Democratising longevity: Why healthy ageing shouldn't be a luxury
As a young medical student in Harbin, China, Dr Andrea Maier met a 90-year-old woman who wanted to do Tai Chi with her every day.
“She was so flexible in her joints,” Maier said of her former 4am Tai Chi partner. “I realised then that 90-year-olds, or even 70-year-olds, are very different. And that ageing is just beautiful and can be very successful.”
That encounter influenced the trajectory of Maier’s career. Today, she’s a geriatrician, internal medicine specialist, and founder of a longevity clinic.
She’s spent decades working to understand how we can age better. This week, she joins us on The Method to explore what healthy ageing means and how we can make it accessible to everyone, not just the ultra-wealthy.
Can your postcode determine your lifespan?
The longevity industry is booming. Stem cell injections, experimental supplements, and biohacking protocols claim to help us live longer.
However, research consistently shows some of the most influential factors on lifespan are far less glamorous.
According to Maier, where you live can have a big impact. “In Newcastle in the UK, if you enter a bus and drive 10 kilometres up north or down south, by every kilometre you would enter a different life expectancy,” she said. A range of factors like socioeconomic status, access to healthy food, and pollution drive this.
Democratising longevity means addressing those gaps, not just building better technology for the people who already have access.
Free and inexpensive tests can be the most valuable
If democratising longevity starts with accessible tools, Maier’s suggestions are reassuringly low-tech. Her gold standard is a VO2 max test, which she called “the best predictor for how long you are going to live.”
However, she acknowledged the barriers to entry. A proper VO2 max test in a lab can be expensive, and many people don’t own wearable tech with VO2 max estimates.
For a free alternative, she suggests the sit-to-stand test: standing from a chair five times without using your hands, timed. It’s a clinically validated measure of lower-body strength.
She added that you can combine this with simple, affordable blood tests (such as hs-CRP) to craft a well-rounded, useful picture of how well you’re ageing.
The point isn’t to compare yourself to population averages; it’s to measure you against you. “Always start with yourself by recognising where you are at this moment,” said Maier. “Why don’t you want to polish yourself and be optimal?”
Walk, talk, and be social
When Maier worked as a geriatrician, she had a three-question framework for assessing patients: can you walk, can you talk, and do you have friends?
It almost feels too simple. But it grapples with something deeper, something at the heart of healthspan: it’s not really about adding years, it’s about having good years where you’re able to do the things you love.
That’s why it’s important to make longevity information and testing accessible to everyone. And according to Maier, you don’t need expensive full-body scans to live well—understanding longevity is surprisingly simple.
Where to listen
Listen to the full episode with Dr Andrea Maier for more on the science of healthy ageing and simple tips you can try.
