PINK1/Parkin pathway, clearing dysfunctional mitochondria.

• Spermidine induces broader autophagy through AMPK/sirtuin 1 regulation

Clinical divergence: preclinical models show urolithin A improves both systolic and diastolic cardiac dysfunction in aging/heart failure; spermidine improved only diastolic function. Human trial (4 months urolithin A) significantly reduced plasma ceramides predicting CVD risk.

For longevitydocs: For patients focused on mitochondrial dysfunction (sarcopenia, heart failure, or metabolic disease with confirmed mitochondrial impairment) urolithin A may be the more targeted choice. Spermidine offers broader cellular maintenance but less specific mitochondrial benefit.

Nutrition Research Reviews

Every week, I track funding, FDA approvals, product launches, and breakthrough announcements shaping longevity medicine.

CARE

Concierge & DPC Models Double, Hitting 7,000+ Providers

Concierge and direct primary care physicians increased 80% since 2018, reaching 7,000+ nationwide twice the predicted growth rate, per Harvard Medical School. While these membership-based models improve physician and patient satisfaction through smaller panels and longer visits, researchers note the system-level cost: fewer doctors available for traditional primary care as burnout drives exodus from fee-for-service models. Harvard Medical School

AI/TECH

Amazon One Medical Launches Lifeforce-Powered Health Insights

Amazon One Medical launched "Health Insights" (Feb 2026), a beta feature partnering with Lifeforce to analyze 50+ biomarkers from standard bloodwork and generate personalized wellness scores. The app organizes results by health domains (cardiovascular, metabolic, immune) and provides evidence-based lifestyle recommendations. Available at no additional cost to One Medical members.

Clair’s Wearable Infers Hormones Without Blood or Sweat Testing

Stanford startup Clair is launching the first continuous hormone tracker that infers estrogen, progesterone, LH, and FSH from wrist-worn biosensors (no blood draws or sweat analysis required). The device will use AI to triangulate hormonal shifts from 130+ biomarkers including HRV, skin temperature, and sleep patterns, achieving 94.1% cycle-phase accuracy in early validation. Beta launches this month; full device release November 2026.

POLICIES

Your AI Doctor Doesn't Follow HIPAA: Privacy Gaps in ChatGPT Health & Claude for Healthcare

Tech companies like OpenAI and Anthropic almost certainly would not be considered "covered entities" under HIPAA, and they don't claim to be. Anthropic describes Claude for Healthcare as "built on HIPAA-ready infrastructure" (not HIPAA-compliant), while OpenAI's enterprise products "support" HIPAA compliance. ChatGPT Health cannot be made HIPAA compliant since OpenAI won't enter Business Associate Agreements with consumer users. Privacy experts warn: "Assume any information you upload into these tools will no longer be private." Millions are using AI health chatbots without understanding the regulatory gap between consumer AI and traditional healthcare providers bound by HIPAA safeguards. Cyberscoop

Dr. Joseph Currier from ER to longevity Medicine.

Our newest Certified Longevity Doctor (CLD) on why he's starting over and why he's never been more excited about medicine.

After nearly 30 years in emergency medicine, Dr. Joseph Currier is walking away from the ER in April… not because he lost the fire, but because he found a new one.

“Running around ERs for nearly 30 years fixing broken bodies and minds has given me a unique perspective on what is great and what is badly in need of reform with our current medical system. Even after all those years, I still love that job and will always consider it a privilege to care for those on their direst day.”

But the pattern he kept seeing: patients arriving broken, stabilized, and sent back into the same trajectory, changed how he thought about medicine entirely.

“What a novel concept: keep things from breaking. Extend one’s healthspan and worry less about just keeping them alive with multiple comorbidities, chronic pain, limited mobility, and declining cognition.”

Now deep into the CLD training program, Dr. Currier describes the experience with a word you don’t often hear from a physician three decades into practice: excitement.

“I feel like a kid again. As I learn the expansive knowledge base through the Certified Longevity Docs training program, every day I am more convinced that most of our colleagues are still fixed in the old way of thinking. We go to our doctor annually for a brief physical. Check some vitals, maybe a cholesterol and a few basic labs, possibly not even examine you anymore and see you next year. Things look great until they don’t.”

He’s also clear-eyed about the responsibility that comes with the field’s momentum, a point that echoes this week’s cover story directly.

“This justifiable excitement needs to be tempered by our knowledge of the literature and desire to still practice evidence-based medicine. I see this as our crucial role as the landscape spreads throughout social media and into popular culture. Our patients will rely on us to find the best individualized care plan that in many cases may consist of nothing more than foundational principles providing the greatest benefit and lowest cost.”

Dr. Currier doesn’t yet know exactly where he’ll land in the longevity medicine landscape. But his closing line captures something every physician in this community will recognize:

“While I don’t yet know where my place lies in this ever-expanding specialty, I do know I will have a place and am inspired by all of the amazing people I have met already.”

Welcome to the community, Dr. Currier. This is exactly why we built it.

The Certified Longevity Doctor (CLD) program gives you the clinical framework, the evidence base, and the global physician community to make longevity medicine real in your practice.

Explore the CLD Certification

Next cohort is forming now. Seats are limited.

Mastermind Replays Now Available

3 Masterminds. 3 topics reshaping longevity practice: AI & Tech, Peptides, and Hormones - featuring the dozens of faculty. Trusted by hundred of physicians

If you weren’t in the room, this is your second chance.

Access the Replays

Conferences

Feb 19–21 — IH Symposium · New York, NY Integrative health leaders meets

Feb 27–28 — CALM · Fort Lauderdale, FL Clinical approaches to longevity medicine.

Jun 9–11 — Longevity Docs Summit · Cannes, France Our flagship. Physicians, researchers, innovators, investors, policymakers — one stage.

Jun 29–Jul 1 — A4LI H-SPAN Summit · Washington, DC Longevity medicine meets regulation and policy.

Aug 24–28 — ARDD · Copenhagen, Denmark Where aging research meets drug discovery.

Oct 17 — Longevity Docs Skin Longevity Mastermind · New York, NY. Curated physicians. Deep science. One room.

TBA — Longevity Clinics Roundtables · Buck Institute Clinical practice meets research infrastructure.

The Home of Longevity Medicine

longevitydocs.™ is the professional infrastructure for longevity medicine: a physician-only network uniting 600+ physicians across 50+ countries. We build the network, education, research, and culture that make longevity medicine the new gold standard of care.

Longevity medicine is the personalized, evidence-based practice of modifying the root mechanisms of aging (biological, cognitive, and psychosocial) before they become disease, extending healthspan, not just lifespan. Using advanced diagnostics, precision interventions, and AI-enabled monitoring, it translates measurement into action across every medical discipline. Success is measured in functional capacity, vitality, and disease-free years.

Our Pioneering Approach: Network, Education, Research, Culture

• Professional Network: A curated, physician-only circle of trust. Leading longevity physicians share protocols, collaborate on clinical challenges, and elevate each other across borders, specialties, and cultures. Shared intelligence as infrastructure.

• Medical Education: The Certified longevitydocs™ (CLD) is the first structured, physician-led clinical curriculum for longevity medicine. Comprehensive, evidence-based, and practice-ready. Continuous education programs delivered through structured cohorts and institutional partnerships worldwide.

• Clinical Research: A clinical research infrastructure enabling rapid generation of real-world evidence across the longevitydocs™ network. Patient registries, standardized outcome measurement, and multi-center collaboration frameworks that transform everyday practice into coordinated discovery.

• Cultural Experiences: From Cannes to New York, our Summits, Awards, Masterminds, and Jefferson Dinners convene top researchers, clinicians, investors, and government officials to shape longevity medicine’s growth, investment, and policy. We write the story of longevity medicine for the world.

• Intelligence: Weekly syntheses of scientific breakthroughs, clinical best practices, business signals, and global market analysis; the industry’s trusted source of strategic intelligence for physicians, institutions, and Fortune 500 companies.

Apply to Join

Subscribe to the Longevity Docs Newsletter

Longevity medicine is moving fast. Every week, we bring you what matters: clinical insights, research signals, and perspectives from 600+ physicians across 50+ countries. One newsletter. Built for the physicians shaping this field.

Newsletter Disclaimer:

The content shared in this newsletter, including the "Buzz in the Chat" section, is for educational purposes only. It is derived from peer-to-peer conversations among physicians within the Longevity Docs community and is intended to inform and engage our network of doctors.

Please note that these discussions do not reflect the official position of Longevity Docs and are not to be interpreted as medical advice or recommendations. The insights and opinions shared are those of individual physicians and are provided as part of our mission to foster collaborative learning and dialogue among healthcare professionals.

We encourage all readers to consult qualified healthcare professionals for personalized medical advice and to evaluate any medical information in the context of their clinical expertise and patient needs.

Hey Doc,

Welcome to the home of longevity medicine!

What I saw: Last week we gathered 100+ physicians in NYC for our AI & Tech Mastermind. The question on the table: how will doctors use AI or will they be replaced? Full room Network + knowledge + ambition in one room. Felt super inspired, thank you to our amazing faculty from Mount Sinai, Mayo Clinic, Buck Institute, Stanford, NYU, and all the longevitydocs!

What I heard: Longevity medicine is showing up in every conversation now. Large companies. Regulators. Tech. Media. I met with several of them this past few weeks. They are all looking for the same thing: ethical, trained longevity doctors who can deliver safe, evidence-based, personalized care at scale. They are looking for us.

What I think: Medicine is having a reckoning. The future generation of physicians will carry a mission: leveraging technology and education to keep humanity healthy for longer. To add a layer of longevity care on top of healthcare. And I am so optimistic about this.

Every doctor will eventually be a longevity doctor.
And every doctor should be a good human first.

Happy sunday!

Dr. David Luu - Founder, longevitydocs.™

PS: few pics from our Mastermind

Each week, I try to explore one idea that could advance longevity medicine and hopefully support physicians in bringing it to life.

