Medical clinics are popping up across the country promising to help clients live longer and better—so long as they can pay.
Longevity clinics aim to do everything from preventing chronic disease to healing tennis elbow, all with the goal of optimizing patients’ health for more years. Clients pay as much as $100,000 a year for sometimes-unproven treatments, including biological-age testing, early cancer screenings, stem-cell therapies and hair rejuvenation.
The centers capitalize on Americans’ obsession with living longer and desire for personalized medical care, even if it comes from outside the mainstream, say industry investors and analysts.
Many doctors and scientists caution that some clinics’ treatments lack robust scientific evidence or introduce health risks.
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“It’s not a regulated market. Anybody who is treating your toenails can say they’re contributing to longevity,” says aging researcher Dr. Andrea Maier.
Practitioners at Healthy Longevity Clinic, which has locations in Boca Raton, Fla., and Prague, build patients a personalized “longevity road map.” Those maps can include recommendations for diet, exercise, sleep and supplements. Patients are encouraged to stick with the program for at least a year, over which time their bill can run between $25,000 to more than $100,000, says Petr Sramek, the clinic’s chief executive.
