Public hospitals are intensively opening clinics for longevity and anti - aging. Is this niche market favored by the wealthy becoming a new hot spot?

The establishment of clinics for longevity and anti - aging has become a new global trend that has attracted significant attention.

In the past, clinics for longevity and anti - aging were mostly concentrated in areas where the wealthy gathered and often utilized cutting - edge black technologies. For example, anti - aging clinics in places like Beverly Hills, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and the United Arab Emirates were like this. However, now, clinics for longevity and anti - aging, guided by evidence - based medicine, have become an emerging department in public Class - III Grade - A hospitals in China.

Mayo Clinic, a world - leading medical institution, launched clinical services for longevity medicine in 2023. In China, many Class - III Grade - A public hospitals, such as Union Hospital Affiliated to Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, the Chinese People's Liberation Army General Hospital, Zhongshan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University, Xiangya Hospital, and the Affiliated Hospital of Guangdong Medical University, have also opened clinics for longevity and anti - aging.

Among private institutions, Huihai International Medical Center and Zhuoerhui, a high - end comprehensive outpatient department under Fosun Health Group, have also opened clinics for longevity and anti - aging.

The recognition from world - leading hospitals, public hospitals in China, and the investment from private institutions confirm the clinical scientific nature and market potential of longevity and anti - aging.

The diagnosis and treatment of longevity and anti - aging are not just general discussions about the concept of health preservation, nor are they limited to facial rejuvenation. In the "Chinese Expert Consensus on Aging and Anti - aging (2019)", the evidence - based medical definition of anti - aging is: an active health strategy based on the mechanism of aging, comprehensively using various biotechnologies, health products, and drugs to delay the aging process. The goal of anti - aging is to get sick less and later and extend the healthy lifespan.

The market demand for longevity and anti - aging is huge. Judging from the ages of patients received at anti - aging and longevity clinics in public hospitals in China, people over the age of 30 can start their anti - aging journey. For example, the multi - disciplinary anti - aging diagnosis and treatment (MDT) clinic at Xiangya Hospital of Central South University is targeted at people over 30 years old without major diseases, providing them with personalized anti - aging plans.

Currently, this emerging discipline of longevity and anti - aging is on the verge of an explosion.

01 How to Detect Aging

When it comes to longevity and anti - aging, the attempts of many wealthy people around the world come to mind. The story of Silicon Valley billionaire Bryan Johnson's "three - generation blood exchange" is undoubtedly the biggest stereotype about longevity and anti - aging in recent years. However, the "blood exchange" therapy has been warned by the FDA, which said that this treatment method not only has no actual clinical effect but also carries potential serious risks. In China, Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka - shing single - handedly popularized the health product NMN (β - nicotinamide mononucleotide).

Silicon Valley billionaires have a strong demand for longevity and anti - aging. Devin Haman, the co - founder of a Beverly Hills anti - aging center, once said in an interview with Forbes that customers are no longer satisfied with just getting a hyaluronic acid injection. Instead, they are asking how to make a 60 - year - old body have the metabolic level of a 40 - year - old.

But industry insiders bluntly point out that anti - aging is not about being a guinea pig to experience unproven black technologies, nor is it simply taking health products.

Professional and scientific longevity and anti - aging clinics mainly conduct health assessments and personalized interventions. Based on the comprehensive health assessment results of individuals, they customize personalized intervention plans, including lifestyle adjustments, nutritional supplement intake, medical interventions, etc., to meet the health needs of different individuals.

The first step is accurate diagnosis, which is the cornerstone of the longevity and anti - aging business. Different from health management, the services provided by anti - aging and longevity clinics need to be based on quantitative tests to detect biological markers of aging in advance and ultimately verify the effectiveness of interventions through examinations.

The most core of these tests is the physiological age test. Based on the data from multi - omics tests, it comprehensively analyzes which age group in the population the customer's physiological age is closest to, so as to calculate the real physiological age.

The physiological age test needs to draw conclusions based on a variety of test items. Arterial Network once interviewed an overseas anti - aging testing clinic. The founder said that the most common anti - aging testing service is the epigenetic age test, which detects the physiological age through DNA methylation. There is also the testing of functional anti - aging markers, including the detection of micronutrient deficiencies (NAD), cellular aging, oxidative stress, inflammation, metabolic biomarkers, and tissue damage. Advanced functional anti - aging markers can even include intracellular NAD, senescence - associated β - galactosidase (β - gal), and four senescence - associated secretory proteins (SASP).

Bryan Johnson is a firm believer in biomarker testing. In the latest physiological age test results he presented in an interview with 36Kr, it can be seen that his age calculation method includes multiple indicators such as NAD level, heart age, methylation age, and inflammation level.