Hippo: the AI learning assistant for certified longevitydocs (Beta Launch)

This morning I opened Hippo and asked it to create a Quiz session. Within minutes I'd tested my knowledge, found a gap I didn't know I had, and moved on with my newsletter. A quick, focused way to build longevity fluency.

Why Hippo?

What if every physician had access to rigorous longevity education, on demand, wherever they are?

This is what democratizing longevity medicine looks like. Not discounting it. Making it accessible, rigorous, and built into daily knowledge rituals that compound over time.

Hippo is an AI learning assistant built on the Certified Longevitydocs curriculum. Ask anything about the CLD course. It meets you where you are: quizzes, clinical questions, flashcards, deep explanations, summaries. All grounded in our knowledge base.

Learning medicine differently

Books, conferences, videos, all valuable. But I want to learn differently: convenient, playful, engaging, challenging, and always on.

Longevity-specific knowledge: You were trained in pathology. Hippo teaches through aging mechanisms, healthspan and prevention: the way longevity medicine actually works.

Fill the gaps: Your patients are asking about GLP-1s, rapamycin, Lp(a). Hippo closes the gap between what they’re reading and what you can confidently answer … in five minutes, from our curriculum.

Shorten the implementation time. Reading a concept is one thing. Applying it Monday morning is another. Hippo equips you with the confidence you need.

What we are testing in our beta

We imagine an assistant that helps you learn faster and deeper. Our beta version is testing:

• Quiz Sessions: clinical reasoning questions

• Open Questions: write detailed answers to realistic case scenarios. Hippo evaluates your reasoning and highlights where to strengthen.

• Flashcards on biomarkers, mechanisms, interventions. Organized by difficulty and clinical relevance.

• Learning Checklists to track your knowledge unit by unit. See what you’ve covered. See what’s left.

• Explain: ask Hippo to break down any concept. Structured, curriculum-sourced, deep.

• Summary: get a key takeaways on any topic. Fast.

This is a beta. We’re building it alongside our physician learners. Your feedback shapes what Hippo becomes. And what longevity medical education could look like in the future.

CLD from New York. Geneva. Dubai. Accra. Singapore. Wherever you’re learning, Hippo’s there.

Every doctor should be a longevity doctor.

Now, every certified longevitydocs has Hippo.

Join the Waitlist

Every week, the Longevity Docs WhatsApp group feels like a front-row seat to the future of medicine. Here’s what had doctors buzzing:

Skin longevity protocols anyone?

Two dermatologists, a regenerative medicine specialist, and a dozen longevity docs shared their actual routines. The conversation moved through three evidence tiers: foundational, advanced, and devices.

• Foundational tier (universal): retinoids, vitamin C, and mineral-based SPF showed up in every single protocol. No debate here.

• Advanced (growing adoption): compounded formulas combining rapamycin, estriol, and GHK-Cu copper peptide are increasingly common. Exosomes came up repeatedly. Re-Q (mTORC1 inhibitor) is underrated.

• Devices (most debated): Ultherapy vs. Sofwave vs. Fraxel showed real practitioner disagreement. Pain/downtime vs. results vs. maintenance frequency.

• Biggest mistake: layering too many actives and destroying skin barrier. Less is more.

“The mTOR inhibition data for skin aging is solid, and I’m seeing visible improvement in fine lines and texture after 6 months.”

“Less is more. Pick 3-4 evidence-based interventions and stay consistent.”

Rapamycin for ovarian reserve?

Emerging protocols using rapamycin + PRP for diminished ovarian reserve sparked intense discussion.

Can mTOR inhibition restore reproductive aging in real time?

Key takeaways

• one doc protocol: 5mg rapamycin weekly + ovarian PRP, with 6/8 patients showing AMH improvement over 6 months (SR’s protocol)

• LDN synergy: 4.5mg LDN nightly + 3mg rapamycin weekly in women with PCOS and early ovarian aging (SZ’s protocol)

• Mechanistic rationale: mTOR inhibition may restore autophagy in aging oocytes and improve mitochondrial function in follicles

• Still experimental: position as adjunctive to standard fertility treatments, not standalone. Track AMH, FSH, AFC, symptom logs.

• Caution: rapamycin’s immunosuppressive effects are a concern in women trying to conceive. Track infection risk.

I’m tracking everything:AMH, FSH, AFC, symptom logs. We may be writing the playbook in real time.

Genetic testing for longevity

SM’s recommendation of whole genome sequencing via New Amsterdam Genomics sparked debate on what’s clinically useful versus what’s noise. The consensus on minimum testing crystallized, but the data security question hit a nerve.

Are we ordering genomic data we can’t interpret yet—and then losing access when companies shut down?

Key takeaways

• Minimum: APOE genotyping (every longevity patient), cancer predisposition panels (BRCA, Lynch, TP53 if family history), pharmacogenomics (CYP450 variants)

• WGS debate: only for unexplained symptoms/rare disease vs. data banking for future interpretation. Most findings are VUS (variants of uncertain significance).

• Clinical utility limited today: in 5 years, today’s VUS may be tomorrow’s treatable risk, but we’re not there yet

• Data security unresolved: patients’ genomic data becomes inaccessible when companies shut down or get acquired

• Action: tell patients to download raw data files immediately and store them independently. Data portability is the patient’s responsibility.

“The question everyone’s avoiding: what happens to your patient’s genomic data if the company folds? We don’t have a good answer yet.”

Not a member yet? Join longevitydocs™

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A Placebo-Controlled Trial of the Oral PCSK9 Inhibitor Enlicitide

Enlicitide is the first oral PCSK9 inhibitor — a once-daily pill. In the CORALreef Lipids trial (2,909 patients, 52 weeks), it delivered a 57% reduction in LDL cholesterol, on par with injectable options like evolocumab and alirocumab. It also significantly lowered apoB, non-HDL cholesterol, and — notably — lipoprotein(a) by 28%, a genetically determined risk factor that until recently had no effective pharmacological intervention. Safety was clean. Adherence was 97%. NEMJ

The Inherited Basis of Coronary Artery Disease

Comprehensive NEJM review synthesizing decades of genetic research on CAD. Twin studies show 50% heritability. Since 2007, large-scale genotyping identified hundreds of genetic variants. Polygenic risk scores now show 3-5x higher risk for those in top 5% vs average. Key insight: some associated genes already constitute treatment targets; others point to unexplored disease mechanisms.

Polygenic risk scores for CAD should be part of longevity assessment for patients with family history of early cardiovascular disease—especially valuable for those with “normal” lipids/BP who may still carry high genetic risk.

Statin Safety: Product Labels vs. Clinical Trial Evidence

Meta-analysis of individual participant data from large double-blind RCTs challenges adverse effect claims listed in statin product labels (based mainly on non-randomised, non-blinded studies subject to bias). Study examined undesirable effect terms listed in SmPCs for five statins (atorvastatin, fluvastatin, pravastatin, rosuvastatin) by analyzing actual double-blind trial data.

Statin product labels may overstate adverse effects based on weak observational data - double-blind RCT evidence shows better safety profile than labels suggest. Use this when counseling patients hesitant about statin therapy due to label warnings. The Lancet

Every week, I track funding, FDA approvals, product launches, and breakthrough announcements shaping longevity medicine.

AI/TECH

Lotus Health Launches Free Primary Care with AI Doctors

Lotus Health secured $35M Series A to build 24/7 AI-enabled primary care that’s completely free to patients. Board-certified physicians from Stanford, Harvard, and UCSF oversee AI-generated diagnoses. Business model: “premium sponsorships” in-app rather than billing patients or insurance. Claims 10x more patients than traditional practices.

CARE

Radiology practice SimonMed Imaging launches new ‘longevity screening’ division

SimonMed Imaging rebranded and launched SimonMed Longevity, a new division offering whole-body MRI and multi-modality preventive screening powered by 3T MRI technology and AI-enabled imaging. The service launched at 30 locations nationwide, expanding to 70+ sites by Q1 2026, and integrates the company's previous simonONE whole-body MRI program into its main brand.

POLICIES

Hims to stop offering GLP-1 pill after FDA warned of crackdown

FDA announced it will restrict GLP-1 ingredients in compounded drugs after Hims launched $49 compounded semaglutide pill. Novo Nordisk is suing. HHS referred Hims to DOJ for investigation. Key: semaglutide is off the FDA shortage list, removing the legal basis for compounding.

BIOTECH

Life Biosciences Gets FDA Clearance for Age-Reversal Trial

Life Biosciences, cofounded by Harvard’s David Sinclair, received FDA approval for Phase 1 trial of partial epigenetic reprogramming to restore vision in glaucoma and NAION patients. Uses three Yamanaka factors to rejuvenate cells without full pluripotency reset. First patients enrolling in next few months.

Conferences

Feb 19–21 — IH Symposium · New York, NY Integrative health leaders meets

Feb 27–28 — CALM · Fort Lauderdale, FL Clinical approaches to longevity medicine.

Jun 9–11 — Longevity Docs Summit · Cannes, France Our flagship. Physicians, researchers, innovators, investors, policymakers — one stage.

Jun 29–Jul 1 — A4LI H-SPAN Summit · Washington, DC Longevity medicine meets regulation and policy.

Aug 24–28 — ARDD · Copenhagen, Denmark Where aging research meets drug discovery.

Oct 17 — Longevity Docs Skin Longevity Mastermind · New York, NY. Curated physicians. Deep science. One room.

TBA — Longevity Clinics Roundtables · Buck Institute Clinical practice meets research infrastructure.

Books

I wanted to share 3 upcoming books from Amy Shah, MD, Florence Comite, MD, and Michael Clinton. Excited for the community to keep educating and raising awareness

The Professional Infrastructure for Longevity Medicine

longevitydocs.™ is the professional infrastructure for longevity medicine: a physician-only network uniting 600+ physicians across 50+ countries. We build the network, education, research, and culture that make longevity medicine the new gold standard of care.

