Choices · longevity clinics

How to choose a longevity clinic

Two men in conversation on a white leather sofa in a bright clinic lounge, with tall windows, plants and books on a wooden table.
Prince Michael von Liechtenstein and Marek at the Longevity Center, Warsaw, September 2024.

A longevity clinic will sell you whatever you point at. Knowing what to ask for is most of the value — and it is the same short list whether you go to a famous clinic or to a good doctor near you. We learned it by going through four clinics ourselves, in San Diego, Singapore, Warsaw and Berlin.

By Marek Piotrowski · Updated 2026-10-26

Please read this first

This page shares what research and the experts we met say. It is not medical advice, and it does not recommend any medicine, supplement or treatment. It knows nothing about you. Before you start, stop or change anything — especially if you are pregnant, live with a health condition or take any medication — please talk to your doctor. In an emergency, call your local emergency number.

Why go at all

A full-body MRI scanner in a modern clinic room lit in blue.
A full-body MRI scanner at Human Longevity, Inc.

Almost everything we call medicine today is built to rescue you once something has already gone wrong. It is extraordinary at that. But it waits — and most of what shortens a life starts years before there is anything to rescue.

A heart attack that never happens beats one that is treated. A cancer found at stage one is a different disease from the same cancer found at stage four. And “normal” is not the same as optimal: a result inside the reference range for a population is not the same as a result that is right for you.

“Prevention is the lowest-hanging fruit in longevity.”

Don’t die from something stupid — something preventable, or your own unhealthy choices. Do regular check-ups, use an experienced team at a longevity clinic, and act on what they tell you.

What to ask for: the six areas

01 · Bloods

  • About a hundred markers — in panels, not the short list a routine check-up runs
  • ApoB and Lp(a) — the two most people are never offered
  • HbA1c and hs-CRP — sugar over months, and quiet inflammation
  • Hormones, thyroid, liver, kidney
  • Iron studies and heavy metals

02 · Your genome, once

  • Full sequencing — it never changes, so you pay for it once
  • How you respond to medicines
  • Risk scores — read with a doctor, because no gene is destiny

03 · Imaging

  • Full-body MRI — with diffusion imaging — that is what catches the early changes
  • Coronary calcium CT — and the lungs
  • DEXA — bone and body composition
  • Heart, organs, retina, skin

04 · Function and brain

  • VO₂ max — the single best predictor there is
  • Strength and balance
  • A sleep test — for apnoea, which is missed constantly
  • Hearing and sight
  • Memory, processing speed, reaction time

05 · Clocks, immune, microbiome

  • An ageing clock or two — a dashboard, not a verdict
  • Microbiome
  • Immune profile

06 · You, not a panel

  • The tests that are yours — different for women and for men, and different by age
  • Family history
  • Sleep, stress, environment, mindset — none of it shows up in a scan

This is the short version — the questions worth asking at the desk. The whole 360° health map, every category and what each one is actually for, is a chapter of Marek’s book. No number here means anything until a doctor who knows you reads it: the point of a good clinic is the team who interprets the results and then tells you what to change.

Questions to ask before you book

Alek watching from the control room as Marek goes through a full-body MRI.
Alek watching Marek’s full-body MRI at Human Longevity, Inc.

What made us careful

The four clinics we tried

A calm, warm-lit clinic room with an MRI scanner by a window.
Illustration: a calm, modern scanning room.

Each one on its own page: what we had done, what it felt like, and the people we met.

Not a ranking and not medical advice. We describe what we went through ourselves.

A calm, warm-lit clinic room with an MRI scanner by a window.
Illustration: a calm, modern scanning room.