科技大佬豪擲數百萬求長壽，卻拼不過這些女性
Alexa Mikhail
2023-11-15
尼科爾·布拉德福德的目標是活到115歲。圖片來源：COURTESY OF NICHOL BRADFORD
朱莉·吉布森·克拉克從不指望昂貴的醫療、各種小玩意或科學家團隊“生物破解”自己的年齡。她堅持多吃蔬菜、鍛煉和冥想。健康方面最大的支出是每月27美元的健身房會員和每月79美元的保健品。
這位55歲的單身母親住在美國亞利桑那州菲尼克斯，當克拉克得知自己在網絡長壽競賽“重返青春奧運會”（Rejuvenation Olympics）中全球排名第二位時，她非常驚訝。該競賽跟蹤并為約4,000名參賽者的“生物”衰老速度排名。排名主要根據表觀遺傳學DNA測試，可以從中深入了解環境和生活方式對人類基因的影響。克拉克最新測試的結果顯示，每過一年她會衰老0.665歲，測試會計算參與者六個月或更長時間后衰老速度得分的平均值。
在排行榜上，克拉克比美國最著名的生物黑客之一的排名還要靠前。有報道稱，生物技術企業家、億萬富翁布萊恩·約翰遜每年在抗衰老方面花費200萬美元，包括每天服用數十粒藥物，還有30名醫生組成的保健團隊。約翰遜是這份排行榜的聯合創始人，目前排名第六位。
近年來，長壽市場逐漸興起，如今規模超過260億美元，估計未來不到十年會接近翻一番。近來提供全身掃描、預防醫學建議、保健品和鍛煉方案的精品診所激增，也讓一直以來硅谷流行的追求長壽不再局限于小眾市場。隨著高端醫療保健行業的蓬勃發展，以前用戶總體偏向男性，如今女性的人數和影響力也在增加。
《財富》雜志采訪了幾位在抵抗衰老影響方面比較成功的女性，發現很多人拒絕接受“生物黑客”這一說法和概念。她們介紹了如何用自己的方式定義長壽的目標——往往更追求全面的身心健康。一些人感覺比較排斥傳統醫學和研究，更愿意將健康掌握在自己的手中。不少人表示，追求長壽的初衷是想跟愛的人和關心的人多在一起。
“像刷牙一樣”
克拉克既沒有時間也沒有資源跟科技界著名的生物黑客相比。據報道，推特（Twitter）的前首席執行官杰克·多爾西每天冥想兩小時，徒步5英里（約8.047千米），每天洗桑拿和冰水浴；Bulletproof的創始人戴夫·阿斯普雷深信生物振動平臺和冷凍治療室等高科技療法，他經常說打算活到180歲。
克拉克說，她的方法要超越“黑客”這一概念。“我不喜歡這個詞。”從事招聘工作的克拉克對《財富》雜志表示，自己的收入不到10萬美元。她認為自己“有健康意識”，不過當她得知在排行榜上的排名時（她提交生物標志物的渠道是長壽產品公司NOVOS的一項臨床研究，她從該公司購買保健品），“還是驚訝得‘哇’了一聲。”她補充道，“也證明了追求長壽這種事情其實就像刷牙一樣。”
朱莉·吉布森·克拉克堅持多吃蔬菜、鍛煉和冥想。圖片來源：COURTESY OF JULIA GIBSON
克拉克的每一天從凌晨4點45分到5點之間開始。送17歲的兒子上學之后，去健身房做力量和有氧運動。一夜禁食約16個小時，上午10點至11點之間吃第一頓飯。克拉克喜歡先蒸20分鐘桑拿再洗個冷水澡，每周至少三次。工作時她每天吃16盎司（約453.59克）的蔬菜，其中包括生芹菜、蘿卜、胡蘿卜、辣椒和白灼西蘭花，還有沙拉或湯。下午早些時候，她會冥想20分鐘。
克拉克之所以下定決心從根本上改善健康，主要是因為十多年前一次恐慌的經歷：她感覺早晨起床困難，經常疲勞，頭發也掉得很快。后來檢測出重金屬中毒，部分原因是大學學陶瓷專業時，混合有毒釉料沒戴口罩。治療病情期間，她也開始關注自己的健康。
她說，十幾歲的兒子是最大的動力。“我想盡可能多陪在他身邊。”她告訴《財富》雜志。“盡量減少衰老造成的負面影響。”
追求長壽熱背后的思潮
過去十年中，逾4萬億美元的健康行業快速增長，主要由女性消費者推動。但在更大的健康框架內，近年來大規模發展的競爭性、注重效果的追求長壽的活動更多偏向男性。
Primetime Partners的管理合伙人、創始人阿比·利維主要投資支持健康老齡化的保健公司，他表示：“在談論長壽經濟時，經常是指‘不老泉’神奇藥丸和渴望永生的男性領袖，總是這種背景。”
一些人批評稱，生物黑客似乎認為衰老能夠當成可以預防的疾病，而非不可避免的過程，還指出衰老表現形式主要因素由遺傳決定，不能僅看治療和生活方式的選擇。需要注意的是，生物年齡測試相對較新，市場上諸多測試的具體內容各不相同，因此“有效性不同”，精確程度也不一，新加坡國立大學（National University of Singapore）健康長壽中心（Centre for Healthy Longevity）的主任、Chi Longevity和健康長壽協會（Chi Longevity and The Healthy Longevity Society）的創始人安德烈婭·梅爾表示，健康長壽協會負責為長壽醫療機構制定實證標準。