Longevity medicine is the personalized, evidence-based practice of modifying the root mechanisms of aging (biological, cognitive, and psychosocial) before they become disease, extending healthspan, not just lifespan. Using advanced diagnostics, precision interventions, and AI-enabled monitoring, it translates measurement into action across every medical discipline. Success is measured in functional capacity, vitality, and disease-free years.

Our Pioneering Approach: Network, Education, Research, Culture

• Professional Network: A curated, physician-only circle of trust. Leading longevity physicians share protocols, collaborate on clinical challenges, and elevate each other across borders, specialties, and cultures. Shared intelligence as infrastructure.

• Medical Education: The Certified longevitydocs™ (CLD) is the first structured, physician-led clinical curriculum for longevity medicine. Comprehensive, evidence-based, and practice-ready. Continuous education programs delivered through structured cohorts and institutional partnerships worldwide.

• Clinical Research: A clinical research infrastructure enabling rapid generation of real-world evidence across the longevitydocs™ network. Patient registries, standardized outcome measurement, and multi-center collaboration frameworks that transform everyday practice into coordinated discovery.

• Cultural Experiences: From Cannes to New York, our Summits, Awards, Masterminds, and Jefferson Dinners convene top researchers, clinicians, investors, and government officials to shape longevity medicine’s growth, investment, and policy. We write the story of longevity medicine for the world.

• Intelligence: Weekly syntheses of scientific breakthroughs, clinical best practices, business signals, and global market analysis; the industry’s trusted source of strategic intelligence for physicians, institutions, and Fortune 500 companies.

Apply to Join

Subscribe to the Longevity Docs Newsletter

Longevity medicine is moving fast. Every week, we bring you what matters: clinical insights, research signals, and perspectives from 600+ physicians across 50+ countries. One newsletter. Built for the physicians shaping this field.

Newsletter Disclaimer:

The content shared in this newsletter, including the "Buzz in the Chat" section, is for educational purposes only. It is derived from peer-to-peer conversations among physicians within the Longevity Docs community and is intended to inform and engage our network of doctors.

Please note that these discussions do not reflect the official position of Longevity Docs and are not to be interpreted as medical advice or recommendations. The insights and opinions shared are those of individual physicians and are provided as part of our mission to foster collaborative learning and dialogue among healthcare professionals.

We encourage all readers to consult qualified healthcare professionals for personalized medical advice and to evaluate any medical information in the context of their clinical expertise and patient needs.

Hey Doc,

Sundays are always a great time to reflect. Exactly a year ago I was coming from Davos where we hosted an inaugural discussion on longevity medicine. I am grateful for the amazing community and ecosystem we built in a year. Especially how much more mature the field became. "Longevity Medicine" is globally discussed, challenged, and gathering more physicians who are excited to learn and connect to treat patients better.

I talked to dozens of doctors in our certification program and it was very cool to hear them say:

“It’s refreshing to finally have a physician-only, physician-led space. That alone makes a difference.”

“This feels like a new layer of medicine that every specialty can add on top of what they already do.”

“I needed to be excited about learning medicine again and this did that.”

“Longevity Docs feels like the right community for physicians who want to practice preventive and precision medicine seriously.”

“You’ve created a hub where physicians interested in longevity can actually find each other.”

It give us the community, the team, the ecosystem to keep believing in our mission.

Medicine has always evolved. The science evolves. The therapies evolve. The technologies evolve. Our role has evolved from barber-surgeon to specialist to digital scribe.

Now we evolve again.

PS: Stay warm if you are in the storm… or go skiing ;)

Dr. David Luu - Founder, longevitydocs.™

Each week, I try to explore one idea that could advance longevity medicine and hopefully support physicians in bringing it to life.

From Barber to Longevity Doctor

Do we have to reinvent ourselves?

As physicians, we’ve spent decades mastering our craft. Now, technology is reshaping everything we thought we knew about how medicine works.

But this isn’t the first time.

In the 1500s, doctors were barber-surgeons: craftsmen who cut hair and amputated limbs.

The 1800s brought germ theory and medical schools, transforming us into diagnosticians.

The 1900s fragmented medicine into specialties, making us technicians.

The 2000s turned us into digital scribes, typing while patients talked, drowning in EHRs.

Each era demanded reinvention. Each time, we feared obsolescence. Each time, we emerged more essential, not less.

Now we’re at another inflection point.

Imagine a world where laboratory testing becomes a commodity.
Where data is monitored continuously.
Where AI analyzes signals in real time: flagging rising cardiovascular risk and detecting diseases of aging before symptoms ever appear.

In that world, what is the role of the doctor? Are we still part of the equation?

I was listening to Jensen Huang on a panel saying that radiologists are busier than ever; precisely in a field where many assumed AI would replace them. Instead, AI allows them to read more images, faster and with greater accuracy. Productivity increases. Access improves. Clinical judgment becomes more valuable, not less.

In a world where physicians are becoming scarce (who wants to get into med school and debt - in the US), improving productivity is not optional if we want to care for more patients, not fewer.

Now imagine the near future.

A patient is referred to you but because AI identified you as the best fit for her profile. She arrives with her labs, imaging, and functional testing already completed at a longevity hub. A digital twin has modeled her risks and proposed evidence-based interventions and therapies.

So what is your role?

More human than ever.

Today, doctors are stepping into a new function, one patients are actively seeking. Technology handles the volume, the monitoring, the pattern recognition. Physicians are finally free to practice the art of medicine again.

The new roles of the longevity doctor:

• The Educator: translating complex science of aging into actions

• The Guide: helping patients navigate choices and trade-offs

• The Analyst: validating insights, challenging assumptions, applying clinical judgment (based on decades of expererience)

• The Motivator: supporting behavior change months over month, listening, motivating

Human consultation will become a luxury: not because it is rare, but because it is deeply valuable. Technology will democratize access to high-quality longevity care; physicians will elevate it.

We must be ready for this transition.
Ready to train the next generation.
Ready to empower patients to take ownership of their health.

One physician recently told me:

“I’m building a community, not just to treat my patients, but to educate them, understand them better, and support them over time.”

AI will not dehumanize medicine.
If we do this right, it will finally allow medicine to become what it was always meant to be:

Preventive. Personalized. Human.

This is why Longevity Docs exists: to help physicians build the infrastructure that makes longevity medicine the new standard of care.

If you're ready for this shift, join us in NYC on January 31. Small group. Real doctors. Honest conversations about where medicine is headed.

Get your ticket (Virtual & In-Person)

Every week, the Longevity Docs WhatsApp group feels like a front-row seat to the future of medicine. Here’s what had doctors buzzing:

GLP-1 + thyroid cancer: rodent warning ≠ human signal

The SLU-PP thread spilled into GLP-1 risk discussion—specifically the “family history of thyroid cancer” question. The group pushed back hard on blanket contraindications, pointing to mechanism differences and real-world epidemiology.

Are we over-indexing on the black box warning and under-treating cardiometabolic risk?

Key takeaways

• The MTC warning is largely rodent-driven.
  The group emphasized differences in GLP-1 receptor expression between rodent vs human C-cells.

• 15+ years of real-world use matters.
  Clinicians cited millions of patients without a clear epidemiologic signal of medullary thyroid cancer.

• Calcitonin monitoring is happening in practice.
  Some physicians track calcitonin quarterly / multiple times per year and reported no meaningful movement.

• Consent strategy is nuanced.
  Some don’t include MTC as a prominent consent risk, but do explain the black box and why the human relevance appears limited—framed as defensible with existing data.

“We’re using compounds with no safety data… and then worried about a GLP-1 that has no mechanism or evidence of cancer.”

Exosomes: topical is “cleaner,” injectable is the wild west

Exosomes triggered one of the most “regulation vs reality” conversations of the week. The distinction between topical use, device-assisted delivery, and injection came up repeatedly - along with Korea/Japan claims and what “on-label” even means in practice.

Are clinics accidentally building protocols on regulatory sand?

Key takeaways

• Injectable exosomes: widely used, poorly standardized, often off-label.
  The group emphasized that approved injectable exosome products are not broadly established in many markets.

• Topical/device-assisted use sits in a different category.
  RF microneedling / fractional / pico + topical exosomes were discussed as a more “label-aligned” route for certain settings.

• “Plant exosomes” vs plant stem-cell derived vesicles: terminology gets sloppy fast, and why precision matters when you’re designing protocols or studies.

• Korea/Japan examples are intriguing, but not universal proof: there is regional differences in regulation, availability, and what “approved” truly means.

• Aesthetics is full of regulatory traps beyond exosomes: similar issues were raised around polynucleotides and other “skin boosters” (ingredient registration vs medical claims)

“Topical is one world. Injected is another.”

Not a member yet? Join the debate in the WhatsApp group

Longevity Docs is a highly vetted, invitation-only community for physicians shaping the future of longevity medicine. Apply to connect with our team.

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NYC AI & Tech Mastermind

Small group. Curated. Limited to 150 Physicians only.

VIP - Includes private dinner with speakers
In-Person- Full access to all sessions and networking (10 tickets left)
Virtual - Live-stream and replay for those who can’t travel

Get Your Ticket

Past, present and future perspectives on the science of aging

As Nature Aging celebrates its fifth anniversary, the journal asks some of the researchers who contributed to the journal early on to reflect on the past and the future of aging and age-related disease research, the impact of the field on human health now and in the future, and what challenges need to be addressed to ensure sustained progress. Nature Aging

10 key takeaways:

• Epigenetic clocks transformed aging from an abstract concept into a quantifiable biological process, enabling intervention trials without waiting for disease or death.

• Aging is neither purely random nor fully programmable, but a regulated, evolutionarily conserved process shaped by development and environment.

• Longitudinal “pace of aging” measures are more clinically meaningful than single time-point biological age estimates.

• Multiomics (especially proteomics) reveal that aging is organ-specific, heterogeneous, and systemically interconnected.

• Immune aging is a central driver of multisystem decline and explains why lifestyle factors exert outsized effects on healthspan.