Image source: 36Kr

Longevity and anti - aging clinics help customers detect aging problems through test data and evaluate the effectiveness of interventions based on quantitative data after the interventions. Different from disease diagnosis and routine physical examinations, the tests in longevity and anti - aging clinics need to detect the markers of diseases and aging earlier.

A longevity and anti - aging clinic institution said: "We need data to prove that the customized personalized interventions have made actual progress. These tests are often special tests that cannot be completed even in Class - III Grade - A hospitals, and they require a high level of testing technology and knowledge of aging biomarkers."

02 How to Treat Aging

After completing the aging detection, the second step is to formulate a personalized intervention plan, which is the core competitiveness of anti - aging and longevity clinics.

Longevity and anti - aging clinics need to customize personalized anti - aging plans by combining the most advanced medical progress from a wide range of products. Globally, the intervention plans for aging can be summarized into three categories: behavioral interventions, health products, and medical interventions. Medical interventions are the core services of longevity and anti - aging clinics. These services vary widely around the world, such as mesenchymal stem cell injections in Japan, nutrient solution injections in the United States, microbiota transplantation, hyperbaric oxygen chambers, etc.

Anti - aging products and technologies

The key lies in how to select the best from a vast array of products and technologies.

Huihai International Medical Center said: "Clinical services for longevity medicine require a keen insight into the latest research results and clinical research progress to formulate longevity plans. This places high requirements on the product - selection ability of longevity medicine institutions, which need to select solutions that are both safe and effective from the rapidly evolving products and technologies. At the same time, all intervention measures are based on evidence - based medicine, that is, verified through rigorous clinical research and data. The goal is to help customers quantitatively evaluate whether the risk factors affecting aging and longevity have been completely eliminated or significantly reduced. Longevity medicine provides long - term and continuous companionship to customers, rather than a one - time service."

Different participants have different solutions for providing what kind of longevity and anti - aging product combinations.

According to Arterial Network, non - public anti - aging and longevity institutions in China all adopt a high - threshold membership system in their business models, providing full - life - cycle services for members at different levels and linking global cutting - edge medical resources and products. For example, in addition to having a customized longevity and anti - aging intervention plan, customers can also choose to go to Japan for mesenchymal stem cell injections. They can also choose to preserve their own healthy cells in advance, leaving behind "healthy seeds" and waiting for breakthroughs in cell regeneration technology.

The advantage of private institutions' longevity and anti - aging clinics lies in their ability to access the world's most cutting - edge longevity and anti - aging products and technologies in a timely manner, as well as their ability to provide personalized and in - depth tracking anti - aging intervention plans.

As the national team, public hospitals, under the background of national strategic support for the aging industry, many top - tier public hospitals have also opened clinics for longevity and anti - aging. Since longevity and anti - aging medicine requires high scientific research transformation ability and clinical insight, the hospitals that open these clinics are all well - known comprehensive hospitals in China.

 Some hospitals in China that have opened clinics for longevity and anti - aging

The services of public hospital longevity and anti - aging clinics focus more on disease intervention and lifestyle intervention. The anti - aging treatment in Class - III Grade - A hospitals emphasizes evidence - based medicine orientation. They are extremely cautious in product selection and give priority to mature methods based on large - scale clinical evidence.

The longevity and anti - aging diagnosis and treatment services of public hospitals can be summarized into three major directions:

● Treating diseases related to aging. Public hospital anti - aging clinics first target the treatment of aging - related diseases with strict guidelines and consensus.

 For example, in the hormone replacement therapy for menopause, the newly opened expert outpatient clinic for female perimenopausal management and anti - aging at Zhongshan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University provides health management services for perimenopausal women. With the improvement of living standards, premature ovarian failure and early menopause can directly affect women's lifespan. After menopause, the hormones in the body can support organ function for about 40 years. Anti - aging clinics can help perimenopausal women improve their quality of life and extend their lifespan.

 ● Lifestyle interventions based on consensus. Lifestyle is an important part of longevity and anti - aging treatment, although it requires higher compliance and has a longer action cycle.

For example, the anti - aging MDT outpatient clinic at Xiangya Hospital is composed of expert teams from multiple disciplines, including the Department of Cardiology, the Department of Endocrinology, the Department of Dermatology, the Department of Gynecology, the Department of Geriatrics, the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the Health Management Center, and Nursing. The anti - aging MDT outpatient clinic at Xiangya Hospital combined the 15 - year health data of Xiangya Hospital with the medical big data of Central South University, obtaining a data volume of 1.2 million. Finally, it established a big - data model for evaluating the physiological age of aging to support testing and diagnosis and treatment professionally, accurately, and scientifically. The expert team will formulate a one - person - one - policy anti - aging plan tailored to each individual from multiple dimensions such as diet and exercise.

