Lure of longevity

A movement once confined to biotech labs and Silicon Valley biohackers is now taking root in everyday lives

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therapies. Social media, with its barrage of before-and-after reels, has only heightened the pressure to "look young" as a marker of vitality.

"There are not just long-term repercussions but short-term as well," says Dr Mansak, consultant dermatologist at Fortis Hospital, Vasant Kunj, Delhi. "The most important thing to understand is that the chase of such misleading activities signals a broken understanding of the human body and health altogether."

She warns that many procedures and products touted for anti-ageing are not designed for Indian skin types. "Modalities like lasers or chemical peels that work on Caucasian skin often don't work in our population subset, which has a high tendency to develop hyperpigmentation," she says. "Melanin is protective. More tampering means more barrier damage and more complications."