• Partial cellular reprogramming proves aging is biologically reversible in principle, but remains experimental and not clinic-ready.

• Aging mechanisms translate across species, but effect sizes shrink dramatically in humans due to biological and environmental complexity.

• Most proposed geroprotective interventions show modest, variable, or transient effects in humans, underscoring the need for rigor.

• The near-term clinical impact of aging science will come from risk stratification, prevention, and early intervention, not rejuvenation.

• The credibility of longevity medicine depends on resisting hype, demanding human data, and prioritizing safety over speculation.

Physical activity types, variety, and mortality: results from two prospective cohort studies

Two big cohorts (Nurses’ Health Study + Health Professionals Follow-Up Study; ~111K healthy adults followed 30+ years) found that higher long-term total activity and most specific activities (walking, running, racquet sports, stairs, rowing/calisthenics, resistance training) were linked to lower all-cause and cause-specific mortality, with benefits that plateau at moderate doses; swimming was the main exception (no clear all-cause mortality benefit).

Crucially, people who consistently did a wider variety of activity types had lower mortality even after adjusting for total activity: the highest variety group had ~19% lower all-cause mortality and 13–41% lower CVD/cancer/respiratory/other deaths.

Bottom line: don’t just “move more”→mix it up; combining multiple activity types over years appears to extend lifespan beyond the benefit of total volume alone. BMJ

Every week, I track funding, FDA approvals, product launches, and breakthrough announcements shaping longevity medicine.

CARE

Your next primary care doctor could be online only, accessed through an AI tool

The NPR article describes how AI-powered, online-only primary care is emerging as a response to the severe shortage and burnout of primary care doctors in the U.S. Programs like Mass General Brigham’s Care Connect use AI to triage patients and support remote doctors, offering fast, 24/7 access for routine and urgent issues.

AI

Giving your healthcare info to a chatbot is, unsurprisingly, a terrible idea

The Verge article warns that sharing personal medical data with consumer AI chatbots like ChatGPT Health carries real risks, despite promises of privacy. Unlike doctors or hospitals, tech companies are not legally bound by healthcare privacy laws, and protections rely mostly on company policies that can change.

It also highlights the regulatory gray zone: these tools are widely used for interpreting labs and health decisions, yet avoid medical-device oversight by claiming they’re “not for diagnosis,” even as they project authority and personalization that users naturally trust.

AI health tools may be helpful, but trusting them with sensitive health data or medical decisions is premature until stronger regulation, accountability, and safeguards are in place.

WEARABLES

Ultrahuman and Click Therapeutics Partner on FDA-Authorized Migraine Tool

With the FDA-authorized Migraine PowerPlug, Ultrahuman and Click Therapeutics are moving beyond dashboards and into prescription-grade digital therapeutics, combining real-time biomarkers with clinically validated software. Most wearables observe, very few intervene. In practice, this signals a shift toward software-enhanced therapies where physiology, behavior, and treatment adapt continuously. Longevity docs should take note: the future standard of care will be hybrid: drug, device, and algorithm working as one.

BUSINESS

So You Want to Start a Concierge Medicine Practice? Here are Five Key Legal Considerations

Concierge medicine offers physicians more autonomy and deeper patient relationships, but it comes with significant legal complexity. Rules vary by state, and Medicare, insurance, and anti-kickback laws can easily be violated if the model is poorly structured.
Clear contracts, transparent pricing, and compliant marketing are essential to reduce risk. Always-on access, telemedicine, and AI tools increase privacy, data security, and liability exposure. Concierge medicine isn’t a loophole, it’s a redesigned medical practice that requires careful legal planning. Read more

SOCIETY

Longevity Gyms Start Packing a Punch

Longevity gyms are emerging as “gyms 2.0”, combining exercise with real-time data from labs, wearables, biomarkers, and AI to deliver hyper-personalized health and training guidance - not just workouts, but recommendations based on biology, stress, recovery, and lifestyle.

Driven by mainstream interest in longevity, AI tools, and consumer empowerment post-pandemic, these gyms (like Equinox, Sparkd by Chi Longevity, and Life Time’s Miora) are integrating medical-grade testing, coaching, and long-term monitoring to help people live better, longer.

The opportunity is big, but so are the challenges: higher costs, staffing and training shifts, data overload, and medical responsibility. Dr. David Luu argues gyms will need a Chief Longevity Officer as personalization becomes the norm. WWD

Connecting longevity talent with meaningful roles, collaborations, and impact.

Leadership & Clinical Roles

Miami Physician

A Miami-based longevity concierge startup is seeking a trained physician with excellent communication skills and bedside manner to support a highly curated concierge service. Must be based in Miami.

📩 Talent or opportunity to share? Contact us at contact@longevitydocs.org

Conferences

• Longevitydocs AI & Tech Mastermind — January 31, 2026 (New York)

• CALM — February 27–28, 2026 (Fort Lauderdale, FL)

• Longevitydocs Summit, Cannes — June 9 – 11, 2026 (Cannes, France)

• A4LI H-SPAN Summit D.C. (Alliance for Longevity Initiatives) — June 29 – July 1, 2026 (Washington, DC)

• ARDD (Aging Research & Drug Discovery) — August 24-28 (Copenhagen, Denmark)

• Longevitydocs Skin Longevity Mastermind — October 17, 2026 (New York)

• Longevity Clinics Roundtables / Buck Institute — tba

Books

I wanted to share 3 upcoming books from Amy Shah, MD, Florence Comite, MD, and Michael Clinton. Excited for the community to keep educating and raising awareness

The Longevity Medicine Network

longevitydocs.™ is the world’s largest physician network in longevity medicine, serving 600+ vetted physicians across 50+ countries. We unite physicians, industry, and institutions to build the trusted global infrastructure that makes longevity medicine the new standard of care.

Longevity medicine is the personalized, evidence-based practice of modifying the root mechanisms of aging (biological, cognitive, and psychosocial) before they become disease, extending healthspan, not just lifespan. Using advanced diagnostics, precision interventions, and AI-enabled monitoring, it translates measurement into action across every medical discipline. Success is measured in functional capacity, vitality, and disease-free years.

Our Pioneering Approach: Uniting Science, Clinical Practice, and Culture

• Professional Network

Global Longevity Community: A curated community of leading longevity physicians fostering peer learning, clinical collaboration, and professional growth

• Medical Education

Certified longevitydocs.™ (CLD): The first structured, physician-led clinical curriculum for longevity medicine - comprehensive, evidence-based, and practice-ready.

• Clinical Research

Longevity Research Network: Clinical research infrastructure enabling rapid generation of real-world evidence across the Longevity Docs network.

• Cultural Experiences

Global Events: From Cannes to New York, our Summits, Awards, Masterminds, and Jefferson Dinners convene top researchers, clinicians, investors, and government officials to shape longevity medicine’s growth, investment, and policy.

• Intelligence

Strategic Insights: Weekly syntheses of scientific breakthroughs, clinical best practices, business signals, and global market analysis for Fortune 500 companies - the industry’s trusted source of intelligence.

Not a member yet? Longevity Docs is an invitation-only network of 600+ physicians shaping the future of longevity medicine through clinical collaboration, certification, and global events.

Apply to Join

Subscribe to the Longevity Docs Newsletter

Stay connected with a global network of 500+ physicians in 50+ countries advancing longevity medicine. Get evidence-based insights, clinical updates, and exclusive access to the community shaping the future of longevity care.

Newsletter Disclaimer:

The content shared in this newsletter, including the "Buzz in the Chat" section, is for educational purposes only. It is derived from peer-to-peer conversations among physicians within the Longevity Docs community and is intended to inform and engage our network of doctors.

Please note that these discussions do not reflect the official position of Longevity Docs and are not to be interpreted as medical advice or recommendations. The insights and opinions shared are those of individual physicians and are provided as part of our mission to foster collaborative learning and dialogue among healthcare professionals.

We encourage all readers to consult qualified healthcare professionals for personalized medical advice and to evaluate any medical information in the context of their clinical expertise and patient needs.

Hey Doc,

Elon Musk said increasing lifespan isn’t difficult, it’s just programming the hardware with better software. He’s right. Medicine shouldn’t be hard.

Yet healthcare is always the last to update.

If physicians don’t upgrade our infrastructure, someone else will. We’re already seeing this in our community: tech companies building preventive care systems without us, regulators exempting AI tools from medical oversight, patients buying biomarker panels we haven’t validated.

I’m optimistic that better tech, data, communication, and analysis will help patients live longer, healthier lives. But only if physicians stay on the loop.

That’s what this week’s letter is about.

PS: Don’t miss our rockstar longevity tech faculty at the AI Mastermind NYC

Dr. David Luu - Founder, longevitydocs.™

Each week, I try to explore one idea that could advance longevity medicine and hopefully support physicians in bringing it to life.

Longevity Docs Tech Stack?

Technology is moving faster than medicine’s infrastructure can support it. The FDA just exempted AI health tools from oversight. Tech companies are building ‘body-scan’ centers. Physicians are inheriting interpretation burdens without the systems to handle them.

Longevity medicine is complex by nature. Diagnostics are expanding, data flows continuously, and patients expect personalization. Physicians manage clinical care, teams, workflows, and outcomes - often without infrastructure designed for it.

The result: Too much data, too little intelligence, not enough time.

What would a coherent tech stack that supports physician judgment and preserves time, trust, and clinical integrity would look like? I though about 7 layers to simplify.

1. Diagnostics: Labs, imaging, multi-omics, functional biomarkers. Their role: establish baseline, define trajectory, quantify risk.

Key question: Are you measuring what predicts healthspan, or chasing vanity metrics?

Recommendation: Add multi-omics only when you can act on the data.

2. Clinical Technology: EMRs, portals, dashboards that create longitudinal records: integrating diagnostics, notes, wearables, interventions into one view.

Key question: Can you see a patient’s complete trajectory in under 30 seconds?