盡管如此，長壽領域還是制造了一批明星，其中很多人都持有長壽業務公司，或者是長壽相關主題的作者和發言人。約翰遜、大衛·辛克萊和彼得·迪亞曼迪斯在20多歲時就投入時間和金錢嘗試生物黑客，有時使用未經證實存在爭議的療法，曾經引起媒體的關注和嘲笑。約翰遜最近因為提出年輕血液療法而受到抨擊，盡管美國食品與藥品管理局（FDA）警告稱存在潛在健康風險且缺乏臨床證據，他還是將兒子的血漿輸入體內，希望能夠減緩衰老。
由于該領域太新，客戶群體性別細分的統計數據相對不足。盡管如此，該領域幾家大型初創公司的客戶群表明，用戶中男性居多。測試生物年齡的TruDiagnostic表示，自2020年公司成立以來的30,000名“優化工具”客戶群里，男性占57%，女性占43%。幫助約翰遜對抗衰老的醫生奧利弗·佐爾曼對《財富》雜志表示，客戶中三分之二是男性。在追蹤生物健康指標的應用程序Groq Health上，男性客戶占比為64%。
當約十年前尼古拉·康倫開始參加長壽科學會議時，她告訴《財富》雜志，性別差異極大。“男性的主導地位非常非常明顯……這一領域的女性并不多。”Nuchido公司的創始人康倫表示，該公司主要提供抗衰老保健品。“長壽行業初期吸引的人群可能是希望提升表現，加強認知功能等方面優勢的人。類似特征似乎天然比較吸引男性。”
根據伊齊基爾·伊曼紐爾的假設，四五十歲的男性生物黑客的動機是恐懼和自我。“處在這一年齡，男性氣概受到威脅。身體開始往下走。”他對《財富》雜志表示。“也有努力跟后來者競爭的感覺。”伊曼紐爾是賓夕法尼亞大學（University of Pennsylvania）佩雷爾曼醫學院（Perelman School of Medicine）醫療轉型研究所的聯合主任，也是美國進步中心（Center for American Progress）的高級研究員。他曾經撰寫著名的專欄文章，講述為何希望在75歲時去世，而且一直對追求長壽的行為持懷疑態度。他告訴《財富》雜志：“每個人都想永葆年輕，但不可能。”
50歲的波士頓營養學家邁克爾·魯斯特加滕對《財富》雜志表示，他認為死亡是一種失敗，不過他承認，“失敗是肯定的，除非我能夠找到生物破解的方法。”魯斯特加滕告訴《財富》雜志，根據各種測試的平均值，他的生理年齡一直比實際小16歲到20歲。每周有三天他在一個半小時內吃掉90%的食物，每年七次測試表觀遺傳年齡。自2015年以來，他已經測了47次血液，每天攝入85克纖維，每天早上5點左右起床。
“我只是想讓曲線的平緩階段盡可能延長，或者說生理上盡可能延緩。”他對《財富》雜志表示。“說起早上起床的原因，對我來說是為了盡可能延長生存時間，盡可能保持健康，而且盡可能幫助他人實現同樣的目標。”
他解釋道，在自己身上實驗并與YouTube頻道上近2.2萬名粉絲分享經驗可能有點讓人上癮。“我的快樂在于解決一些沒有人弄清，或者很少有人弄清的事情。”他說。“那就是我的興奮劑。”
女性是“長壽運動的推動者”
隨著追求長壽活動不斷壯大，越來越多的女性參與其中，不過理由通常與男性不同。在Tally Health的首席執行官梅拉妮·戈爾迪看來非常明顯，該公司的業務是客戶提供表觀遺傳學年齡測試和預防性健康計劃。2023年年初，該公司的27萬名候補名單中男性還占主導地位，如今其客戶群越發平衡：男性占53%，女性占47%。戈爾迪向女性客戶尤其是更年期女性推廣產品時，主要強調延長健康壽命，而不是一味對抗衰老，迎合社會上偏好年輕外貌的標準，即水靈靈光滑沒有皺紋的肌膚。
“我認為，從成長的角度來看，女性將是長壽運動的重要推動力量。”戈爾迪說。“女性是很多購買決策的制定者。”事實上，女性在醫療支出中占了很大的一部分，而且仍然是家庭里主要的照顧者，很多人都夾在孩子和年邁的父母中間。
尤其隨著職場女性年齡的增長，很多人感覺應該以其他方式補償才可以維持優勢并獲得群體的尊重。“女性想讓外貌看起來更年輕的門檻要高得多。”美國退休人員協會（American Association of Retired People）的高級顧問希瑟·廷斯利-菲克斯此前告訴《財富》雜志。“女性在年齡歧視方面的門檻更高；她們比男性更早也更頻繁遭遇年齡歧視。”
埃米·哈迪森在“重返青春奧運會”排行榜上排名第五位，每年衰老率為0.73，她并沒有每天吃保健品，也從未想過如何延長壽命，只是健康飲食，堅持運動，與他人聯系以降低孤獨造成的健康風險。63歲的哈迪森希望壽命盡可能延長，與四個孩子和11個孫子女一起生活，并盡可能長時間保持身心健康。
“我還有20年，也許25年左右，我只是在想，怎樣才可以把接下來的時間過好？”哈迪森說。“活到84、85、86，對我而言已經很理想了。”