 ● Transformation of cutting - edge anti - aging technologies. Public hospitals in China have rich scientific research resources and have the real ability of multi - disciplinary collaboration and the implementation of cutting - edge scientific research. Top - tier Class - III Grade - A hospitals are usually the locations of national and provincial clinical medical research centers and can directly participate in or lead clinical research in the field of anti - aging, such as stem cell therapy and new drug trials. They can quickly and standardly transform scientific research results into clinical practice.  

For example, the Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Diseases of the Chinese People's Liberation Army is conducting a clinical study on the effectiveness and safety of the stem cell drug Aimitosa Injection in the treatment of vascular aging.

Top - tier Class - III Grade - A hospitals opening anti - aging and longevity clinics have stronger brand endorsement and scientific research strength. However, the diagnosis and treatment in existing Class - III Grade - A hospitals lack continuous tracking and monitoring methods, while private institutions are more flexible in customizing personalized longevity and anti - aging interventions.

Public hospitals and private institutions are not in an opposing relationship but are more complementary: public hospitals provide basic, standardized, universal, and disease - management - based anti - aging services to improve industry standards; private institutions provide high - end, customized, and in - depth optimized longevity and anti - aging intervention services. The longevity and anti - aging industry in China is still in its early stage of development and requires the joint efforts of public hospitals and private institutions to promote the standardized and scientific development of the industry.

03 Upstream Anti - aging Technologies are Accelerating Breakthroughs

Looking at the longevity and anti - aging industry chain, the downstream longevity and anti - aging clinics have become popular. However, the current intervention plans of these clinics are all customized and personalized, which limits their ability to cover a wide range of people. Upstream, biotech companies are exploring potential intervention measures that can be scaled up to cover millions or billions of people.

In the past few decades, with the continuous in - depth research on the mechanism of aging, the ways to extend lifespan and alleviate aging - related diseases through drugs, lifestyle, and genetic interventions have been confirmed in various biological models, laying a solid theoretical and practical foundation for the development of anti - aging - related drugs. The industry has gradually entered the stage of industrial transformation.

Many longevity and anti - aging companies have also received large - scale financing and become star enterprises. ALTOS, founded in 2021, has received $3 billion in financing. Retro Biosciences, invested in by Sam Altman, the co - founder of OpenAI, has received $180 million in financing and is currently conducting a new round of $1 billion in financing. In May 2025, NewLimit, a startup focusing on epigenetic reprogramming, announced the completion of a $130 million Series B financing.

The R & D focus of global anti - aging companies is highly concentrated in several cutting - edge directions: cell reprogramming, autophagy therapy, plasma therapy, tissue reprogramming, and small - molecule drug anti - aging therapy. Cell reprogramming research aims to develop technologies that can transform ordinary cells into stem cells to reverse the cell aging process; autophagy therapy studies how to clear damaged components in cells through autophagy to delay aging; plasma - related therapies explore the anti - aging mechanism based on plasma and develop relevant treatment methods; tissue reprogramming develops safe gene therapies to slow down and reverse aging in the body, aiming to prevent, stop, or reverse age - related diseases.

Among them, cell reprogramming undoubtedly occupies the most prominent "C - position". This technology is based on the revolutionary discovery of Professor Shinya Yamanaka in 2006 - by introducing several key transcription factors (Yamanaka factors), mature cells can be "rejuvenated" and reversed into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) with pluripotency. This Nobel - Prize - winning research has not only spawned breakthrough therapies such as the treatment of Parkinson's disease but also revealed a new path to anti - aging. From the research results of Shinya Yamanaka and other scholars, it can be seen that cells have the ability to self - repair, reset the epigenetic clock, and eliminate the damage caused by various stressors.

If these Yamanaka factors are strongly expressed within a few days, a somatic cell will dedifferentiate into an induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC), which replicates the process experienced by germline cells during early embryonic development. But if it is only partial reprogramming of iPSCs, the cell will maintain its state. It retains the original identity of the cell, but the cell's expression pattern is younger.

Currently, the research in the field of cell reprogramming is still in its early stage, and there are still many obstacles to overcome, such as the risk of tumorigenicity. However, it can be believed that with the support of AI, the process of deciphering the anti - aging code will be greatly accelerated.

Anti - aging is an eternal pursuit of humanity. This pursuit of longevity and anti - aging is developing into a clinical science. With technological breakthroughs, longevity and anti - aging technologies may change the paradigm of life.

As an interviewee mentioned: "In the past every ten years, the average lifespan of all people on Earth has increased by 2.5 years, which is a stable growth rate. Currently, many people think that when they reach 70 years old, their lives will be affected by diseases and their quality of life will be greatly reduced, and they will gradually approach the end of their lives at