Recommendation: If your current EMR can’t handle longitudinal data integration, use a layer on top (practice management + custom dashboards) or switch to systems built for longevity care. Fragmented data kills insight.

3. AI: AI should help physicians think better, not just faster. Detect trends, flag deviations, support risk stratification, surface safety signals early.

Key question: Does your AI explain why—or just what?

Recommendation: Prioritize AI decision support tools over scribes. Look for systems trained on clinical data, not just language. Test before trusting. If it can’t show its reasoning, don’t use it for clinical decisions.

4. Wearables: CGMs, sleep trackers, HRV monitors create feedback loops between visits: early signals, personalized adjustments, real-world tracking.

Key question: Which wearable data actually changes your clinical decisions?

Recommendation: Start with wearables you understand and data you can act on.

5. Devices & Interventions: Neurotech, HBOT, LED, TPE, digital therapeutics: the options explode. The challenge: vetting. What works? What’s clinically relevant? What creates value?

Key question: What’s the evidence level, and who validated it?

Recommendation: Stick to FDA-cleared devices and peer-reviewed interventions until you have infrastructure to evaluate emerging tech. Join physician networks sharing real-world experience. Avoid being an early adopter without safety data.

6. Operations: Team management, billing, CRM, patient communication, support. Managing a clinic means running a company.

Key question: What breaks first when you try to scale from 100 to 200 patients?

Recommendation: Invest in operations before you need it. Automate scheduling, billing, and patient communication early. Hire operational support before clinical support. Most clinics fail on operations, not medicine.

7. Education: Structured access to evolving evidence, protocols, publications—curated and continuously updated.

Key question: How do you stay current when science moves faster than you can read?

Recommendation: Join physician networks with curated intelligence (like Longevity Docs Certification CLD). Use AI to scan literature but verify through trusted peers. Create internal protocols that update as evidence evolves. Don’t rely on conferences and podcasts alone.

This is why Longevity Docs exists: to help physicians build the infrastructure that makes longevity medicine standard of care
On January 31 in NYC, we're doing a deep-dive on each layer with the physicians and scientists who built them. AI & Tech Mastermind. 150 physicians. Small group. Highly curated.

Get your ticket (Virtual & In-Person)

Every week, the Longevity Docs WhatsApp group feels like a front-row seat to the future of medicine. Here’s what had doctors buzzing:

CAC score of zero is not zero risk

Several cases of patients with elevated LDL / ApoB and a CAC of zero being reassured that no action is needed. The group emphasized that imaging reflects current plaque burden, not lifetime exposure.
Does a zero CAC meaningfully change management in younger or genetically high-risk patients or does it create false reassurance?

Key takeaways

• CAC = snapshot, not trajectory. Don’t forget AI-powered plaque analysis

• ASCVD risk accumulates over decades

• ApoB, Lp(a), genetics, and exposure time still matter

“A CAC of zero tells you what hasn’t happened yet. It says nothing about what will happen over the next 20 years.”

Does Retatrutide increase RHR?

Multiple clinicians shared real-world experience with retatrutide showing resting heart rate increases of ~8–10 bpm in some patients, alongside mixed effects on endurance performance.
Is the RHR rise a benign glucagon effect, a fueling issue, dehydration, or a signal with long-term cardiovascular implications - especially in fit patients?

“The weight loss looks great, but when a fit patient’s resting heart rate jumps 10 beats, I stop calling it a rounding error.”

Key takeaways

• RHR may be the simplest early safety signal to monitor

• Effects vary widely by dose, training load, and metabolic context

• GLP-1 protocols for obesity don’t always translate to longevity use

• More longitudinal data is needed before broad adoption in athletes

The Unregulated Social Drug Distributors

Widespread concern about non-medical “medicine” providers and coaches offering peptides and drug protocols - often without proper training or accountability. Where does social education end and practicing medicine begin, and why is enforcement so inconsistent?

Key takeaways

• This trend puts patients at risk and physicians on cleanup duty

• Lack of regulation invites a public and regulatory backlash

• Visibility and leadership from licensed docs matter

• Longevity medicine needs better standards

Not a member yet? Join the debate in the WhatsApp group

Longevity Docs is a highly vetted, invitation-only community for physicians shaping the future of longevity medicine. Apply to connect with our team.

JOIN THE DEBATE

Full Faculty & Curriculum: AI & Tech Mastermind

We've curated a world-class faculty of physician-scientists and clinical leaders who are defining the future of longevity medicine. Each session is designed to bridge cutting-edge science with immediate clinical application - giving you the tools, evidence, and protocols to integrate these advances into practice now.

Hosted by

Zahi Fayad, PhD

Meet your distinguished host for the day, Dr. Fayad. He serves as a Professor of Radiology and Medicine (Cardiology) at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

Longevitydocs Vision 2026

What's next for our community

David Luu, MD

Dr. David Luu is a longevity tech entrepreneur, cardiac surgeon, and philanthropist redefining how longevity medicine is practiced, scaled, and integrated across industries.

The AI Grand Replacement

Are Physicians Next Or Is This Just Another Technology Tool?

Yin Aphinyanaphongs, MD, PhD

Director of Operational Data Science and Machine Learning at NYU Langone Health and Physician-Scientist in the Center for Healthcare Innovation and Delivery Science. An Assistant Professor whose work focuses on translating machine learning into real clinical environments, with an emphasis on model evaluation, deployment, governance, and long-term reliability. He leads NYU Langone’s Predictive Analytics Unit, where multidisciplinary teams build, benchmark, and deploy predictive models used across the clinical enterprise.

The Aging Clocks Menu

What clocks physicians should order to guide longevity interventions

David Furman, PhD

Dr. Furman is Director of the Stanford 1,000 Immunomes Project and Chief of AI at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, where he pioneered the inflammatory aging clock (iAge) used in clinical longevity practices worldwide. His work bridges systems immunology, machine learning, and translational medicine—with over 20 patents and publications in Nature Medicine, Cell, and The Lancet.

The Multi-Omics Protocol

pTAU-217, Mitochondrial Function, Proteomics, Metabolomics: Which Tests Are Actually Worth It?

Steve Murphy, MD

Dr. Murphy is a practicing family physician who runs a precision longevity practice built on multi-omics testing, including proteomics, advanced mitochondrial panels, pTAU biomarkers, and metabolomics. He’s known for helping physicians navigate which next-gen tests are clinically actionable today versus which are still research-grade - and for building practical protocols that improve patient outcomes without creating data overload.

The SkinSpan Stack

Your Patients Are Already Using ViziaScan and Skin Age Clocks - Here’s What Actually Works

Saranya Wyles, MD, PhD

Dr. Wyles is Director of the Regenerative Dermatology and Skin Longevity Laboratory at Mayo Clinic and holds an M.D., Ph.D. in Regenerative Medicine. She’s leading clinical trials on platelet-derived exosomes for skin rejuvenation, topical senolytics for chronic wounds, and 3D bioprinted skin models to target cellular senescence—translating regenerative technologies from discovery to clinical application in longevity dermatology.

Zoom on Cardio Longevity

The Most Advanced Cardiovascular Biomarkers for Longevity Clinics

Giovanni Campanile, MD

Dr. Giovanni Campanile is a quintuple board-certified cardiologist and a pioneer in integrative cardiology, combining conventional heart care with holistic, lifestyle-based approaches, focusing on prevention and disease reversal through nutrition and integrative therapies. He’s known for directing significant cardiac rehab programs (like the Ornish program), researching at the Framingham Heart Study and serving as a medical writer. Dr. Campanile has published scientific papers in major cardiology journals that have advanced our understanding of the effect of high blood pressure on heart health. He also started the very first Integrative Cardiology practice in the nation.

Case Study: AI-enhaced Longevity Doctor

How AI Can Improve Patient Outcomes, Increase Revenue, and Reduce Burnout

Sunjya Schweig, MD

Dr. Sunjya Schweig is a physician and researcher with three decades of experience in integrative, functional, and longevity medicine. He leads data-driven, systems-based approaches to chronic disease, metabolic health, and healthspan optimization, integrating digital health, AI-enabled tools, and behavior change into clinical care.

Scaling Longevity Clinics with AI

Using AI to Scale n=1 Precision Longevity Clinics from 100 to 1,000+ Patients. Is It Possible Without Sacrificing Quality?

John Haugton, MD

Dr. John Haughton is a physician–engineer focused on integrating digital health and AI into clinical practice. His work centers on longevity, inflammaging, and scaling care for complex chronic conditions through AI-augmented care models. Trained as a geriatric physiatrist, he is a patent holder in clinical knowledge management and workflow.

Using Agentic AI to Unlock Patient Data

How to build an AI Assisted Clinic

David Korsunsky

Dave Korsunsky is the founder and CEO of Heads Up, a digital health analytics platform focused on personal health optimization and remote monitoring. With over 20 years of experience in enterprise technology and data analytics, he brings deep expertise in scaling complex platforms across healthcare and global organizations.

AI-Native EHR for Longevity Medicine

Move Your Practice From Data Overload to Clinical Clarity

Sunita Mohanty

Sunita Mohanty is Co-Founder & CEO of Vibrant Practice, an AI-native EHR and clinical operating system built for functional, integrative, and longevity-focused practices. Her background includes leading AI Experiences for the Meta Ray-Bans and founding breakthrough products within Meta’s incubator. She now partners closely with clinicians to modernize how complex data is documented and translated into real clinical decisions. Her perspective is shaped by hands-on work with early adopters navigating the transition from legacy EHRs to AI-native clinical infrastructure.

From Data to Clinical Decisions

Physician-led AI with safety and transparency

Neil Panchal, DO

Dr. Neil Panchal is a board-certified physician who delivers in-home and virtual care, redefining episodic medicine into continuous, patient-centered care. His practice integrates preventive, primary, and urgent care services to improve access, continuity, and patient outcomes.