63歲的埃米·哈迪森每年衰老0.73歲。圖片來源：COURTESY OF AMY HARDISON
哈迪森自己做飯，選擇少加工的食物。她還堅持每天一小時有氧運動，包括游泳和橢圓儀——她說過去50年來一直堅持。她很重視跟孩子和孫輩共度美好時光。她并非一味追求年輕，她說：“我只是珍惜生活的經歷，珍惜年齡增長后更成熟的視角。”
哈迪森的女婿建議參加一項保健品試驗時，她略有些矛盾地開始嘗試。她同意把檢測結果提交給“重返青春奧運會”，但花了兩個月的時間才意識到躋身前列的重要意義。
“其實有些諷刺，因為我從來沒有吃過維生素和保健品。”哈迪森說。“我63歲了，活了好幾十年，目睹很多事情發生發展。所以，我不會對新鮮的偉大的事情太興奮。”
尼科爾·布拉德福德熱衷投資健康，對衰老心理學特別感興趣。她對《財富》雜志表示，自己并不是“生物黑客”，盡管每月花700美元，每天吃106粒藥，每六個月抽血一次，書中每項生物年齡測試都參加。“生物黑客是極為男性的行為。”布拉德福德說道。她說，在她看來，長壽不是競爭。
尼科爾·布拉德福德說，對她來說，長壽不是“黑客”或競爭。圖片來源：COURTESY OF NICHOL BRADFORD
布拉德福德表示，照顧患有進行性心臟病的老年人期間就看得比較透徹。“大概每周我都會被提醒，如果不抓住機會認真對待衰老會變成什么樣。”她說。“我過50歲關口時，最重要就是活力……確保我的活力與生活中創造的東西，以及我對世界的影響相稱。”
十年過去，康倫再不會是長壽論壇和研究小組中唯一的女性。布拉德福德說想活到115歲，即便她最終超過該年齡不會驚訝。克拉克表示，期待兒子長大成人，計劃兒子離家后環游世界，也對保持活力充滿信心。
“到最后車輪總會從公交車上掉下來，我只想說：‘好吧，我的車輪不會掉得那么快。’”她說。“所以我會盡全力把公交車維護好。”（財富中文網）
譯者：夏林
朱莉·吉布森·克拉克從不指望昂貴的醫療、各種小玩意或科學家團隊“生物破解”自己的年齡。她堅持多吃蔬菜、鍛煉和冥想。健康方面最大的支出是每月27美元的健身房會員和每月79美元的保健品。
這位55歲的單身母親住在美國亞利桑那州菲尼克斯，當克拉克得知自己在網絡長壽競賽“重返青春奧運會”（Rejuvenation Olympics）中全球排名第二位時，她非常驚訝。該競賽跟蹤并為約4,000名參賽者的“生物”衰老速度排名。排名主要根據表觀遺傳學DNA測試，可以從中深入了解環境和生活方式對人類基因的影響。克拉克最新測試的結果顯示，每過一年她會衰老0.665歲，測試會計算參與者六個月或更長時間后衰老速度得分的平均值。
在排行榜上，克拉克比美國最著名的生物黑客之一的排名還要靠前。有報道稱，生物技術企業家、億萬富翁布萊恩·約翰遜每年在抗衰老方面花費200萬美元，包括每天服用數十粒藥物，還有30名醫生組成的保健團隊。約翰遜是這份排行榜的聯合創始人，目前排名第六位。
近年來，長壽市場逐漸興起，如今規模超過260億美元，估計未來不到十年會接近翻一番。近來提供全身掃描、預防醫學建議、保健品和鍛煉方案的精品診所激增，也讓一直以來硅谷流行的追求長壽不再局限于小眾市場。隨著高端醫療保健行業的蓬勃發展，以前用戶總體偏向男性，如今女性的人數和影響力也在增加。
《財富》雜志采訪了幾位在抵抗衰老影響方面比較成功的女性，發現很多人拒絕接受“生物黑客”這一說法和概念。她們介紹了如何用自己的方式定義長壽的目標——往往更追求全面的身心健康。一些人感覺比較排斥傳統醫學和研究，更愿意將健康掌握在自己的手中。不少人表示，追求長壽的初衷是想跟愛的人和關心的人多在一起。
“像刷牙一樣”
克拉克既沒有時間也沒有資源跟科技界著名的生物黑客相比。據報道，推特（Twitter）的前首席執行官杰克·多爾西每天冥想兩小時，徒步5英里（約8.047千米），每天洗桑拿和冰水浴；Bulletproof的創始人戴夫·阿斯普雷深信生物振動平臺和冷凍治療室等高科技療法，他經常說打算活到180歲。
克拉克說，她的方法要超越“黑客”這一概念。“我不喜歡這個詞。”從事招聘工作的克拉克對《財富》雜志表示，自己的收入不到10萬美元。她認為自己“有健康意識”，不過當她得知在排行榜上的排名時（她提交生物標志物的渠道是長壽產品公司NOVOS的一項臨床研究，她從該公司購買保健品），“還是驚訝得‘哇’了一聲。”她補充道，“也證明了追求長壽這種事情其實就像刷牙一樣。”
克拉克的每一天從凌晨4點45分到5點之間開始。送17歲的兒子上學之后，去健身房做力量和有氧運動。一夜禁食約16個小時，上午10點至11點之間吃第一頓飯。克拉克喜歡先蒸20分鐘桑拿再洗個冷水澡，每周至少三次。工作時她每天吃16盎司（約453.59克）的蔬菜，其中包括生芹菜、蘿卜、胡蘿卜、辣椒和白灼西蘭花，還有沙拉或湯。下午早些時候，她會冥想20分鐘。
