The Philly-Area Doctors and Technology Revolutionizing the Future of Aging
Innovative treatments and devices, plus ongoing research conducted by aging experts, are providing us better insight into our current health … and what that means for our futures.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy / Photograph courtesy of City Hydration
The myth of the fountain of youth has been around for centuries. While the legend is simply that — a legend — innovative treatments and devices, plus ongoing research conducted by aging experts, are providing us better insight into our current health … and what that means for our futures.
State of the Art
These three services offered at Philly-area wellness centers aim to support longevity using cutting-edge technology
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
At City Hydration’s Midtown Village location, hyperbaric oxygen therapy will supercharge your cells with 100 percent pure oxygen in a pressurized environment (in this case, a steel chamber). HBOT delivers oxygen at a pressure that’s two to three times higher than normal air pressure, allowing your lungs to absorb even more of the essential element than you normally do.
“Oxygen is the ultimate fuel for healing — it helps your body repair tissues and fight infections,” says City Hydration founder Christie D’Arcy. “HBOT increases circulation, helping injured areas recover faster while supercharging your immune system to fend off bacteria.” In the past few years, researchers have found that HBOT can reduce inflammation and improve brain function, and has the potential to reduce symptoms of illnesses like fibromyalgia and long COVID.
Before using City Hydration’s HBOT chamber, you’ll undergo a medical screening with one of City Hydration’s nurse practitioners or doctors to ensure that the service is safe for you and discuss the recommended duration and frequency of sessions. 1315 Walnut Street, Suite 1132; $155 to $250 per session.
Biomarker Testing
Thanks to a recently launched partnership between fitness and wellness boutique MVMNT (Queen Village and Grad Hospital) and preventive health management company Keyspan Health, you can exercise, eat, and generally live more optimally based on biomarker data.
Keyspan’s blood tests — which are performed as a routine blood draw by a trained phlebotomist, who will come to a location of your choosing (your home, office, or closest LabCorp) — analyze up to 60 essential biomarkers to enhance earlier detection of disease and determine how your lifestyle affects your scores. The labs address key health areas including metabolism and weight control, hormones, cognition, bone and muscle health, and inflammation, and there’s even a blood test for microplastics.
You’ll also get functional health coaching and diet, movement, and wellness plans, plus access to the Keyspan app so you can track progress and monthly supplements to fill any deficiencies uncovered by your results. There’s also an opportunity to receive updated tests every six months to track your progress and adjust your supplements and goals. $399 for one-time health assessment, $199 a month for a three-month membership.
PNOĒ
Want better insight into your metabolism, cardiovascular health, and lung function? Turn to the PNOĒ test, available at the Anti-Aging & Longevity Center of Philadelphia.
The clinical-grade, non-invasive device, which is used for two different tests, measures how your body uses oxygen and produces carbon dioxide during rest and exercise. But it can also tell you your biological age in comparison to your chronological age (maybe you are 45 years old but your cells are functioning like those of a 28-year-old), your metabolic rate (how efficiently you’re burning fats versus carbs for energy), your endurance and aerobic capacities, and how your body responds to (and how quickly it’s able to recover from) stress.
There’s a 10-minute resting metabolic rate (RMR) breath analysis, which sees you breathing as you normally would while wearing a heart rate monitor and a metabolic analyzer mask. You’ll find out how many calories your body burns and needs while at rest and how much energy your body gets from fats and carbs. The 20-minute active metabolic rate (AMR) test involves working out on a stationary bike as wattage increases; it determines things like your body’s capacity for physical activity and the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use during high-intensity exercise. After the tests, a team member will discuss your results with you and come up with personalized nutrition, fitness, and recovery plans. 919 Conestoga Road, Building 3, Suite 110, Bryn Mawr; RMR: $329, AMR: $36.
Modernizing Medicine
From sleep issues to Alzheimer’s to antibiotic resistance, Philly researchers and clinicians are taking aim at some of the more daunting aspects of aging.
Despite all the talk about living longer, modern science has not yet found a cure for getting old. But cheer up! Philly-area researchers are hard at work, studying ways to make the aging process less fraught.
Take, for example, University of Pennsylvania presidential associate professor César de la Fuente. His work in “molecular de-extinction” could help solve antibiotic resistance, which is both increasingly prevalent and, as de la Fuente (among others) notes, “one of humanity’s greatest existential threats.” Add to that the facts that we’re more susceptible to infections the older we get and that we often have a harder time fighting them off, especially if there’s immunosuppression from other conditions, like cancer. De la Fuente and his team designed an AI program that maps and mines the entire world’s biological information in order to find ancient molecules that hold helpful, replicable antibiotic compounds. (They’ve studied molecules from woolly mammoths and giant elk, both of which are, yes, extinct.) Creating new drugs via Big Pharma takes loads of money, lots of manpower, and many years — but de la Fuente’s groundbreaking approach to new drug discoveries is less expensive, exponentially faster, and also cooler. (See: woolly mammoths.)
Penn professor of physiology Joe Baur is interested in what, exactly, causes us to age. “It’s not just … time?” I ask, but no — he and his team are looking at what’s happening on a molecular level over time, studying how caloric restriction (in mice) may encourage longevity, along with pharmacological interventions that mimic the effects of caloric restriction. They’ve also made groundbreaking progress in delivering to mitochondria — the powerhouses of the cell — a natural bodily compound called NAD, which looks to be a protective factor in cells. Their end goal? A drug that would protect against or slow the progression of age-related diseases, including cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.
Speaking of preventive medicine, Jamie Swanson, a doctor of osteopathy at Jefferson who specializes in geriatrics, is an advocate of the less cutting-edge (but widely accepted) research that shows that basic things like getting vaccines, going for regular checkups and screenings, and minding your diet and exercise are still and probably forevermore the best ways we have to live healthfully as we age. (Her mantra: Beware the trendy diet or supplement, people!) Though, she is optimistic about research into a number of other indications for GLP-1 medications like Ozempic, which might be good not only for diabetes and weight loss but also for sleep apnea and heart disease.
Good news: We’re already seeing life-altering progress in Alzheimer’s treatment coming out of the Clinical Trial Center at Abington Neurology Associates. There, founder David C. Weisman has treated more than 140 patients with two recently approved drugs that slow the progression of early Alzheimer’s — drugs that Weisman and team worked for years to help advance in clinical trials. Now, they’re looking at preventive uses of these therapies — and “I think these trials are going to be markedly positive,” he says. This is huge, considering that, Weisman says, should we live past 85, we have a 50/50 chance of developing dementia, of which Alzheimer’s is the most common form.
Alzheimer’s is also a focus for Michael Perlis, director of Penn’s Behavioral Sleep Medicine Program. Some 30 percent of older adults struggle with insomnia, he says; that number is 60 percent for people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). And there’s evidence suggesting that poor sleep is a risk for the progression or worsening of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD). “Recently, our research has focused on whether improving sleep can slow cognitive decline in older adults, and in those with MCI and ADRD,” he says. His work aims to determine whether behavioral or pharmacological treatments can address insomnia in the context of MCI and ADRD. “I absolutely believe that the proposed research will be successful,” Perlis says.
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Published as “How to Live Longer, at Any Age: Tech” in the May 2025 issue of Philadelphia magazine.
