Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

At the global forefront of the latest in medical science is biological age reversal, which is the focus of Singapore's first-ever longevity clinic that launched earlier this year. Its co-founder PROFESSOR ANDREA MAIER tells us how it's now possible to turn back the clock... as far back as 10 years

- YANNI TAN

Remember your physical self a decade ago? Your stamina, energy, skin, muscle tone, immunity, mental agility, libido, bone health... and even how quickly you recovered from illness or jetlag. Do you wish to be as productive as you were during the prime of your life? How would you like to go back in time? Biological age reversal sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but the medical expertise and technologies rendering it possible is now upon us. Not just in Hollywood, but Singapore.

Leading this new and exciting area of clinical practice here is Professor Andrea Maier, an internal medicine specialist who has spent much of her career deep in the study of longevity and biogerontology. While she co-founded Chi Longevity, which opened at Camden Medical Centre this March, she is serving as the Oon Chiew Seng Professor in medicine, healthy ageing and dementia research at National University of Singapore, and the co-director of the Centre for Healthy Longevity at the National University Health System.

Different from chronological ageing, which essentially refers to our years on earth, biological ageing is the pace at which our body ages due to the accumulation of cellular damage. "Since a couple of years now, we can measure one's biological age quite accurately," says the German doctor, "and we know that biological age is flexible."

The elixir of youth will ultimately be a broad, holistic yet highly detailed series of safe and effective interventions designed to repair the damage and maintain the body in tip-top condition. The first step towards a younger you, however, is getting to know yourself: biological, functional and behavioural.