Test, then actually do something
Dr Emanuele De Nobili is the longevity doctor and medical director of Villa Eden in Merano, in the mountains of northern Italy. Villa Eden began in the early 1980s as a weight-loss retreat and medical spa; around 2015 Emanuele led its transformation into one of the first longevity medical centres in Italy — and he has been building it ever since.
His guiding principle is simple and, he admits, not as common as it should be: test, then actually do something. He layers in genetic, epigenetic and microbiome testing to understand each guest deeply — but, as he says, it’s not enough to learn that someone has a predisposition and then not know what to do. So the data always leads to therapy.
That therapy maps neatly onto the Longevity Map. First Longevity Basics — nutrition, movement, stress management. Then, from 2019, the Biohacking Upgrades: wearables to gather data (on himself first, then his patients), IV boosters (NAD+, glutathione, alpha-lipoic acid, vitamins), hypoxic training, cryotherapy and cold, and the phytoalgae “body cast” and radio-frequency treatments Villa Eden is known for.
One favourite is ozone therapy, which he has run since 2011: draw a little blood, mix it with medical ozone, and reinfuse it. “At the beginning the blood is dark red,” he says, “and after a few minutes it turns brilliant red” — the ozone helping the red cells deliver more oxygen. Deep, hands-on longevity medicine, set against the Alps.