克拉克之所以下定決心從根本上改善健康，主要是因為十多年前一次恐慌的經歷：她感覺早晨起床困難，經常疲勞，頭發也掉得很快。后來檢測出重金屬中毒，部分原因是大學學陶瓷專業時，混合有毒釉料沒戴口罩。治療病情期間，她也開始關注自己的健康。
她說，十幾歲的兒子是最大的動力。“我想盡可能多陪在他身邊。”她告訴《財富》雜志。“盡量減少衰老造成的負面影響。”
追求長壽熱背后的思潮
過去十年中，逾4萬億美元的健康行業快速增長，主要由女性消費者推動。但在更大的健康框架內，近年來大規模發展的競爭性、注重效果的追求長壽的活動更多偏向男性。
Primetime Partners的管理合伙人、創始人阿比·利維主要投資支持健康老齡化的保健公司，他表示：“在談論長壽經濟時，經常是指‘不老泉’神奇藥丸和渴望永生的男性領袖，總是這種背景。”
一些人批評稱，生物黑客似乎認為衰老能夠當成可以預防的疾病，而非不可避免的過程，還指出衰老表現形式主要因素由遺傳決定，不能僅看治療和生活方式的選擇。需要注意的是，生物年齡測試相對較新，市場上諸多測試的具體內容各不相同，因此“有效性不同”，精確程度也不一，新加坡國立大學（National University of Singapore）健康長壽中心（Centre for Healthy Longevity）的主任、Chi Longevity和健康長壽協會（Chi Longevity and The Healthy Longevity Society）的創始人安德烈婭·梅爾表示，健康長壽協會負責為長壽醫療機構制定實證標準。
盡管如此，長壽領域還是制造了一批明星，其中很多人都持有長壽業務公司，或者是長壽相關主題的作者和發言人。約翰遜、大衛·辛克萊和彼得·迪亞曼迪斯在20多歲時就投入時間和金錢嘗試生物黑客，有時使用未經證實存在爭議的療法，曾經引起媒體的關注和嘲笑。約翰遜最近因為提出年輕血液療法而受到抨擊，盡管美國食品與藥品管理局（FDA）警告稱存在潛在健康風險且缺乏臨床證據，他還是將兒子的血漿輸入體內，希望能夠減緩衰老。
由于該領域太新，客戶群體性別細分的統計數據相對不足。盡管如此，該領域幾家大型初創公司的客戶群表明，用戶中男性居多。測試生物年齡的TruDiagnostic表示，自2020年公司成立以來的30,000名“優化工具”客戶群里，男性占57%，女性占43%。幫助約翰遜對抗衰老的醫生奧利弗·佐爾曼對《財富》雜志表示，客戶中三分之二是男性。在追蹤生物健康指標的應用程序Groq Health上，男性客戶占比為64%。
當約十年前尼古拉·康倫開始參加長壽科學會議時，她告訴《財富》雜志，性別差異極大。“男性的主導地位非常非常明顯……這一領域的女性并不多。”Nuchido公司的創始人康倫表示，該公司主要提供抗衰老保健品。“長壽行業初期吸引的人群可能是希望提升表現，加強認知功能等方面優勢的人。類似特征似乎天然比較吸引男性。”
根據伊齊基爾·伊曼紐爾的假設，四五十歲的男性生物黑客的動機是恐懼和自我。“處在這一年齡，男性氣概受到威脅。身體開始往下走。”他對《財富》雜志表示。“也有努力跟后來者競爭的感覺。”伊曼紐爾是賓夕法尼亞大學（University of Pennsylvania）佩雷爾曼醫學院（Perelman School of Medicine）醫療轉型研究所的聯合主任，也是美國進步中心（Center for American Progress）的高級研究員。他曾經撰寫著名的專欄文章，講述為何希望在75歲時去世，而且一直對追求長壽的行為持懷疑態度。他告訴《財富》雜志：“每個人都想永葆年輕，但不可能。”
50歲的波士頓營養學家邁克爾·魯斯特加滕對《財富》雜志表示，他認為死亡是一種失敗，不過他承認，“失敗是肯定的，除非我能夠找到生物破解的方法。”魯斯特加滕告訴《財富》雜志，根據各種測試的平均值，他的生理年齡一直比實際小16歲到20歲。每周有三天他在一個半小時內吃掉90%的食物，每年七次測試表觀遺傳年齡。自2015年以來，他已經測了47次血液，每天攝入85克纖維，每天早上5點左右起床。
“我只是想讓曲線的平緩階段盡可能延長，或者說生理上盡可能延緩。”他對《財富》雜志表示。“說起早上起床的原因，對我來說是為了盡可能延長生存時間，盡可能保持健康，而且盡可能幫助他人實現同樣的目標。”
他解釋道，在自己身上實驗并與YouTube頻道上近2.2萬名粉絲分享經驗可能有點讓人上癮。“我的快樂在于解決一些沒有人弄清，或者很少有人弄清的事情。”他說。“那就是我的興奮劑。”
女性是“長壽運動的推動者”
隨著追求長壽活動不斷壯大，越來越多的女性參與其中，不過理由通常與男性不同。在Tally Health的首席執行官梅拉妮·戈爾迪看來非常明顯，該公司的業務是客戶提供表觀遺傳學年齡測試和預防性健康計劃。2023年年初，該公司的27萬名候補名單中男性還占主導地位，如今其客戶群越發平衡：男性占53%，女性占47%。戈爾迪向女性客戶尤其是更年期女性推廣產品時，主要強調延長健康壽命，而不是一味對抗衰老，迎合社會上偏好年輕外貌的標準，即水靈靈光滑沒有皺紋的肌膚。
