Longevity is one of the fastest growing industries globally with theories and recommendations coming at us in warped speed. Peter Diamandis, MD’s Longevity Guidebook is a wild ride through the current science of extending our lifespan.

The book opens with the question, “Has the first person who will live to 150 already been born?” and is devoted to making the answer an unequivocable yes.

Dr. Diamandis is a graduate of Harvard Medical School who chose not to pursue a medical specialty, but rather to devote his work to engineering and entrepreneurial endeavors. He earned a BS and MS at MIT studying biology and physics and is best known as the founder and chair of the XPRIZE Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to “accelerating innovation for the benefit of humanity through large-scale, incentivized competitions.” Diamandis is also co-founder of Singularity University whose mission is to inspire and educate leaders to address our world’s greatest challenges. His partner on that project is Ray Kurzweil, director of engineering at Google and considered one of the world’s leading inventors, thinkers and futurists.

Diamandis’ previous books reflect his passion and strong belief that we can create a more positive future: Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think (2012), Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth, and Impact the World (2015), The Future is Faster Than You Think: How Converging Technologies Are Transforming Business, Industries, and Our Lives (2020), and Life Force: How New Breakthroughs in Precision Medicine Can Transform the Quality of Your Life and Those you Love (2022).

Longevity Guidebook is a description of a medical practice Diamandis founded called Fountain Life. These high-cost longevity clinics are located in Dallas, Orlando, Naples (FL), White Plains (NY), Miami and Houston with more likely to follow.

The book begins as one would expect from a wellness advisor with chapters on nutrition, exercise and sleep. He admonishes “Don’t Die from Something Stupid” such as preventable heart disease, stroke or cancer. Where I feel the book goes off target is with the “longevity pharmacy” of medications, supplements and cutting-edge therapies he recommends. Diamandis takes and recommends 75 supplements and medications daily providing a scientific rationale for each in his book. In his clinics, he also recommends and provides an extensive array of laboratory tests and studies, most of which are done every three months. Not surprisingly, the annual cost of participation in this longevity experiment is about $30,000 annually. Extending one’s health span this way would be a full-time job.

Diamandis’s Fountain Life is not alone. Humanaut Health, based in Austin Texas, is a similar clinic with three locations and plans to grow. One of my patients recently enrolled in Human Longevity, a clinic in La Jolla, CA, started by Craig Venter, PhD, a pivotal player in the Human Genome Project. There are also a growing number of high-cost longevity centers internationally as consumers worldwide continue to seek the answers to eternal health.

I recommend Longevity Guidebook to anyone wanting to better understand the unproven limits of the current longevity efforts to push boundaries beyond just a healthy lifestyle. Until we can determine that this model of intensive longevity services works, I do not plan to follow, recommend or provide them. I prefer to follow David Sinclair, PhD, a longevity scientist at Harvard Medical School who recommends a healthy lifestyle and three supplements: nicotinamide (NAD), resveratrol and Metformin.

Efforts to biohack aging continue to grow in popularity. We have been doing that since the start of the 20th century when our average human lifespan was in our 40s. How far can we extend healthy life is a most interesting question and I am currently making reasonable efforts to find out.

Dr. Scherger is the founder of Restore Health Disease Reversal in Indian Wells, a clinic dedicated to weight loss and reversing chronic medical conditions. To schedule a consultation, call (760) 898.9663 or visit www.restorehealth.me.