What does a longevity clinic do, and how do you choose one?

A first visit is usually a day or two of diagnostics followed by a long consultation. The aim is a baseline: a detailed picture of where your body is now, against which later results can be compared.

• Extended blood panels: lipids including ApoB, glucose regulation, inflammation, hormones, kidney and liver function, micronutrients.
• Body composition by DEXA scan, which separates bone, muscle and fat and shows how much fat sits around the organs.
• Cardiorespiratory fitness, measured as VO2 max on a treadmill or bike.
• Cardiac imaging, such as a coronary calcium score.
• Often whole-body MRI, genetic testing, and one of the biological age tests.
• Strength, balance and cognitive assessments.

Most of what a good longevity doctor recommends is not exotic. The interventions with the strongest evidence are exercise, sleep, nutrition, blood pressure and lipid control, and not smoking. What the clinic adds is precision: it tells you which of those matters most for you, and whether what you are doing is working.

Be cautious where a clinic leads with treatments rather than diagnostics. Peptides, stem cell infusions, plasma exchange and off-label prescriptions are marketed widely, and for most of them the evidence in healthy people is thin or absent. A serious physician will say so.

More testing is not automatically better, either. Whole-body MRI in people without symptoms regularly finds things that turn out to be harmless, and each of those findings can lead to further scans, biopsies and worry. A good clinic explains this before the scan, not after.

Because anyone can call a practice a longevity clinic, the questions below do more than a brochure will.

• Who interprets my results: a physician I will meet, or a report generated by software?
• What are the doctors' specialties and where did they train?
• Which tests do you run, and what will you do differently depending on the result?
• How do you handle an unexpected finding?
• What follow-up is included, and how often am I re-tested?
• Which of your treatments are supported by trials in humans?
• What does the programme cost in total, including the tests you are likely to add?

Some of the most established programmes are in Switzerland, the United States, the Gulf and parts of Asia, and many accept international clients. Choosing between them from a website is difficult: the best are often the least advertised, and waiting lists are long.

LACE does not own a clinic. It works with clinics, physicians and retreats it has visited and evaluated, and arranges access for private clients. Longevity travel covers assessments and programmes abroad, with bespoke journeys built around one person's health goals. For those who would rather not travel, longevity private services bring physicians and treatments to where the client lives.