The Neurotech Game

Advanced Tools for Mental Health, Dementia, and Cognitive Performance—What’s Ready for Clinical Use

Christin Glorioso, MD, PhD

Dr. Christin Glorioso is a neuroscientist, physician, and serial entrepreneur. She is co-founder and CEO of NeuroAge Therapeutics and Founder and Executive Director of the non-profit, Longevity Global. Previously she was Head of AI of the Stanford Spinout, TeachAids. She has published more than 30 peer reviewed publications and been awarded grants by AFAR, the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research, and the National Institute on Aging. Dr. Glorioso holds an MD and PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University’s Medical Scientist Training Program and completed her postdoctoral training at MIT.

Connected Longevity

Wearables, Continuous Monitoring, AI Predictions - Which Data Actually Changes Clinical Decisions?

David Lipman, MBBS

Dr. David Lipman is a health and human performance specialist operating at the nexus of clinical medicine and performance optimization. With honours degrees in Exercise Physiology and Podiatry alongside his Medical Doctorate, David applies a first-principles approach to his broad-ranging work consulting for health-tech startups, elite sporting teams, and high-performance individuals. With extensive experience spanning elite coaching, university lecturing, and health technology, his work focuses on longevity, healthspan, and the strategic integration of technology to enhance human performance.

Small group. Curated. Limited to 150 Physicians only.

VIP - Includes private dinner with speakers
In-Person- Full access to all sessions and networking
Virtual - Live-stream and replay for those who can’t travel

Get Your Ticket

Poll: Peer-learning

Yesterday, we asked a straightforward question inside the Longevity Docs network: would physicians be interested in creating and launching expert-led education on longevity medicine?
The response was unambiguous.
There is real appetite for physician-led knowledge creation, not content, not influencers, but structured, evidence-based education. More to come.

Microplastics and nanoplastics in the human diet

Human exposure to environmental microplastics and nanoplastics via oral ingestion is a topic of public health and food safety concern. In this Nature Health Review, the physicochemical properties of drug-delivery nanoparticles were considered to evaluate the biological plausibility of environmental nanoplastics overcoming biological-selective barriers.

GLP-1 physiology and pharmacology along the gut-brain axis

Recent data indicate that the aversive gastrointestinal side effects of GLP-1RAs are also CNS mediated. Although a complete understanding of the neural circuits underlying GLP-1RA–induced weight loss remains elusive, a great deal has been learned in recent years. This JCJ Review summarizes proposed gut-brain and central mechanisms through which GLP-1 and its synthetic analogs regulate food intake and bodyweight.

Perimenopausal Hormone Replacement Treatments as a Geroprotective Approach - Adapting Clinical Guidance

This Aging and Disease narrative review outlines the role of HRT as a geroprotective therapy, preferably offered and started within 10 years of menopause onset, in clinically eligible women in perimenopause. We emphasize the need for specific clinical guidelines that reflect and manage the endocrine, inflammatory, and metabolic profiles unique to perimenopause. The development of age- and phase-specific biomarkers will be critical to optimize HRT use and ensure precision delivery of longevity-focused care for women. Aging and Disease

Every week, I track funding, FDA approvals, product launches, and breakthrough announcements shaping longevity medicine.

CARE

Neko is Coming to NYC

With Daniel Ek bringing Neko Health to NYC, the promise is bold: a 60-minute body scan as a new front door to healthcare. The tension for longevity medicine is that detection without interpretation risks creating data-rich, action-poor experiences. In practice, scans only matter if they’re embedded in clinical judgment, longitudinal follow-up, and evidence-based intervention pathways. The opportunity for longevity docs: turn preventive scans into preventive care or watch tech redefine prevention without medicine.

AI

Yann LeCun: ‘Intelligence really is about learning’

In recent interviews, Yann LeCun makes a sharp distinction longevity medicine cannot afford to miss: today’s LLMs sound intelligent, but they don’t truly understand biology, causality, or long-term dynamics. Medicine is rushing to deploy conversational A.I., while the hardest problems in aging require world models, not chatbots. In practice, this means longevity care will fail if we rely on language-first A.I. instead of systems trained on physiology, time-series data, and mechanistic constraints. The call to action for longevity doctors: help build A.I. that understands the body - not just talks about it.

WEARABLES

Ultrahuman and Click Therapeutics Partner on FDA-Authorized Migraine Tool

With the FDA-authorized Migraine PowerPlug, Ultrahuman and Click Therapeutics are moving beyond dashboards and into prescription-grade digital therapeutics, combining real-time biomarkers with clinically validated software. Most wearables observe, very few intervene. In practice, this signals a shift toward software-enhanced therapies where physiology, behavior, and treatment adapt continuously. Longevity docs should take note: the future standard of care will be hybrid: drug, device, and algorithm working as one.

POLICIES

FDA just loosened the rules for wearables and AI.

The FDA now exempts features like blood pressure, glucose estimates, and some AI risk tools from medical-device oversight when framed as “wellness.” This clears the way for faster innovation but shifts the burden to clinicians. For longevity docs, more data will flow in without validation; the edge will be knowing what to trust, when to act, and what to ignore.

PHARMA

Aging Research Enters JPM Healthcare

Aging research featured prominently alongside JPM Week in San Francisco, where scientists, investors, and biotech leaders discussed the growing focus on healthspan-oriented therapeutics. At the Biotech Showcase session Transforming Aging: Longevity and Healthspan Therapeutics, companies including Gero, Fauna Bio, Cellino, and R3 Biotechnologies presented distinct approaches spanning AI-driven human data analysis, evolutionary biology, regenerative cell therapies, and next-generation disease models.

SOCIETY

The Race to Measure Aging

As highlighted in TIME’s Race to Measure Aging, leaders like Eric Verdin are clear: today’s clocks are intriguing research tools, not clinical truths. Patients (and clinics) are already acting on numbers with variable causality, interpretability, and regulatory validation. In practice, this means longevity doctors must resist “biomarkers chasing” and instead anchor decisions in mechanistic biomarkers, organ-specific risk, and longitudinal trends.

Connecting longevity talent with meaningful roles, collaborations, and impact.

Leadership & Clinical Roles

Miami Physician

A Miami-based longevity concierge startup is seeking a trained physician with excellent communication skills and bedside manner to support a highly curated concierge service. Must be based in Miami.

📩 Talent or opportunity to share? Contact us at contact@longevitydocs.org

Conferences

• Longevitydocs AI & Tech Mastermind — January 31, 2026 (New York)

• CALM — February 27–28, 2026 (Fort Lauderdale, FL)

• Longevitydocs Summit, Cannes — June 9 – 11, 2026 (Cannes, France)

• A4LI H-SPAN Summit D.C. (Alliance for Longevity Initiatives) — June 29 – July 1, 2026 (Washington, DC)

• ARDD (Aging Research & Drug Discovery) — August 24-28 (Copenhagen, Denmark)

• Longevitydocs OMICS Mastermind — October 17, 2026 (New York)

• Longevity Clinics Roundtables / Buck Institute — tba

Books

I wanted to share 3 upcoming books from Amy Shah, MD, Florence Comite, MD, and Michael Clinton. Excited for the community to keep educating and raising awareness

The Longevity Medicine Network

longevitydocs.™ is the world’s largest physician network in longevity medicine, serving 600+ vetted physicians across 50+ countries. We unite physicians, industry, and institutions to build the trusted global infrastructure that makes longevity medicine the new standard of care.

Longevity medicine is the personalized, evidence-based practice of modifying the root mechanisms of aging (biological, cognitive, and psychosocial) before they become disease, extending healthspan, not just lifespan. Using advanced diagnostics, precision interventions, and AI-enabled monitoring, it translates measurement into action across every medical discipline. Success is measured in functional capacity, vitality, and disease-free years.

Our Pioneering Approach: Uniting Science, Clinical Practice, and Culture

• Professional Network

Global Longevity Community: A curated community of leading longevity physicians fostering peer learning, clinical collaboration, and professional growth

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• Cultural Experiences

Global Events: From Cannes to New York, our Summits, Awards, Masterminds, and Jefferson Dinners convene top researchers, clinicians, investors, and government officials to shape longevity medicine’s growth, investment, and policy.

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Strategic Insights: Weekly syntheses of scientific breakthroughs, clinical best practices, business signals, and global market analysis for Fortune 500 companies - the industry’s trusted source of intelligence.

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Newsletter Disclaimer:

The content shared in this newsletter, including the "Buzz in the Chat" section, is for educational purposes only. It is derived from peer-to-peer conversations among physicians within the Longevity Docs community and is intended to inform and engage our network of doctors.

Please note that these discussions do not reflect the official position of Longevity Docs and are not to be interpreted as medical advice or recommendations. The insights and opinions shared are those of individual physicians and are provided as part of our mission to foster collaborative learning and dialogue among healthcare professionals.

We encourage all readers to consult qualified healthcare professionals for personalized medical advice and to evaluate any medical information in the context of their clinical expertise and patient needs.

The AI doctor was born this year, not in a hospitaI.

I was at CES to speak about longevity medicine and technology, and what I saw was clear: AI, robots, and digital health are no longer being built for medicine. They are being built as medicine: designed to improve health, extend life, and redefine how care is delivered.

I’m deeply grateful to represent longevitydocs and to speak on the stage of one of the world’s most influential technology conferences, seeing longevity medicine recognized as a legitimate field and a movement of the future.

The convergence of longevity medicine and technology is no longer theoretical. It’s here. And it’s an extraordinary moment to be part of this revolution alongside the physicians and innovators shaping what comes next.

Dr. David Luu - Founder, longevitydocs.™

Each week, I try to explore one idea that could advance longevity medicine and hopefully support physicians in bringing it to life.

The AI Doctor Is Born

What It Means for longevitydocs, and Why Physicians Must Lead This Transition

The AI doctor didn’t arrive with a white coat or a press conference. It arrived quietly, and soon it will be everywhere.

ChatGPT for Healthcare is analyzing patient data and citing medical literature. Function is integrating lab results into consumer AI tools. Doctronic is prescribing medications autonomously in Utah. AI is now serving patients directly through analysis, education, and now prescription.

