Quest for agelessness drives longevity boom — and $2.5 trillion global industry

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a day ago

It's a characteristically chilly Melbourne winter morning and tech boss Tristan Sternson is starting the day by plunging into an ice bath.
Just how icy? A bone-chilling 3 degrees Celsius — for 4 minutes.
Next follows a "strict routine" of exercise, supplements, IV infusions and various treatments like saunas, cryotherapy, hyperbaric oxygen therapy … all in his quest to feel better and live longer.
"Things like cryotherapy, which is minus 165C in a cryotherapy chamber for three and a half minutes, which is quite extreme," he tells The Business from the longevity clinic he co-founded and where he partakes in many of the treatments.
"I do red light in a full body machine where you lie down. Kind of like a cocoon.
"Red light [is also good] for your hair to make sure your hair doesn't thin as you get older."
Mr Sternson admits his wellness club, Super Young, is more of a passion project than anything.
"My wife will call it an obsession," he said.
Mr Sternson is 45 but says he has a "biological age" of 34 — a metric used by those in the longevity space based on a series of tests.
He tracks 65 different markers via blood tests and completes a range of what he calls more "extreme" treatments every few months, some of which he flies to the US for as they are not available in Australia:
Super Young is one of many health and wellness businesses vying for a slice of what consulting firm McKinsey says is a $2.5 trillion global consumer wellness industry.
It's driven by a growing demand from (often wealthy) individuals to measure and optimise personal health — and a willingness to pay big bucks to do so.
The "preventative wellness" or longevity movement's signature alternative health practices have been popularised by US figures including biohackers Bryan Johnson, Peter Attia and even socialite Paris Hilton.
It grew in the wellness heartland of Los Angeles and has since spread to Australia.
The growing popularity of ice baths and infrared saunas Down Under has made them a more common sight in gyms and spas in the wealthier enclaves of many cities.
The explosion of an industry full of alternative health practices has been met with scepticism by some in mainstream medical fields.
"I think the evidence base for a lot of them is minimal and, where there is evidence, it's often for particular parts of the population and not for the general population," the president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Michael Wright, tells The Business.
For those who want to dip their toes in the longevity pool, Dr Wright advises a healthy dose of scepticism and careful thought before doing extra tests or investigations clinics might offer.
"I often talk to patients when they are talking about these tests and ask them, 'What's the cost of this?' and, 'Who is most likely to benefit? Is it you or is it the person who is selling the test?'"
He notes the principle in medicine of "first, do no harm" and questions whether the extensive blood work and diagnostic tests often associated with longevity screening and measurement fit that bill.
"Potentially, if you're investigating unnecessarily, you're putting people through stress and also economic impacts if the tests are unnecessary and that's something we should try and avoid," he said.
But Mr Sternson says the treatments at his wellness hub are backed by evidence and there is strong demand from consumers willing to pay for detailed analysis of their health and personalised programs.
"Each machine or each protocol that we have, every supplement that we offer, will have some research back behind it," he argues.
But he does acknowledge the difficulty of establishing evidence given "you haven't had anyone live to 150 that's gone through these sorts of protocols".
Another Australian company riding the trillion-dollar wellness wave is high-profile startup Eucalyptus, which launched a longevity app for men last year.
They pulled the pin soon after, with the pricey subscription fee a major factor, but are hoping to relaunch in Australia next year at a lower cost with more automation.
"What we learnt was that patients really had a curiosity about their own diagnostics, were really keen to make behavioural change," Eucalyptus chief executive and co-founder Tim Doyle explains in an interview with ABC News.
The company, which is backed by Woolworths and Blackbird, runs a suite of health platforms and has grown rapidly — largely thanks to the rise of its weight-loss service, which enables users to access drugs like Ozempic via a telehealth app.
Mr Doyle says Eucalyptus's digital platform made the experience of prescribing the drugs to patients seamless.
"People are seeking convenience, quality of care, in a way that suits their lifestyle and so I think what we've been able to tap into is the evolving trends there," he said.
Ozempic and similar prescription weight-loss drugs shot to prominence over the past few years and Eucalyptus has become a major player in the weight-loss market thanks to its provision of those drugs.
"I think we're an evolution of where health care will definitely go," Mr Doyle said.
Mr Doyle said more than 100,000 customers globally had accessed the weight-loss drugs through the company.
"I think ultimately these medications are going to change the world for the better," he asserts.
"We provide a set of services that give you the best chance of hitting your weight-loss goal and maintaining weight loss and I think the reality is that for most patients that are suffering with obesity, there are serious health considerations for that."
However, medical bodies have been critical of the app's online prescription model for pharmaceuticals.
"We do have to be really careful of other providers who are potentially fragmenting care, because it's important that whoever else you see in the health system that they confirm and share information with your usual GP," the RACGP's Dr Wright said.
"There's no substitute for the quality of care that you get from a GP who knows you and your history. So although these other services are available, they don't replace what you should get and what you can get from your GP.
"I think that's a fair criticism," Mr Doyle acknowledges, though he notes that "a lot of patients don't have a regular relationship with a standard GP that they live their whole lives with.
Like Eucalyptus, Super Young's co-founder said they were not trying to compete with established medicine but offer something different, without adding an extra burden or cost to publicly funded healthcare.
"We're kind of an adjunct. We help out and we can kind of take the strain off it a little bit, because you can help people prevent certain illnesses," Mr Sternson says.
"I don't think we're disrupting the current healthcare system … the current healthcare system is really, really good when you're sick.
He says the industry can cater for well individuals willing to pay money for testing privately to optimise their health, rather than go through Medicare.
"Our medical system can't support every single person that comes through and says, 'Hey, I'm feeling 100 per cent well, can you test all my blood markers so I make sure I don't drop off to 90 per cent next week?" he says.
"Doctors just don't have the capacity and time for that locally in Australia and fair enough — that's probably an area where longevity has really come into it."