photo: Michael Roizen

Tell us about your journey from the world of allopathic medicine to the world of prevention. What have been the ah-ha! moments?
When I started out, I wanted to run an intensive care unit, so I focused on internal medicine and anaesthesia.

By 1979, I was asked to co-run the cardiovascular anesthesia section at the University of California San Francisco and I soon realised surgeons were difficult to deal with, but cared deeply about their patients’ outcomes and about them returning to normal function as soon as possible.

When I began to look at the data, I saw the most important factor for reducing complications was the patient’s age. Ten years made a three-fold difference to survival rates – regardless of the surgical team. I started to study how we could change the physiological age of people to make them 10 years’ younger in the period surrounding their surgery. In learning how to do this, I figured we could make surgical outcomes significantly better by helping them get healthier before surgery. We focused on managing their blood pressure, getting them to eat a healthy diet and doing physical activities such as walking. These were simple changes that people could easily do on their own, but most people still don’t do them.

So the next step was figuring out how to motivate people, and that’s when I started working on my book RealAge (www.spabusiness.com/RealAge), which helps show people how you can fundamentally change your physiological age with some simple lifestyle adjustments, such as to your diet and exercise regimes.

By 1993, I started to spread the word through a series of additional books, and we’ve now developed RealAge into an app that’s been downloaded by 72 million people worldwide.

You’ve led significant improvements to the US health system, what further changes are on your to-do list?
One of the things I’m focusing on now is that there will very likely be a major change in longevity in the coming decade. ‘Longevity is the next disruptor’ is my new trademark – and passion – we need to help people understand what’s very likely to happen.

Medicine and public health have expanded the average lifespan – through sanitisation and immunisation initially, then by management of chronic diseases with things such as stents – by about 2.5 years every ten years since 1890.

We think, based on the research out there, that there’s an 80 per cent chance that by 2035, there’ll be a great age reboot. I’ve told people in the past that 60 can be the new 40, but in the near future, you could be 90 and have a physiological age of 40.

I’m working on an app to help people understand this, and show them how the choices they make now can impact their future. The most important thing to learn is how to manage stress – stress ages you in every system, from the cardiovascular system to the brain.

Are the worlds of medicine and wellness aligned and if not, what can be done to bridge the gap?
They can be well-aligned, and that’s what we did at the Cleveland Clinic by starting a wellness institute, to be sure that at least in our system they’re aligned.

Clearly the spa and wellness industry has a major role to play in teaching people how to manage stress, and they’re doing a wonderful job of that in some aspects.

A lot of things that start in the wellness space take a while to make their way into mainstream western medicine – mindfulness and using nutrition to change cardiovascular health, for instance.

Getting well-done studies to back these things up is necessary, but requires pioneers in wellness to drive progress.

What do you say to critics of your stance on exercise and healthy living?
If you don’t have critics, you’re not far enough advanced! I don’t think anyone now doubts that 60 can be the new 40, but in 2004 I had a lot of critics when I said that.

I’m now saying that by 2035, 90 is likely to be the new 40, and there are plenty of people who think that’s crazy. But there will be a lot of people living younger for longer. Already we’re seeing the beginnings of this, where through advances such as CRISPR [a tool for editing genomes, allowing researchers to alter DNA sequences and modify gene function]. Longevity will not just be ‘the next disruptor’, it will be the biggest disruptor – it will give us life itself.

What do you view as your greatest achievement so far in life?
I’ve driven a lot of innovations in life, from being one of the first to use echocardiography in humans, to advances in pre-op testing. But my work with RealAge and getting people to understand how much power they have over their own health – that each person is really the greatest genetic engineer for their own body – is by far my greatest accomplishment to date.

What role can spa and wellness operators play in supporting people to make improvements to their own wellbeing?
So far, spa and wellness services have appealed more to the middle and upper-middle classes – and the wealthy. We have to figure out how to make these things available to everyone. We need a mass-market approach with McDonald’s-style pricing and McDonald’s-style reach to make spa and wellness affordable and accessible.

There’s also a major role for the spa and wellness industry in continuing to lead. It was the spa and wellness industry that got us to change our emphasis on stress management, for example, and that brought mindfulness to the forefront. It also brought healthy eating and physical activity for all into common practice.

The industry needs to keep pushing to bring new wellness ideas to the forefront, and pushing for more scientific studies. The spa and wellness industry has had a huge benefit on people’s wellbeing and can continue to do so in the future.