But AI isn’t just for patients. It’s already embedded in how physicians work: notes, workflows, clinical decision support, and increasingly, patient care itself. Doctors are using it whether they’ve formally adopted it or not.

For longevity medicine, AI is not optional: it’s mandatory.
Longevity care is longitudinal, preventive, and inherently data-heavy. It requires detecting weak signals early, tracking trajectories over time, and integrating biology with behavior, environment, and lifestyle.

We’re working with multi-omics, advanced imaging, continuous lifestyle data, and interventions that span every organ system and aging pathway. No single physician -no matter how experienced- can manually process, synthesize, and monitor all of this in real time.

AI becomes the infrastructure that makes modern longevity medicine possible, while the physician remains the one who interprets, decides, and guides.

The 5 Biggest Opportunities for Longevity Medicine

1. Earlier Signal Detection Across Aging Pathways

Subtle shifts in inflammation, metabolic flexibility, sleep architecture, hormonal balance, or mitochondrial function are almost impossible to track manually across time and systems. AI excels at longitudinal pattern recognition across organs and pathways, exactly where early intervention matters most in longevity medicine.

2. N-of-1 Precision at Scale

AI makes it possible to practice true personalized longevity medicine at scale. By continuously analyzing labs, wearables, imaging, multi-omics, and lifestyle data over years (not single visits) AI allows physicians to track individual biological trajectories and deliver N-of-1 care without sacrificing precision as practices grow.

3. More Time for Clinical Judgment and Human Care

By automating intake, synthesis, and documentation, AI frees physicians to focus on what cannot be automated: interpretation, strategy, motivation, context, and trust. The longevity doctor shifts from data processor to clinical architect.

4. Expanded Access to Longevity Expertise

Hybrid AI + physician models allow longevity doctors to serve more patients without compromising standards, critical as demand for preventive and longevity care continues to outpace supply.

5. Stronger Clinical Consistency

Used correctly, AI can reinforce evidence-based care, reduce unnecessary variability, and support best practices - while still allowing physicians to personalize decisions based on biology, goals, and risk tolerance.

The 5 Risks Longevity Docs Must Take Seriously

1. Patient Confusion and Data Overload
More data is not always better. AI-generated summaries can overwhelm patients, amplify benign abnormalities, and drive anxiety without proper physician framing.

2. Overtesting and Overintervention
Large panels can increase false positives. Without restraint, AI-driven insights can push patients toward unnecessary supplements, testing cascades, or interventions.

3. Deskilling of Physicians
Over-reliance on AI risks weakening first-principles clinical reasoning. Longevity doctors must remain deeply fluent in biology, not passive reviewers of algorithmic output.

4. Governance, Privacy, and Liability Gaps
HIPAA, BAAs, data ownership, consent, and liability remain unresolved in many AI deployments. If AI makes a mistake, responsibility is still human and unclear.

5. Premature Autonomy
AI is not ready to independently diagnose or treat complex, multi-system longevity patients. Moving too fast risks harm, regulatory backlash, and erosion of trust.

What Longevity Docs Should Do Now

The opportunity is real. The risks are serious. But waiting is not a strategy. Longevity physicians must act now—not by rushing to adopt every new tool, but by leading with intelligence, discipline, and a clear plan.

1. Educate and Train Your Team

AI literacy is now clinical literacy. Physicians and staff need to understand what AI can do, what it cannot do, and where human judgment remains non-negotiable. This means training on:

• How AI tools work and where they fail

• Interpreting AI-generated outputs critically, not passively

• Explaining AI recommendations to patients clearly and accurately

• Recognizing when AI is creating noise instead of signal

Education isn’t a one-time event. It’s an ongoing commitment as tools evolve and new capabilities emerge.

2. Assess Accuracy and Clinical Validity

Not all AI tools are created equal. Before integrating any AI system into your practice, you must assess:

• Clinical accuracy: Does it perform well in real-world longevity populations?

• Evidence base: Is it built on robust data or marketing claims?

• Transparency: Can you understand how it arrives at recommendations?

• Failure modes: What happens when it’s wrong, and how will you catch it?

Longevity patients are complex and don’t fit clean diagnostic categories. Any AI tool used in this space must be validated for the populations you serve, not just tested in general medicine cohorts.

3. Build Your Own Model or Partner with the Right Tech Companies

Longevity doctors have two paths forward: build proprietary AI systems tailored to your practice, or partner with technology companies that align with your clinical values.

If you build, you control the data, the algorithms, and the integration—but you also own the risk, cost, and operational complexity.

If you partner, choose carefully. Look for companies that:

• Prioritize clinical outcomes over efficiency metrics

• Offer transparent governance and HIPAA-compliant infrastructure (including BAAs)

• Allow physician oversight and the ability to override recommendations

• Are willing to co-develop solutions with clinicians, not just sell to them

The worst outcome is passive adoption: letting platforms, payers, or influencers decide how AI gets deployed in longevity care. If physicians don’t lead this transition, others will.

AI is not coming to longevity medicine. It’s already here.

ChatGPT is analyzing patient data. Function is integrating labs into AI tools. Doctronic is prescribing medications. The era of AI-augmented care has begun.

For longevity doctors, this is not a threat. It’s a responsibility. The doctors who engage with AI thoughtfully -who educate themselves, assess tools rigorously, and build or partner strategically- will define how longevity medicine scales. Those who wait will lose influence over how care is delivered.

The future of longevity medicine won’t be built by algorithms alone but by doctors who know how to use them.
If you want to be in the room shaping AI-powered longevity care, join our AI & Tech Mastermind in NYC · January 31.

Get your ticket (Virtual & In-Person)

Every week, the Longevity Docs WhatsApp group feels like a front-row seat to the future of medicine. Here’s what had doctors buzzing:

Rapamycin & Ovarian Aging: “Promise, Protocol… and Patient Selection”

A fertility thread lit up the chat: a patient wanted rapamycin for fertility.
What doctors said

What emerged:

• Typical dosing being discussed: 5–6 mg once weekly, often cycled (ex: ~3 months on, ~2 months off, repeated)

• Outcomes are mixed: some clinicians use it for ovarian aging strategies; others report minimal fertility signal, including no AMH improvement in select cases

• Side effects: muscle loss, depressive symptoms, and metabolic changes were raised as real barriers

• Clinical reality: fertility goals + off-label geroscience meds = high uncertainty, so consent, monitoring, and stop-rules matter

• Comparison point raised in the chat: some physicians feel GLP-1s may be a better “balanced” lever on overlapping aging axes (still not a fertility drug, but clinically familiar and more physiologic in mechanism)

One line captured the spirit of the thread:

“If AMH doesn’t budge and quality of life drops, the protocol is failing, even if the theory is beautiful.”

Key Takeaway: Rapamycin in fertility isn’t “pro” or “anti.” It’s personalized medicine. Dosing is easy; patient selection, monitoring, and managing downside risk is the work.

GLP-1s in Longevity Practice: “Plateaus Aren’t Failure, They’re a Signal”

A patient plateaued. Microdosing came up.
Storage and “how long is the vial good?” became the real-world problem.

What emerged:

• Plateau ≠ nonresponse: clinicians pushed for body composition over scale weight (DEXA/InBody) and asked, “Are they losing fat or losing momentum?”

• Microdosing creates new operational questions: leftover medication, refill timing, and how long patients are drawing from the same vial (especially when use is off-label)

• Side effects can be the limiting factor: reports of pimples / skin changes, canker sores / mouth sores, and tolerability issues that become adherence barriers

• Mechanism matters: plateau discussions quickly moved to mitochondrial function and substrate metabolism

One line captured the thread:

“If they’re exhausted and not moving, the medication is working against us.”

Key Takeaway: GLP-1s are now systems medicine. Plateaus demand better measurement (fat vs lean), better ops (vial use, cadence), and better physiology (mitochondria, activity, gut-mediated metabolites) → not reflex escalation.

ChatGPT for Healthcare: “Power Tool, Not Autopilot”

An AI thread split into two camps fast: some saw relief, others saw risk.

A new “healthcare-grade” ChatGPT product was shared.
People asked about HIPAA.
Then one question grounded everything:

Do they have a BAA?

What emerged:

• Upside is real: faster evidence navigation, documentation support, triage, and administrative relief… if implemented correctly

• But governance is the whole game: clinicians flagged the need for BAA, clear policies, and understanding where data goes, who stores it, and who can access it

• Patient impact is nontrivial: multiple docs reported that ChatGPT can confuse and overwhelm patients, especially when outputs are confident, verbose, or poorly contextualized

• Privacy nuance came up: if patients “upload themselves,” the risk profile differs than when a third party stores and shares data

• Cultural risk: a critical take was shared warning that healthcare AI can become a marketplace where incentives drift away from patients unless physicians lead implementation

One line captured the thread:

“The risk isn’t AI… it’s AI without a grown-up in the room.”

Key Takeaway: AI can be transformative for doctors only if it’s wrapped in HIPAA-grade governance (BAA, data controls, audit trails) and used to augment clinical reasoning, not replace it or flood patients with unmanaged information.

Not a member yet? Join the debate in the WhatsApp group

Longevity Docs is a highly vetted, invitation-only community for physicians shaping the future of longevity medicine. Apply to connect with our team.

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Faculty & Agenda: AI & Tech Mastermind (part 1)

We've curated a world-class faculty of physician-scientists and clinical leaders who are defining the future of longevity medicine. Each session is designed to bridge cutting-edge science with immediate clinical application - giving you the tools, evidence, and protocols to integrate these advances into practice now.

The Aging Clocks Menu

What clocks physicians should order to guide longevity interventions

David Furman, PhD

Dr. Furman is Director of the Stanford 1,000 Immunomes Project and Chief of AI at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, where he pioneered the inflammatory aging clock (iAge) used in clinical longevity practices worldwide. His work bridges systems immunology, machine learning, and translational medicine—with over 20 patents and publications in Nature Medicine, Cell, and The Lancet.

