If you could buy forever, how much would you pay? Tech billionaires and wellness influencers are betting the answer is a lot. From peptide powders to full-body MRIs, the booming longevity industry has turned immortality into the ultimate subscription plan.
It plays on a simple human fear. Nobody wants to age, and nobody wants to die. The promise of “biological age reversal” makes it sound like a miracle is sitting in a cart, waiting for you to click the “checkout” button. Experts say most of these products still lack solid evidence. Longevity products are promoted with glossy promises of eternal youth, yet the science rarely delivers. The industry often sells more hope than proven results.
The menu of treatments mixes luxury spa trends with experimental science. Ice baths, cryotherapy, red light chambers, and mushroom powders. U.S. venture capitalist Bryan Johnson has become the most extreme (and weird) example, spending millions on supplements, strict sleep, extreme exercise, and even plasma transfusions from his son. His stated goal is to avoid death entirely.
Immortality for Sale: The Longevity Industry and the Promise of Living Forever
The warning signs go back thousands of years. Greek myths told stories of mortals who reached for immortality and found the gift came with endless decline. Today, the caution isn’t quite as poetic but just as clear. The industry pushes expensive products, unnecessary testing, and a worldview that frames wrinkles and aging as repulsive.
Take the case of full-body MRIs. Clinics market them as early detection tools for cancers and hidden diseases, but medical colleges worldwide do not recommend them for healthy people. The scans often generate random anomalies that send patients down rabbit holes of more testing, extra bills, and needless stress. This overdiagnosis adds pressure to health systems already stretched way too thin.
Longevity marketing often borrows the language of preventive medicine, yet the two diverge quickly. Prevention means vaccines, age-appropriate screenings, and daily habits that keep people healthier longer. Longevity clinics promote exhaustive testing and experimental treatments that rarely prove they add years to a life.
Aging is part of being human. Death is unavoidable. The most effective ways to live longer and better remain unglamorous: move, eat real food, sleep, build relationships, and demand fair access to health care. Sorry, but it’s true.
Also, who wants to live forever anyway?
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