“我認為，從成長的角度來看，女性將是長壽運動的重要推動力量。”戈爾迪說。“女性是很多購買決策的制定者。”事實上，女性在醫療支出中占了很大的一部分，而且仍然是家庭里主要的照顧者，很多人都夾在孩子和年邁的父母中間。
尤其隨著職場女性年齡的增長，很多人感覺應該以其他方式補償才可以維持優勢并獲得群體的尊重。“女性想讓外貌看起來更年輕的門檻要高得多。”美國退休人員協會（American Association of Retired People）的高級顧問希瑟·廷斯利-菲克斯此前告訴《財富》雜志。“女性在年齡歧視方面的門檻更高；她們比男性更早也更頻繁遭遇年齡歧視。”
埃米·哈迪森在“重返青春奧運會”排行榜上排名第五位，每年衰老率為0.73，她并沒有每天吃保健品，也從未想過如何延長壽命，只是健康飲食，堅持運動，與他人聯系以降低孤獨造成的健康風險。63歲的哈迪森希望壽命盡可能延長，與四個孩子和11個孫子女一起生活，并盡可能長時間保持身心健康。
“我還有20年，也許25年左右，我只是在想，怎樣才可以把接下來的時間過好？”哈迪森說。“活到84、85、86，對我而言已經很理想了。”
哈迪森自己做飯，選擇少加工的食物。她還堅持每天一小時有氧運動，包括游泳和橢圓儀——她說過去50年來一直堅持。她很重視跟孩子和孫輩共度美好時光。她并非一味追求年輕，她說：“我只是珍惜生活的經歷，珍惜年齡增長后更成熟的視角。”
哈迪森的女婿建議參加一項保健品試驗時，她略有些矛盾地開始嘗試。她同意把檢測結果提交給“重返青春奧運會”，但花了兩個月的時間才意識到躋身前列的重要意義。
“其實有些諷刺，因為我從來沒有吃過維生素和保健品。”哈迪森說。“我63歲了，活了好幾十年，目睹很多事情發生發展。所以，我不會對新鮮的偉大的事情太興奮。”
尼科爾·布拉德福德熱衷投資健康，對衰老心理學特別感興趣。她對《財富》雜志表示，自己并不是“生物黑客”，盡管每月花700美元，每天吃106粒藥，每六個月抽血一次，書中每項生物年齡測試都參加。“生物黑客是極為男性的行為。”布拉德福德說道。她說，在她看來，長壽不是競爭。
布拉德福德表示，照顧患有進行性心臟病的老年人期間就看得比較透徹。“大概每周我都會被提醒，如果不抓住機會認真對待衰老會變成什么樣。”她說。“我過50歲關口時，最重要就是活力……確保我的活力與生活中創造的東西，以及我對世界的影響相稱。”
十年過去，康倫再不會是長壽論壇和研究小組中唯一的女性。布拉德福德說想活到115歲，即便她最終超過該年齡不會驚訝。克拉克表示，期待兒子長大成人，計劃兒子離家后環游世界，也對保持活力充滿信心。
“到最后車輪總會從公交車上掉下來，我只想說：‘好吧，我的車輪不會掉得那么快。’”她說。“所以我會盡全力把公交車維護好。”（財富中文網）
譯者：夏林
Julie Gibson Clark doesn’t use expensive medical treatments, gadgets, or a team of scientists to “biohack” her age. She sticks to a vegetable-rich diet, exercises and meditates. Her biggest health expenditures are a $27-a-month gym membership and an $79-a-month supplement subscription.
So the 55-year-old single mom in Phoenix, Arizona was surprised to learn she ranks at No.2 on the worldwide leaderboard of an online competitive longevity game, the Rejuvenation Olympics, which tracks and ranks about 4,000 participants’ pace of what’s sometimes called “biological” aging. It’s based on epigenetic DNA tests—which give an insight into how environment and lifestyle can influence how people’s genes work. Clark ages at 0.665 of a year for every additional chronological year, according to her most recent test, which takes into account the average of participants’ pace of aging scores after six months or more.