The Multi-Omics Protocol

pTAU-217, Mitochondrial Function, Proteomics, Metabolomics: Which Tests Are Actually Worth It?

Steve Murphy, MD

Dr. Murphy is a practicing family physician who runs a precision longevity practice built on multi-omics testing, including proteomics, advanced mitochondrial panels, pTAU biomarkers, and metabolomics. He's known for helping physicians navigate which next-gen tests are clinically actionable today versus which are still research-grade - and for building practical protocols that improve patient outcomes without creating data overload.

The SkinSpan Stack

Your Patients Are Already Using ViziaScan and Skin Age Clocks - Here's What Actually Works

Saranya Wyles, MD, PhD

Dr. Wyles is Director of the Regenerative Dermatology and Skin Longevity Laboratory at Mayo Clinic and holds an M.D., Ph.D. in Regenerative Medicine. She's leading clinical trials on platelet-derived exosomes for skin rejuvenation, topical senolytics for chronic wounds, and 3D bioprinted skin models to target cellular senescence—translating regenerative technologies from discovery to clinical application in longevity dermatology.

Zoom on Cardio Longevity

The Most Advanced Cardiovascular Biomarkers for Longevity Clinics

Giovanni Campanile, MD

Dr. Giovanni Campanile is a quintuple board-certified cardiologist and a pioneer in integrative cardiology, combining conventional heart care with holistic, lifestyle-based approaches, focusing on prevention and disease reversal through nutrition and integrative therapies. He's known for directing significant cardiac rehab programs (like the Ornish program), researching at the Framingham Heart Study and serving as a medical writer. Dr. Campanile has published scientific papers in major cardiology journals that have advanced our understanding of the effect of high blood pressure on heart health. He also started the very first Integrative Cardiology practice in the nation.

Agenda:

• The AI Grand Replacement
  Are Physicians Next Or Is This Just Another Technology Tool?

• The Aging Clocks Menu
  What physicians should order to guide longevity interventions

• The Multi-Omics Protocol
  pTAU-217, Mitochondrial Function, Proteomics, Metabolomics: Which Tests Are Actually Worth It?

• Zoom on Cardio Longevity
  The Most Advanced Cardiovascular Biomarkers for Longevity Clinics

• Case Study: AI-enhaced Longevity Doctor
  How AI Can Improve Patient Outcomes, Increase Revenue, and Reduce Burnout

• Scaling Longevity Clinics with AI
  From 100 to 1,000 Patients - Is It Possible Without Sacrificing Quality?

• How to Build an AI assisted clinic
  Heads Up

• How to Implement an AI EHR
  Vibrant Practice

• AI-powered decision support tools
  Longevitix

• The SkinSpan Stack
  Your Patients Are Already Buying ViziaScan and Skin Age Clocks - Here’s What Actually Works

• The Neuro tech game
  Advanced Tools for Mental Health, Dementia, and Cognitive Performance - What’s Ready for Clinical Use

• Connected Longevity
  Wearables, Continuous Monitoring, AI Predictions - Which Data Actually Changes Clinical Decisions?

Small group. Curated. Limited to 150 Physicians only.

VIP (50 spots) - Includes private dinner with speakers
In-Person (limited) - Full access to all sessions and networking
Virtual - Live-stream and replay for those who can’t travel

Get Your Ticket

Anti-aging strategies and ex vivo organ rejuvenation

Aging is characterized by a progressive decline in physiological function, driven by interconnected molecular hallmarks that increase the risk of chronic diseases. To extend health span, interventions targeting these hallmarks, including lifestyle modifications, pharmacological agents, and genetic strategies, have been developed. Among these, partial reprogramming, the transient expression of Yamanaka factors, has emerged as a powerful approach to reverse age-related cellular damage and restore youthful epigenetic and transcriptional signatures without erasing cell identity.

A multimodal sleep foundation model for disease prediction

A new foundation AI model, SleepFM, trained on 585,000+ hours of polysomnography from ~65,000 patients, shows that one night of sleep can predict long-term disease risk, accurately forecasting 130 conditions including all-cause mortality, dementia, myocardial infarction, heart failure, stroke, CKD, and atrial fibrillation (C-index up to 0.85); for doctors, this is powerful because it reframes sleep from a symptom to a high-resolution biomarker of systemic aging and disease risk, but it also signals caution: translating complex, black-box risk predictions into actionable, ethical clinical decisions will require strong validation, patient education, and physician-led interpretation — not automation alone.

Every week, I track funding, FDA approvals, product launches, and breakthrough announcements shaping longevity medicine.

AI/TECH

ChatGPT unveils new health tool for doctors

OpenAI launched ChatGPT for Healthcare, a HIPAA-aligned, physician-tested AI suite that integrates with clinical systems and cites peer-reviewed evidence; it’s promising for doctors because it can reduce administrative burden, speed up evidence synthesis, and support more personalized care, but it requires vigilance since AI can still propagate errors, oversimplify complex clinical decisions, or be deployed for efficiency over patient-centered care without strong physician governance.

Function launches AI doctor in your pocket

Function launched a new app inside ChatGPT, allowing members to securely authorize access to a limited, high-level summary of their lab results so ChatGPT can deliver more personalized health responses; this is meaningful because it signals a shift from generic AI advice to context-aware health guidance, but it also raises important considerations around data governance, patient understanding, and the need for physician oversight as lab-driven insights increasingly flow directly into consumer AI tools.

POLICIES

Artificial intelligence begins prescribing medications in Utah

Utah is piloting AI-only prescription renewals with Doctronic, removing physicians from routine refills for select chronic meds; this is attractive for doctors because it can reduce refill fatigue, lower costs, prevent medication lapses, and triage truly complex cases back to clinicians, but it demands caution since autonomous prescribing raises safety, misuse, and liability risks, tests patient trust, and pushes regulation ahead of consensus — making physician oversight, escalation rules, and clear accountability essential.

PHARMA

Chinese Peptides’ Are the Latest Biohacking Trend in the Tech World

A growing tech-driven trend dubbed “Chinese peptides” shows Silicon Valley users sourcing unregulated, unapproved peptides directly from China to self-inject for weight loss, cognition, sleep, and performance, bypassing physicians and the FDA; for doctors, this matters because patients are increasingly experimenting ahead of evidence, extrapolating from GLP-1 success to dozens of untested compounds, creating real risks around contamination, misuse, addiction, and missed diagnoses — and reinforcing the urgent need for physician-led education, boundaries, and harm-reduction conversations rather than silence or dismissal.

SOCIETY

The Rise of the Self-Serve Blood Test

The New York Times examines the rise of self-serve blood testing platforms like Function, which offers hundreds of lab markers without a physician visit, appealing to patients who feel ignored by traditional medicine and want proactive, data-driven insight; for doctors, this trend matters because while expanded testing can validate symptoms and surface early risk signals, it also increases false positives, anxiety, supplement overuse, and interpretation gaps when clinicians aren’t involved early — reinforcing the need for physician-led context, restraint, and clear guidance on what data actually warrants action.

Supplements Are a $70 Billion Industry. RFK Jr. Is Good for Business.

The WSJ reports that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s rise is a tailwind for the $70B U.S. supplement industry, as his rhetoric about “ending the war on vitamins” and alignment with wellness influencers normalize pills, powders, peptides, and IV drips that bypass FDA approval; for doctors, this matters because consumer demand is accelerating faster than evidence or regulation, blurring lines between prevention, treatment, and marketing — increasing the need for clinician-led guidance, conflict-of-interest awareness, and clear patient education on what supplements can (and cannot) safely do.

The world’s largest physician network in longevity medicine

longevitydocs.™ is the world’s largest physician network in longevity medicine, serving 600+ vetted physicians across 50+ countries. We unite physicians, industry, and institutions to build the trusted global infrastructure that makes longevity medicine the new standard of care.

Longevity medicine is the personalized, evidence-based practice of modifying the root mechanisms of aging (biological, cognitive, and psychosocial) before they become disease, extending healthspan, not just lifespan. Using advanced diagnostics, precision interventions, and AI-enabled monitoring, it translates measurement into action across every medical discipline. Success is measured in functional capacity, vitality, and disease-free years.

Our Pioneering Approach: Uniting Science, Clinical Practice, and Culture

• Professional Network

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Newsletter Disclaimer:

The content shared in this newsletter, including the "Buzz in the Chat" section, is for educational purposes only. It is derived from peer-to-peer conversations among physicians within the Longevity Docs community and is intended to inform and engage our network of doctors.

Please note that these discussions do not reflect the official position of Longevity Docs and are not to be interpreted as medical advice or recommendations. The insights and opinions shared are those of individual physicians and are provided as part of our mission to foster collaborative learning and dialogue among healthcare professionals.

We encourage all readers to consult qualified healthcare professionals for personalized medical advice and to evaluate any medical information in the context of their clinical expertise and patient needs.

Hey Doc,

In 2025, Longevity Docs grew from a community of 250 physicians to more than 600 worldwide, from 1,000 readers to over 5,000, from a single event to more than a dozen. We met hundreds of doctors across 15 cities, launched three beta initiatives: the Certified Longevity Doctor program, the Longevity Docs Club, and Network - and listened closely.

We learned.
We built.
We grew.

Today, I want to share our manifesto: a clear commitment to democratizing longevity medicine and making it a true standard of care.

I. What We Believe

Longevity medicine is real medicine.

Not wellness theater.
Not optimization trends.
Not biohacking content for social media.

Real medicine: practiced by physicians, grounded in evidence, accountable to standards, impacting patient’s lives.

We believe extending human healthspan is one of the most important challenges in modern medicine. Meeting that challenge requires the same rigor, infrastructure, and institutional credibility that define every established medical specialty.

We believe physicians must lead this field.
Not influencers. Not investors. Not self-appointed experts.

Physicians take oaths.
Physicians are accountable.
Physicians understand that lives are at stake.