What are some of the highlights of working with the GWS?
The GWS organisers are brilliant. One of the things we highlighted at this year’s Global Wellness Summit was the silver linings that have come out of COVID – not just breakthroughs in vaccines, but also the understanding of the role of socialisation to our wellbeing.

We also focused on the recognition that longevity is likely to be the next disruptor; this will be an incredible boost to the economy if we each have an extra 25 years’ of human capital to share – and of course that means there’s great potential to increase spa services.

The Summit is one of the most dynamic conferences you’ll find – it mixes hard science with business and pleasure, and you end up with thoughts and interfaces you never thought were possible.

Michael Roizen is the chief wellness officer at the Cleveland Clinic. An anesthesiologist by training, he became famous for developing the RealAge concept and has authored or co-authored five number one New York Times best sellers.

Roizen is credited with 165 peer reviewed publications and 100 medical chapters and also owns 14 US patents. He’s founded six companies, served on the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committees and co-invented a drug – Relistor.

He’s been praised for encouraging Americans to exercise and live healthier lives and also criticised for his statements on the payoffs of exercise and healthy eating.

photo: Victor Koo

What has been your greatest contribution to the cause of planetary wellness?
It’s still work in process, but we’re working closely with a group of international foundations to support research organisations and NGOs on One Health-related initiatives (www.spabusiness.com/onehealth) which address planetary, human and animal wellness issues, such as factory farming reform, flexitarian diet promotion and new protein research.

Tell us about your current work
At Tianren Culture, we’re working on social innovation projects focused on two main areas: improvements in mental health through breathwork and meditation and the impact of food production and dietary changes on human, planetary and animal health.

At Heyi Holdings, we invest in scientific innovation focused on health and technology.

At what point in your life did health and wellness become your priorities?
I started to monitor my health and wellness more when I started a family and later when I started my own company.

Since I shifted from an operational to an investment role at work, I now have more time to actively improve my physical and mental health through lifestyle and dietary changes, movement, breathwork and meditation practices.

How has this plan unfolded so far?
So far, so good.

What are your next set of priorities?
Continue to go deeper in my meditation practices; attend retreats and take formal yoga lessons after the pandemic.

How can we empower people to take more responsibility for their own wellbeing?
Besides supplying accurate information related to health and wellness, it’s important to provide accessible, inclusive, easy-to-use products, solutions and techniques that can be incorporated into our daily lives. While many people would like to improve their own wellbeing, time and cost constraints have been hurdles for wider adoption.

What role can spa and wellness business operators play?
Consumers visit spa and wellness businesses to improve their overall health and wellbeing. It’s important for business operators to be responsible in sharing accurate information based on scientific research, when possible, to help improve their customers’ lifestyle beyond the time they spend in their facilities. This can range from dietary changes and daily exercises to dos and don’ts in our lives.

What have your aims been as co-chair of the GWS 2021?
The pandemic has been a wake-up call and vivid reminder of the interconnectivity and global nature of public health, the critical importance of physical and mental wellness in our society and the interdependence of humans and the broader ecosystem of nature, plants and animals – whether we are talking about climate change or zoonotic diseases.

It has also created a global reset of our behaviours and lifestyles at home, work and play.

The theme of the GWS 2021 was The New, New Era of Health and Wellness and we hope GWS 2021 helped both offline and online attendees to navigate this new world and that it will foster a dialogue towards a more positive and sustainable future.

Have your dreams for the GWS this year come to fruition?
This year, we built on GWS’s successful hybrid (online and offline) event from last year by offering new ways to foster interactivity and community – especially through online innovations. At the offline event in Boston, safety protocols ensured the wellbeing of all guests – and in a world of social distancing and travel restrictions, our hope is for these digital approaches to generally reach a more global audience and provide a richer experience to everyone involved.

Victor Koo has a background as an entrepreneur in the multi-screen entertainment and media markets.

In 2016, he co-founded Tianren Culture, a next-generation social platform that focuses on giving, supporting social enterprises and impact investing, with the mission of fostering positive global values.

One of Tianren Culture’s core focuses is to promote the value of ‘One Health, One Wellness’, by cultivating healthy and sustainable lifestyles that lead to not only the physical and mental health of human beings, but also the health of the broader environment and ecosystem.

Koo gained his MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.