If someone said they could help you live well past 100 – for a price – would you pay up?
That’s the premise behind Longevity House, a new 9,000 square foot ultra-exclusive club in west Toronto purporting to extend members’ lives by increasing their “healthspans,” letting them not only live until 120, but do so in good health. Their premise: when it comes to aging, the actual number of years we end up living means nothing if there is no quality of life attached to those years.
When we think about aging, thoughts of an inevitable life of grey hair, aching backs, mobility devices and other limitations (both physical and psychological) likely come to mind. But for Longevity House, the goal is providing members with the tools for boosting health to a point of “biohacking,” which in its simplest terms comes down to “hacking” your own body in pursuit of above-average physical and mental gain, leading to a longer, healthier life.
The price tag for such a big promise? A cool $100,000 – and only 30 members will be accepted. If you’re already shaking your head in confusion, you’re likely not alone. But for Longevity House founder Michael Nguyen, the concept of increasing healthspans is not only becoming more and more possible – it might actually benefit the greater good.
“Working to extend life is an ethical cause,” he says. “If we can help people to live healthfully until the end of life, we’ll transform the world completely.”
He adds that for most people, health starts gradually diminishing in the last 15 years of life with the onset of chronic conditions like arthritis, neurodegeneration and diabetes. “If we could eliminate such diseases of aging, we would take billions of costs away from the healthcare system,” he says.
Toronto’s Nguyen is an entrepreneur originally from the fashion and retail industry, where he founded Garrison Bespoke and even dressed some famous faces, including Drake, Ryan Gosling and Lebron James.
His focus now, though, is on enhancing human performance. In terms of what he’s most excited about when it comes to Longevity House, it’s the chance to bring more awareness to healthspan extension, including research into interventions, medicines and influencing the global narrative around the concept. “The pursuit of a healthy, vibrant and active life is the greatest gift we can give ourselves.”
With the $100,000 membership fee, Longevity House members will be able to attend monthly workshops and have access to top practitioners in biohacking, plant medicine, epigenetics, breathwork and functional medicine. The facility brings together wellness practitioners and cutting-edge technology, much of it only available in Canada at Longevity House, to help members live longer and better lives. Some of these include electric muscle stimulation, red light therapy and AI-driven cardio.
Nguyen explains that when it comes to red light therapy for example, one of the best natural sources of healthspan extension is exposure to sunlight, but not everyone is able to access natural sunlight regularly, so red-light therapy aims to help at a cellular level, simulating the healing power of the body.
He also cites the bio-charger, a technology used at Longevity House that “human performance pioneer” Tony Robbins has been using for years. The system uses a mixture of light, voltage, frequencies and harmonics and pulsed electro-magnetic fields to increase energy, focus and mental clarity, he explains.
When asked about what goes into grabbing a spot on the exclusive Longevity House membership list above and beyond the down payment-sized price tag (for example, age limits or concerns around pre-existing conditions), Nguyen will only say that for now, he and his team are looking to curate their initial list of founding members.
If it sounds a bit like members act as guinea pigs for the club, you might be right. “We want to ensure the club has the ideal mix of individuals who can further our research and raise awareness around healthspans,” Nguyen explains. “We currently have a list of members within Canada; however, we are taking applications at this time.”
But it looks like prospective members will be heavily vetted, and it’s likely those approved for membership will have a vested interest in biohacking themselves.
It remains to be seen whether the longevity-boosting technologies like those available at Longevity House will become accessible to those of us who don’t have a spare $100,000 lying around, but for now, start saving your pennies (or selling off grandma’s heirloom jewellery).
In addition to the west Toronto location, Nguyen and the Longevity House team plan to open a midtown location at Yonge and Eglinton this fall, with locations in New York City and Miami planned for 2022.