Clark is ahead of one of the country’s most famous biohackers on the leaderboard examining these averages: Bryan Johnson, the multi-millionaire biotech entrepreneur who spends a reported $2 million a year on a reverse-aging regimen that includes dozens of pills a day and a team of 30 doctors, co-created the leaderboard. He is currently in 6th place.
As the longevity market takes off—it’s now valued at over $26 billion and predicted to almost double in less than a decade—a proliferation of boutique healthcare clinics offering full-body scans, preventive medicine advice, supplement subscriptions, and exercise regimens have popularized the preoccupation with longevity beyond the niche that has long been obsessed with it in Silicon Valley. The denizens of this booming high-end healthcare sector have skewed male—but women’s numbers and influence are growing.
Fortune interviewed several of the women succeeding in staving off the effects of aging, and found that many of them rejected the term and concept of “biohacking.” They described how they are defining longevity goals in their own terms—often as an extension of holistic approaches to health. Some are driven by feeling shut out of traditional medicine and research, and led to take their health into their own hands. And many say they’re motivated by a desire to stick around for those they love and care for.
“Like brushing your teeth”
Clark has neither the time nor the resources to go to the lengths of the tech world’s famous biohackers—former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey reportedly meditates two hours a day, walks five miles, and takes daily saunas and ice baths; Dave Asprey, founder of Bulletproof, swears by high tech treatments such as biovibration platforms and cryotherapy chambers, and he has often said he intends to live to 180.
