Are Anti-Aging Clinics Worth the Price Tag?

Highlights

• The Miora longevity clinic measures 90 blood markers to gauge the rate of aging.
• Based on the blood analyses, Miora recommends lifestyle changes, supplements, medications, hormone replacement therapies, and vitamin-infused IV drips.
• Miora also offers pressurized chambers that increase cellular oxygen and purportedly promote healing as well as cold temperature exposure to tamp down inflammation.

Longevity clinics tailoring personalized care regimens to stifle the effects of aging are emerging all over the country. One such anti-aging clinic is Miora, a Minneapolis, Minnesota-based outfit that recommends lifestyle changes, supplements, and hormone replacement therapies based on blood work. After clients provide a blood sample, clinicians at Miora analyze 90 blood markers to gauge clients’ rates of aging and then make these age-slowing recommendations.

The clientele that comes to longevity clinics like Miora ranges from younger to aged adults but skews older. This is likely because once adults hit the age of 45, they frequently see meaningful aging-related changes start to happen. Since most people do not like these changes, they seek exposure to longevity therapy at clinics like Miora.

For $200 a Month, Longevity Clinic Clients Can Use Hyperbaric Chambers, Cryotherapy, and Infrared Saunas

Furthermore, for an additional $200 a month membership fee, Miora clients have access to treatments like the hyperbaric chamber. Hyperbaric chambers increase normal air pressure threefold, which boosts blood oxygen and purportedly promotes healing.

In the past, people could only use hyperbaric chambers in hospitals, where they were used to treat wounds and severe burns. However, prescriptions are no longer necessary to use these devices. As such, they are popping up in longevity clinics throughout the country.

Another treatment popular among longevity clinics is cryotherapy, where the whole body is immersed in extremely cold temperatures for about three minutes. Cryotherapy machines resemble a huge freezer and are set to an eye-popping -140 degrees Fahrenheit. Plunging into cryotherapy is used to help combat inflammation.

If that is not enough, the $200-a-month membership also allows clients to use infrared saunas. These contraptions use electromagnetic waves to heat the body from the inside out. Like regular saunas, this type of sauna increases blood flow and removes toxins from the body.

Another popular treatment tried by many health enthusiasts is red light therapy. For this age-slowing technique, clients enter a machine that produces low-wavelength red light to stimulate the production of a skin structural protein called collagen. With its potential to spur collagen production, clients use this type of therapy to improve skin appearance. According to the Cleveland Clinic, red light therapy shows a high degree of promise at slowing aging, but as with other longevity-promoting techniques, the science behind it is not settled.

Seeing Results Requires Multiple Sessions Throughout the Week

These so-called age-slowing techniques are available at many locations nationwide, and Miora is just one example located in the Twin Cities. Those who decide to try longevity clinics will need to take multiple sessions of hyperbaric chamber, cryotherapy, infrared sauna, and red light therapy exposures a week to see results. Moreover, outside of these sessions, adherence to lifestyle changes as well as supplement and hormone replacement regimens will be necessary to find whether these clinics actually work.

Participants who use longevity clinics can be compared to laboratory animals undergoing experimentation. While the longevity clinics’ techniques are likely safe for human application, their effectiveness can only be determined after a large number of people use them for extended time frames and are compared to people who don’t use these regimens, similar to testing experimental techniques on animals in laboratories. Only after these clinics have been used for extended periods can we tell whether they confer benefits worth the price of membership.