Most people think aging is a disease.

Professor Suresh Rattan thinks that's one of the biggest misconceptions in modern medicine.

The anti-aging industry has never been bigger. Every week there's a new supplement, a new biomarker, a new longevity protocol, or another promise that you can slow, reverse, or even cure aging.

But after more than 40 years studying the biology of aging, Suresh has reached a very different conclusion.

Aging isn't something to cure. It's something to understand.

In this episode of Return on Health, hosts Niko Hems and Miguel Medina sit down with one of the world's leading biogerontologists to challenge everything we think we know about aging, longevity, and health.

We explore why Suresh believes there are no genes programmed to make us age, why the anti-aging industry is selling false promises, what he really thinks about Bryan Johnson, David Sinclair, and longevity escape velocity, and why living well may matter far more than simply living longer.

━━━━━👤 ABOUT THE GUEST ━━━━━

Professor Suresh I.S. Rattan is one of the world's leading biogerontologists, with more than four decades of research into the biology of aging.

He founded the Laboratory of Cellular Ageing at Aarhus University in Denmark, coined the term "gerontogenes", founded the journal Biogerontology, and has published hundreds of scientific papers exploring why we age and what healthy aging really means.

His work challenges many of the assumptions driving today's longevity industry, arguing that aging is a natural consequence of life - not a disease to be cured.

━━━━━━🎙️ ABOUT THE HOSTS ━━━━━━

Niko Hems

Niko Hems is a longevity expert and Head of Growth at YEARS, a company building a longitudinal, multi-modal health dataset to make prevention personal and data-driven.

Miguel Medina

Miguel Medina is co-host of Return on Health, a podcast built on a simple idea: a system always produces the outcomes it's incentivized to produce - so if we want better health outcomes, we need better incentives.

━━━━━⏱ CHAPTERS ━━━━━━

00:00 Aging Is Not a Disease

01:39 Why the Longevity Industry Is Selling Products

03:32 Do We Actually Understand Aging?

08:40 Why Aging Isn't a Disease

18:22 The Truth About the Hallmarks of Aging

19:12 How Humans Already Doubled Their Lifespan

23:15 Bryan Johnson, David Sinclair & Living Forever

27:52 What Actually Helps You Age Better?

35:59 What Does It Really Mean to Be Healthy?

40:40 Why We Age in the First Place

48:05 Suresh's Definition of Health

57:26 Rapid Fire: Can Humans Reach 150?

58:08 The Best Form of Hormesis

1:02:07 How Healthcare Needs to Change

━━━━━💡 KEY QUESTIONS ANSWERED ━━━━

• Is aging really a disease?

• Are there actually genes that make us age?

• Why do we age if evolution favors survival?

• Does the longevity industry focus on the wrong problem?

• What does Suresh really think about Bryan Johnson, David Sinclair and longevity escape velocity?

• Can supplements or biohacks meaningfully slow aging?

• What is the real definition of health?

• Why is hormesis one of the most important concepts in healthy aging?

• Can humans realistically live to 150 years old?

• How should healthcare shift from treating disease to promoting health?

━━━━━Connect with Professor Suresh Rattan

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suresh-rattan-7951804/