In a treatment room at the Aiva Clinic in Biesdorf, an oval capsule stands just under two meters tall. Its hatch folds outward, letting in bright light. Inside are four chalk-white seats with large black monitors above them. The capsule is a hyperbaric oxygen chamber. “We call it our submarine,” says Philipp Tüffers, a sports therapist at this futuristic health center in East Berlin, formally known as the Arona Institute for Vitality and Aesthetics.
The chamber simulates a dive to a depth of up to ten meters. Oxygen concentrators pull air from the room to create increased pressure – similar to being underwater – while participants breathe in oxygen-rich air through masks. One session costs at least 45 euros. Ten sessions are recommended. This therapy is called “hyperbaric,” meaning the oxygen is delivered at a higher-than-normal pressure.
“The treatment speeds up wound healing, stimulates cell regeneration, and boosts antioxidant production,” explains Tüffers. The Aiva Clinic is part of a broader trend: “longevity” refers to the goal of living as long and as healthily as possible. On a molecular level, it aims to reverse ageing at the cellular scale.
Investors are catching on. In the U.S. alone, billions are pouring into the longevity sector, with major tech figures like Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and Peter Thiel investing hundreds of millions into anti-ageing startups – or even into their own quest for immortality. Take Bryan Johnson, born in 1977, currently the movement’s most high-profile figure. He’s trying to reverse his biological age to 18 by having his son’s blood transfused into him, taking dozens of pills daily, and spending time in oxygen chambers. Is this a medical revolution – or just a trendy new market, luring self-optimisation fanatics with the promises of lifestyle gurus?
Berlin emerges as a longevity hotspot
Berlin is fast becoming a European hub for the longevity movement, a scene that hasn’t yet taken root in other Western European cities. The Aiva Clinic in the city’s east isn’t the only sign. Berlin is also home to the newly founded Party for Conventional Medical Rejuvenation Research, a single-issue group that advocates for “unlimited long and healthy lives.” In May 2024, Berlin hosted the Rejuvenation Summit, a gathering for biotech investors and startups.
Back at the Aiva Clinic, the “longevity bar” near the entrance feels like a gateway to Neverland. The journey toward eternal youth starts here with a wellness shot – blended celery, cucumber, and ginger. Lounge music plays while a giant LED screen displays shimmering treetops. Andrea Caletti, the clinic’s chief physician and a plastic surgeon, enters the room.
A changing healthcare system
Caletti distances the clinic from the extreme practices of Bryan Johnson. “Our goal is for people to stay healthy and fit until their last breath.” He adds that with ageing populations, healthcare systems will soon struggle to cover rising costs. That’s why preventive medicine is essential: stepping in before illness occurs. The clinic dedicates time to detailed intake sessions, asking clients about sleep, diet, and physical concerns.
“Our goal is for people to stay healthy and fit until their last breath.”
Caletti is proud that Aiva combines aesthetic treatments with longevity services. As the website puts it, it’s about “inner and outer beauty.” Around 60% of clients come for cosmetic procedures like Botox and fillers, seeking visible rejuvenation. But for the clinic’s fitness team, outer beauty is just a gateway into deeper exploration of physical and mental health.
Athletes are frequent clients: among them, young footballers from 1. FC Union. Many are in their 30s, some over 50. One popular offering is hypoxia training, in which clients are exposed to oxygen at varying concentrations to strengthen mitochondria and boost cellular energy. Ten sessions can cost up to 800 euros. But is this enough to make someone live to 110, becoming a so-called “supercentenarian”?
Scientists Urge Caution
Felix Richter, a research associate at HTW Berlin (University of Applied Sciences), studies biophysics and molecular biology with a focus on ageing. He’s skeptical about the effects of hyperbaric oxygen therapy. “There’s little scientific evidence – it’s more hype than substance. You can tell some people are trying to profit from the hope of longer life.” Still, Richter says the field of ageing research has advanced rapidly over the past 20 years.
A major turning point came in 2006, when Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka published his work on “partial reprogramming.” Studying stem cells, he discovered that specialized organ cells could be reprogrammed back into their stem cell state. Since ageing involves accumulating inflammation and damage, cells might be “reset” epigenetically – that is, made young again. Yamanaka was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2012.
The Limits of Longevity Research
But there’s a catch. Such findings are often based on animal studies. “You usually can’t translate clinical results from mice to humans,” Richter explains. There’s also a regulatory hurdle: clinical trials require the goal of treating a disease. Research aimed purely at ageing itself doesn’t qualify for approval. So for now, longevity advocates must rely on self-experimentation – like Bryan Johnson does.
Jenny Ames, a longevity coach-in-training, takes a less radical path. A 38-year-old art curator from Maryland now living in Berlin, Ames was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease during college and has struggled with health issues ever since. Three years ago, she began to change her lifestyle – starting with yoga and gradually adding more. Her morning routine includes waking at six, using eye drops, making her bed, tidying her room, scraping her tongue, and applying serum to her eyelids.
I want to live long enough to witness a different kind of humanity.
Her daily nutrient intake includes warm apple cider vinegar water, fermented rice water as a face mask, hyaluronic acid and vitamin E supplements, kombucha, celery juice, green tea, and coffee with ghee (Indian clarified butter). In the evenings, she practices yoga, posture and neck exercises, and red/blue light therapies. She says she has cured her autoimmune disease. “I believe routine is the key to longevity,” she says. Altogether, her health practices take four to six hours each day. When asked how long she wants to live, she pauses before answering: “I want to live long enough to witness a different kind of humanity.”
Ames’s vision evokes the philosophy of transhumanism, which sees modern humans as a transitional species – on the way to something smarter and more evolved. Transhumanists aim to use science and technology to surpass human limitations, including ageing. Longevity enthusiasts and biohackers share two beliefs: that ageing is not inevitable, and that humans can be biologically renewed. The Romanian historian Lucian Boia explores this idea to the extreme in his book Forever Young.
The Future of Longevity in Medicine
According to Boia, death has lost its meaning and its consoling narratives. Life, he argues, has been secularized. “Today, the West simply no longer wants to die,” he writes. Religious promises of salvation no longer appeal, nor do romantic ideals of noble death – whether in war or by suicide, as in Goethe’s Werther. Instead, health has become the dominant ideology. “A new kind of religion,” Boia calls it. For some in the longevity scene, it is a new faith. For others, especially investors, it’s just a buzzword to sell products.
Longevity doesn’t have to be expensive.
Felix Richter believes the concept is already becoming embedded in medicine. “We’re starting to see efforts to standardize longevity – to make it rational, not just a money-making gimmick. Sooner or later, longevity medicine will take hold in most countries.” The foundations are already visible: in the U.S. and U.K., longevity is emerging as a medical specialty. Even health insurance bonus programs are part of this trend. After all, why wait for illness to appear when many diseases can be prevented?
There’s another reason longevity medicine holds promise: while life expectancy has steadily increased, the number of healthy years has not kept pace. The hope is not just to live longer, but to live better – for as long as possible. But who will be able to afford it?
Richter pushes back: longevity doesn’t have to come with a high price tag. In fact, the most effective strategies are the same ones every family doctor recommends: “Calorie restriction, regular exercise, and a healthy diet.” A humble prescription – one that stands in stark contrast to the costly promises of today’s biotech and wellness industries.
- This article was adapted from German. See the original here.
