Equinox Is Charging $40,000 for a New Health and Longevity Program.
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S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Have $40,000 to spare? Keen to postpone death for as long as possible? Then you just might be interested in Equinox's new "Optimize by Equinox" offering.
Except, of course, that this offering is utterly insane even if you happen to have tens of thousands of dollars to throw at fighting aging. Let me explain why.
Why this program is insane
Billed as a personal health program, the service promises to bundle together everything you need to live longer and healthier, from personal training and nutrition plans to sleep coaching and massage therapy. Recommendations are tailored to your specific needs after you undergo a battery of more than 100 tests -- the whole program is offered in partnership with lab-test startup Function Health.
The price tag on this service is, obviously, wildly out of reach for most normal humans. But it's even a stupid buy for the tiny sliver of those who can afford it. All signs point to the fact that whatever benefits you might gain from such a program are available at a much, much lower price point elsewhere.
You may have read about the efforts of Bryan Johnson, a wealthy tech entrepreneur, to reverse his biological age through a rigorous regime of supplements, exercise, and sometimes dubious medical interventions, all for the eye-popping price of something in the neighborhood of $2 million a year.
This sort of tech bro lunacy is catnip for the media -- outrage is the best click generator there is -- but as an investment in health, it's madness. When Johnson and an anti-aging focused doctor set up the "Rejuvenation Olympics" to see who could reduce their biological age the most, it wasn't Johnson, or anyone in a similar income bracket, who won. Instead it was a 55-year-old middle-class single mom who spent a grand total of $108 a month on a gym membership and some supplements.
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That probably wouldn't come as a shock to MIT neuroscientist Li-Huei Tsai, who researches mental decline and how to hold it off. When asked what people should do to slow aging by Business Insider recently, her prescription wasn't anything fancy or expensive.
What P. T. Barnum is reputed to have said was naive. In America, suckers aren't born every minute, they're born every second. That's so obviously true, cause look at all the Americans who venerate Trump, and all the Americans who are protesting on college campuses and elsewhere, and so many more...
"I think people actually know what they should be doing to stay healthy and to preserve their memory," Tsai responded, pointing to common sense steps like adequate exercise, eating real whole foods, and getting enough sleep. The problem isn't that people don't know what to do to age well. It's that actually doing it consistently day to day is hard.
On the other hand, I hardly exercise at all - a walk every few days, I don't have much of an appetite any more, and have terrible night's sleep, sometimes no more than four hours, and I'm 87 years old.
Must be heredity-- are most of the people in your family long-lived?
My brother is 91 - he swims every day in his condo building's pool, and plays a mean game of Scrabble. He also emails me jokes that I post here on NT.
Actually if you want to pay for a program tailored to your needs you could spend a week or two at a health spa.
Or even join a health club and hire a personal trainer to get you started, also hire a nutritionist.
Maybe add in a weekly exercise class or a Yoga class.
I've had all the yoga in my life that anyone would want - my ex-wife was a yoga instructor. Now I'm married to a Buddhist, so meditating is no strain at all.
Seems like you get involved with "spiritual types"!
The only person like that in my family is my first cousin, who's been an acupuncturist for years.
(Well, maybe I qualify-- I lived on a yoga ashram for a few months. After I left I had a regular daily practice and took a yoga class once a week.
Also used to meditate daily. That was very powerful-- I need to go back to that.
Almost forgot to mention-- a nephew in California married a Chinese woman. When they got married they bought a house-- but before buying she insisted that the Feng Shui was auspicious!
(But she's not a yoga instructor-- rather she's a highly successful accountant).
My favourite folksinger/composer/author was the late Leonard Cohen. He spent a year in an ashram in California.
I lived on an Ashram in Virginia ("Yogaville") for three months. Before that I couldn't write any musical pieces.
Bu tit didn't help didn't help.
After spending time there-- I still couldn't write music!
LOL. Well, Cohen wrote novels, poems and a lot of songs BEFORE he stayed at the Ashram, and more after.
I lived on an Ashram in Virginia ("Yogaville") for three months.
I was in the 1 month LYT ( "Living Yoga Training") program. I learned a lot, and liked it so much I went into the 3 month LYT program.