The Longevity Revolution Is Consumer Driven (And It's Working)
Plus: Equinox Arc launches, a new bra wearable detects tumors, Zuck goes all-in on AI biology, and The Atlantic's warning about "inflammation" overuse
Hello from my first day of my five-day PROLON fast this. This is my 3rd time this year and my rate of aging is supposed to decline after it (that’s what their studies show, let’s see). Brain’s still (somewhat) clear - hence the newsletter actually happening.
Last week was packed - Founders Forum in NYC, then the 26th Annual HBS Healthcare Conference where Christy Turlington Burns received this year’s Ellerin Achievement Award for her work with Every Mother Counts.
At that conference I made a case that the longevity revolution isn’t (only) being driven by scientists in labs - it’s being driven by consumers, mostly women, who refuse to accept “that’s just how aging works” as an answer.
The data’s stark. 12.5% of Americans are on GLP-1s. Nearly 40% asked their doctor for it - not the other way around. And women drive a lot of that movement (75% of the preventative market), fueling companies like Allara (shoutout Rachel, HSB grad) and Midi Health. You could argue it’s because they were underserved for decades, or because they’re willing to spend on solutions, or because they’re done leaving doctor’s offices with zero answers. Whichever it is, the shift is very clear.
But David Shaywitz MD, PhH nailed the real shift: humans now have genuine agency over their health outcomes for the first time in history. That’s behavioral. As Anant pointed out, energy and mental clarity are biology - metabolic dysfunction clouds judgment. For many, GLP-1s provide the catalyst for lasting lifestyle change. What excites me most? The FDA and regulatory bodies are finally watching what consumers care about. This is societal power for change we’ve never had.
When self-diagnosis becomes the problem
Consumer-driven healthcare has a shadow side. The Atlantic just called out how “inflammation” has become wellness culture’s favorite buzzword - a catch-all that lets people believe they can heal themselves. The risk? People with actual inflammatory conditions get drowned out by the noise. It’s the tax we pay for democratized health information: everyone’s an expert, nobody’s a patient.
Women’s health: the $1 trillion blind spot
The economics are brutal: $1 trillion opportunity by 2040, yet only 2% of research dollars support 51% of the population. At the Harvard Alumni Healthcare panel, Laura Rippy (Alumni Ventures), Neil Shah (Maven Clinic), and Alex Delight (Sundial Health) made the business case impossible to ignore.
The shift needs to happen now - women’s health must move from the margins to mainstream VC, just like climate tech and defense tech did. The real solutions? Making fertility care accessible where patients actually live and work. Cutting extractive middlemen from the system. These aren’t charity cases - they’re massive market opportunities.
Speaking of which: at Founders Forum in NYC last week, I met Anand, founder of Patel, a new wearable for women - a bra insert that measures everything your tracker can, plus strength training metrics and tumor detection. Haven’t tried it yet, but the premise is compelling. Equinox is betting on this moment too with Equinox Arc, pairing Function Health biomarker testing, Oura wearables, and proprietary strength training programs designed for women.
AI’s real moonshot is longevity
said it best: when global AI leaders talk about changing the world, they’re mostly referencing longevity tech. Hard to argue. AI’s greatest power isn’t productivity hacks- it’s extending human healthspan.Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan just consolidated the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative around one thing: AI-powered biology. Schools, housing programs, social initiatives are scaled back. It’s Biohub, 10,000 GPUs by 2028, and virtual cell models now. They’re joining Bezos (Altos Labs, $3B in anti-aging research) in the billionaire longevity migration.
Interesting pivot - from philanthropy as moral gesture to philanthropy as R&D lab. Science is where breakthroughs happen, obviously. But when your social impact strategy reads like a compute roadmap, it raises a question: are we curing disease, or designing the next platform? Whichever it is, I am excited to see the progress!!
Which brings me to something Noubar Afeyan (Moderna co-founder) said at Founder Forum about moonshot thinking: “If you keep telling yourself something is not yet known not to work, but you’re still working on it, once in a while something will work.” That’s the entire game.
Sound waves vs tumors: the $3B bet
Speaking of moonshots, Thiel and Bezos backed HistoSonics, a $3B US medtech startup born out of University of Michigan. The play? Destroying tumors with focused ultrasound. No scalpels, no radiation, no chemo.
Some scientists already believe we’ll treat diseases with light and wavelengths in the future (happening in labs now), but this is the first investment at this scale I’ve seen. Bold move and one I am watching closely!