‘People are doing a lot of unethical and damaging things in the name of biohacking’

Dr Prarthana Venkatesh, the founder of nutraceutical brand Longevita, talks about the inspiration behind the brand, why the longevity discourse is now exploding and how modern medicine is tackling aging

Dr Prarthana Venkatesh describes the first year of her work, right after she graduated from med school back in 2020, as “a life-changing time.” Still only 22 back then, she would find herself constantly confronted with “a lot of preventable deaths,” says Prarthana, who shuttles between Chennai and the UK and has recently launched Longevita, a health and wellness start-up rooted in longevity science.

This experience, she says, got her thinking about issues in the larger healthcare system and what could be done about it. “That is when my research and interest in longevity started…with the principle that any preventable deaths or deterioration in health should be something we focus on before it gets to this point.”

According to Prarthana, to get to the root of any health issue, the focus must be at the cellular level. “Everything that deteriorates on a cellular level, as you age, is linked to cancer, to neurogeneration, to cardiometabolic issues.” The time-tested way to live a healthier life—eating mostly whole foods, exercising regularly, getting adequate sleep, and having strong social networks—remains the same. “What I have learnt in the last few years of my longevity practice is, yes, the basics are lifestyle,” she agrees.

Having said that, she also feels that this is the first generation to know so much about ageing pathways and ageing science. “That is partly why longevity science is blowing up so much right now. We have such a great understanding of these mechanisms, and so the question becomes how are you fixing and targeting that,” she says, adding that it is extremely difficult to target these specific pathways and prevent degeneration with lifestyle alone. “Once you understand the science, it is very intuitive to want to target these scientifically-proven pathways. Also, there is a lot of safe research around these molecules,” she says.

Prarthana spent her early years in Myanmar, where her parents, both doctors from Chennai, had moved to around 30-odd years ago. Growing up in “a country with one of the worst healthcare systems in the world” kick-started her interest in healthcare, she says. “Doctors in Burma have very poor training as a result of political and social circumstances. So, from a very young age, I observed how anyone who could afford it left the country for healthcare.”

Prarthana went on to pursue medicine in the UK, graduating at the top of her class and began training in cardiac surgery at St Thomas’ Hospital in London. “I was progressing at a pretty fast rate and had great surgical mentors, but I also realised that it would be another eight to 10 years of doing the same operations again and again,” she says. Additionally, the limitations of the NHS system began bothering her. “It was inefficient, and so I began thinking about prevention instead. I thought of doing something that had a wider impact on people’s health via preventative medicine.”