"I am running. Ahead lie endless mangrove swamps, behind the green-blue waters of the Caribbean. My mind is rising away from my lurching body, which is on a treadmill and attached to a beeping machine by wires and tubes. Nurses circle. The gradient increases, as does the speed. Dignity slips away as my body fights for breath. They're after my "VO2 max", the amount of oxygen my body can absorb during my maximum capacity for exercise."
"Around me is Sha Mexico, a vast white building outside Cancun designed in the shape of a double helix. It's one of the latest in the next generation of medispas, although those who work here prefer "longevity clinic'. I imagine myself running from its airy restaurant with its health-giving foods, its billowing, beautiful rooms designed for better sleep, its dystopian laboratories, towards the Mexico I love: the Maya, mariachis, mole, and mezcal."
"Health retreats are as old as life. Archaeologists in Orkney believe they've found a Bronze Age sauna (we Scots invented everything). The Romans made the idea grandiose, the Japanese made it elegant, and the Finns added spanking. But through it all, the rules for living longer have remained the same: eat well, sleep well and do a bit of exercise. Now, though, bioscience has arrived. The concept of biohacking has become a pub conversation."
A new generation of longevity clinics merges medispa comforts with laboratory-grade diagnostics and performance testing. Facilities prioritize objective biomarkers such as VO2 max and telomere length while offering curated diets, sleep-optimized rooms, exercise regimes and invasive procedures like colon irrigation. High-profile individuals and mainstream media attention have amplified the trend, turning experimental longevity protocols into popular conversation. Historical health-retreat practices persist alongside modern bioscience, maintaining core recommendations—eat well, sleep well, exercise—while adding intensive monitoring and bespoke interventions aimed at extending healthspan and lifespan.
Read at CN Traveller
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