Clark says her regime is more than a “hack” to her. “I don’t like that term,” Clark, a recruiter who says she makes less than $100,000, tells Fortune. She considers herself “health conscious,” but when she learned about her ranking on the leaderboard (she submitted her biomarkers via a clinical study from NOVOS, a longevity product company whose supplements she has taken), “I was like ‘wow,’ she says.” And, she adds, “That also confirmed this stuff has to just kind of be like brushing your teeth.”
Clark starts her day between 4:45 and 5 a.m. She sends her 17-year-old son off to school and then hits the gym for strength and cardio workouts. She fasts for about 16 hours overnight, eating her first meal between 10 and 11 a.m. At least three times a week, Clark uses a sauna for 20 minutes before a cold shower. While working, she eats 16 ounces of vegetables a day, a mix of raw celery, radishes, carrots, peppers, and blanched broccoli along with a salad or soup. She meditates for 20 minutes in the early afternoon.
Clark’s efforts to radically improve her health began over a decade ago after a scare: She was struggling to get up in the morning, feeling constantly fatigued, and losing her hair. She eventually tested positive for heavy metal poisoning—in part from her time as a ceramics major in college when she didn’t wear a mask mixing toxic glazes. As she treated her condition, she began to focus more intensely on her health.
Her teenage son, she says, offers a constant source of motivation. “I want to be there for him as long as possible,” she tells Fortune. “I want to minimize any negative repercussions of aging.”
The ethos behind the craze to live longer
The roaring growth of the over $4 trillion wellness industry over the last decade has been largely fueled by women consumers. But within that larger wellness framework, the competitive, performance-focused longevity movement that has grown massively in recent years has skewed more male.
“When we talked about the longevity economy, it was really focused on Fountain of Youth magic pills and alpha males wanting to live forever,” says Abby Levy, managing partner and founder at Primetime Partners, who invests in wellness companies with a focus on those that support healthy aging. “That was the backdrop.”
Some have criticized biohackers’ seeming belief that aging can be treated as a preventable disease instead of an inevitability, and pointed out that genetic determinants, more than treatments and lifestyle choices, account for a large part of how the ravages of aging manifest. And it should be noted that biological age tests are relatively new, and many on the market vary in exactly what they are testing and, therefore they “differ in validity” and in accuracy, says Dr. Andrea Maier, Director of the Centre for Healthy Longevity at the National University of Singapore and founder of Chi Longevity and The Healthy Longevity Society, which creates evidence-based standards for longevity clinics.
Still, the longevity space has created a set of stars, many with their own longevity companies or careers as authors and speakers on the topic. Johnson, as well as David Sinclair and Peter Diamandis, have drawn media attention and some derision as they dedicate their time and fortunes to biohacking their way back into their 20s, sometimes using controversial and unproven treatments. Johnson recently came under fire for his young blood treatments, where he had his son’s blood plasma infused into his body with the hope of mitigating aging, despite an FDA consumer warning against the practice because of potential health risks and a lack of clinical evidence.
Statistics on the gender breakdown of the industry’s customer base are hard to come by, especially given the novelty of the field. Still, the client bases of several large startups in the space show that the industry skews male. TruDiagnostic, which tests biological age, says that among its customer base of 30,000 “optimizers” since the company’s launch in 2020, men make up 57% and women make up 43%. Dr. Oliver Zolman, Johnson’s primary reverse aging doctor, tells Fortune that his clients are two-thirds men. At Groq Health, an app tracking biological health metrics, men make up 64% of customers.
When Nichola Conlon began attending longevity science conferences about a decade ago, she tells Fortune, the gender breakdown was striking. “It was very, very male dominant … there were not many women in the space,” says Conlon, the founder of Nuchido, a company that provides supplements aimed at reversing aging. “The early type of people it attracted were people that were maybe massively trying to get an edge on their performance, or their cognitive function or things like that. That sort of space just seemed to attract men.”
Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel hypothesizes that male biohackers in their 40s and 50s are motivated by fear and ego. “There’s a real threat to masculinity at that age. Things begin to decline,” he tells Fortune. “There’s also some sense of trying to compete with the next guy.” The co-director of the Healthcare Transformation Institute at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, Emanuel famously penned an op-ed on why he hopes to die at 75 and has been a skeptical voice on the overall longevity movement. “Everyone would like to be young forever,” he tells Fortune, “But it isn’t going to happen.”
