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| The entrepreneur looking for a recipe for longevity |
Death is a reality, it cannot be avoided, but some experts believe that improvements can be made in the last months and years of life, which they call the 'health span'.
The human life span has almost doubled in the last 150 years, but we have all seen the last years of loved ones as their quality of life declines with advancing age.
An entire industry has sprung up to improve the quality of life as people age, using innovative methods to promise a healthy, long life.
The business is booming touted as having the ability to fight our cellular decline, and all sorts of hot and cold remedies are being rolled out to reduce inflammation and disease risk in our bodies.
So when I set out to visit one such center, it was not clear to me whether I was arriving at a new wealth-making center or the next frontier of medicine.
Brian Johnson, 45, a technology entrepreneur, is spending tens of millions trying to reduce his biological age. They say there is good reason to do so.
As we age, our chances of developing diseases such as cancer, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, or dementia increase. So if the onset of old age can be delayed somehow, the onset of these diseases can also be delayed.
For Johnson, however, it's a game. A bedroom in a luxury house on the beach in Venice has been converted into a clinic where he spends hours a day.
They wake up at five in the morning and eat their first meal an hour later. Their second and last meal is at 11 o'clock in the day, which consists of 54 pills containing various supplements, as well as a mixture of off-label drugs that are chosen after various tests.
Johnson's day revolves around rigorous exercise, constant monitoring, and multiple treatments.
He told me that he is undergoing laser treatment on his whole body, which has made his skin look 22 years younger than its original age, the biggest reduction in the age of any part of his body.
Aesthetics is only a small part of it all though, as he reminds me that 'our skin is our largest organ.'
Johnson is a very cheerful and gentle person and when I left his house I decided that I would try to be like him to some extent.
Maybe I'm already a bit like them. I run five kilometers a day, avoid sweets and use trekking equipment for fun.
My colleagues thought Johnson's life was boring, so not everyone could live like him.
Although his daily routine is very strict, every conversation I had with him ended up on lifestyle.
Eric Worden, chief executive of The Book Institute for Aging Research, says that 'longevity is 93 percent dependent on lifestyle and genes account for 7 percent.'
"Based on the statistics (if we stay healthy), I would predict that most people can live to 95 in good health," he says.
Take exercise for example, is a daily walk good for us, or is vigorous exercise necessary?
So we all have an option of 15 to 17 extra years which can be achieved by improving our lifestyle.
The same principle applies to healthy eating. Is fasting as important as avoiding sugar? How about a good night's sleep?
The importance of good sleep cannot be understated. I have met many people who set their alarm not to get up in the morning, but to get a full eight hours of sleep. We all set boundaries at different levels.
Worden does what he says. Their daily routine includes exercise, fasting, good sleep, and good social interactions. There is very little alcohol in their routine. They tell others that going without food for at least 14 hours out of 24 hours will make a huge difference to your digestive system.
However, research is being done on how beneficial this diet routine is for some women.
Paying attention to your body as you age can also help. Possible diseases can be identified earlier and any new medicine can be taken at the right time.
Interestingly, almost everyone working in the field of longevity science wears more than one tracker, be it a smartwatch or a smart ring. And these people are obsessed with getting good sleep.
As for me, I love tracking devices. I'm not a diabetic, but when I wore a glucose monitor for a while, it felt great to know my glucose levels.
It is assumed that the human life span will increase over time but the shape may not be what we expect.
Experts say that a drug may be invented that adds a year or two to live, and then a better version of the same drug increases the difference to several years, and then it continues to grow.
But such a situation would bring practical and moral dilemmas with it.
A fundamental question is what longevity can be described as a disease. This may facilitate drug approval by regulators but risks labeling people over a certain age as 'sick'.
The cost of such treatment can be a problem, there is the possibility of getting some extra years of life through a healthy lifestyle but then we may need to work for a long time.
My mission to understand longevity defied my expectations. I read sensational headlines about tech billionaires cruising around on their luxury yachts debating whether they want to save the world, go into space, or care for the elderly. Want to 'cure'.
This was not what I saw during my mission. Rich people have been giving money to medical research for years. It's just a new type of wealth and another possible skill in medicine.
But it is very interesting and affects us all.
But still, the way to increase your life span is difficult. Danny Fortson, a Silicon Valley journalist, puts it this way: 'Exercise is torture, magic pills are easy, so everyone is curious about pills. '
So I returned home determined to adopt a healthy lifestyle that included good sleep, exercise, and good nutrition, and to cherish my social connections.
Yes, social interaction is part of the recipe for longevity. With a bit of luck, I will have some extra time in life when a major scientific breakthrough is made and I can live longer.