The Boston-based nutrition scientist Michael Lustgarten, 50, tells Fortune that he sees dying as a kind of failure—though he acknowledges, “Failure is for sure, unless I can figure out a way to biohack my way out of it.” Lustgarten, author of Conquer Aging or Die Trying, and scientist at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, tells Fortune that he is consistently biologically between 16 and 20 years younger than his chronological age based on averages from various tests. He eats 90% of his diet within an hour and a half three days a week and tests his epigenetic age seven times a year. He has undergone 47 blood tests since 2015, eats 85 grams of fiber daily, and wakes up around 5 a.m. each morning.
“I’m talking about flattening the curve for as long as possible, or flattening it as much as physically possible,” he tells Fortune. “When it comes to what gets you out of bed in the morning, for me, it’s the idea of living as long as I physically can, in as good of health as I can and helping others to do the same.”
Experimenting on himself—and sharing what he learns with nearly 22K followers on his YouTube channel—can be somewhat addictive, he explains. “The happiness that I get is figuring out stuff that nobody’s figured out, or very few people have figured out,” he says. “That’s my drug.”
Women as “the drivers of this movement”
As the longevity movement expands, women are engaging more with it—but often it’s for different reasons than the male biohackers. That has been evident for Melanie Goldey, the CEO of Tally Health, which offers customers epigenetic age tests and preventative health plans. While men dominated the company’s 270,000 waitlist pre-launch at the beginning of 2023, its current client base is moving closer to parity: currently 53% male and 47% female. With a focus on appealing to women, especially those of menopausal age, Goldey markets her products by emphasizing extending healthspan, instead of defying age to conform to societal beauty standards that favor youthful looks—dewy, smooth skin instead of wrinkles.
“I think that women will be, from a growth perspective, the drivers of this movement,” Goldey says. “Women drive a lot of purchasing decisions.” Indeed, women account for a lot of health spending, and they still make up the bulk of caretakers in a family, with many finding themselves sandwiched between needing to care for children and an aging parent.
Especially as women age in the workforce, many feel like they have to compensate in other ways to stay ahead and respected by the pack. “There’s a much higher bar for women to appear younger,” Heather Tinsley-Fix, a senior advisor at the American Association of Retired People, previously told Fortune. “Women face a much higher bar with regard to ageism; they experience it earlier and more frequently than men.”
Amy Hardison, who is number five on the Rejuvenation Olympics leaderboard and is aging at at 0.73 of a year for every chronological year, never took daily supplements or thought that much about ways to extend her lifespan beyond the seemingly obvious: Eat healthy, stay moving, and stay connected to others to combat the health risks of loneliness. The 63-year-old wants to live as long as possible to stay in the lives of her four children and 11 grandchildren, and remain mentally and physically well as long as she can.
“I have 20 years, maybe 25 years or so, and it’s just, what do I want to do to make those the best possible?” Hardison says. “84, 85, 86 is plenty for me.”
Hardison cooks her own minimally processed food. She also swears by her one-hour daily aerobic exercise routine, including swimming and peddling on an elliptical bike—a discipline she says she has maintained for the last 50 years. And she prioritizes quality time with her kids and grandkids. She isn’t chasing youth, she says: “I just cherish the experience of life, and I cherish the perspective that comes from being older.”
When her son-in-law recommended she join a trial for a supplement, she gave it a go with some ambivalence. She agreed to submit her results for the Rejuvenation Olympics, but it took her two months to realize that being on the leader board meant something significant.
“It was pretty ironic, actually, that I even did it because I’ve never been into even taking vitamins and supplements,” she says. “Being 63, I have lived through several decades, and I have seen things come and go. So, I don’t get too excited about the latest and greatest.”
Nichol Bradford, an investor in wellness with a particular interest in the psychology of aging, tells Fortune that she doesn’t consider herself a “biohacker,” even though she spends $700 a month to take 106 pills a day, gets her blood drawn every six months, and has taken every biological age test in the book. “Biohacking is incredibly male,” Bradford says. For her, she says, longevity is not a competition.
The experience of taking care of an elder with progressive heart disease has offered an ongoing reality check, Bradford says. “I have sort of like a weekly reminder of what it looks like if you don’t take the chance to age well,” she says. “As I pass the 50 year mark, It’s really about vitality … making sure that I have the vitality to match the things that I’m creating in my life and the impact that I’m having on the world.”
A decade later, Conlon is far from the only woman at longevity conferences and research panels. Bradford wants to live to 115, she says, and she wouldn’t be surprised if she surpasses it. For her part, Clark says she looks forward to supporting her son as he grows into an adult. She also plans to travel across the globe when her son leaves home—confident in her ability to stay active.
“Eventually the wheels will fall off the bus, and I’m like, ‘well, mine aren’t falling off anytime soon,’” she says. “So I’m going to do everything I can to keep the bus in good order.”
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