A £4,152 ($5,500) annual package at a Chicago hospital clinic promises a picture of how fast a patient is ageing. Northwestern Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine and Mayo Clinic have opened cash-pay longevity clinics, a report published on 6 October 2026 found. ⁠Critics say evidence that the packages extend life is still missing.

What the Hospital Work-up Shows

The clinic compares chronological age with an estimate of biological age, which Northwestern says is influenced by physical health, genetics, lifestyle and diet. The visit is a wellness consultation, not covered by insurance, and not a substitute for diagnosis or treatment. ⁠

Patients get a half-day of specialised tests, a physician review, dietitian and exercise consultations, and follow-up assessments to track changes in their health and ageing over time. ⁠A report on the package had a DEXA scan, plus checks on heart, brain, lungs, eyes, ears, strength and fitness.

Baljash Cheema, medical director, has said the menu includes arterial health, pulse wave velocity and retinal imaging. ⁠Weill Cornell Medicine's programme is elective and uninsured, listing whole-body MRI, coronary CT angiography and a fitness exam. Mayo Clinic has opened a cash-pay service of the same type. ⁠

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Longevity Clinics and the Missing Proof

Whether that portrait lengthens life is where the record thins. Critics question high fees at nonprofit hospitals, and warn that some tests lack sufficient evidence they improve health.

Douglas Vaughan, director of the Potocsnak Longevity Institute, has drawn a line against the wider trade. 'Sometimes it can be incredibly expensive, and a lot of untested and unproven therapies are given to people, and we're not that,' he said. ⁠The clinic calls its protocols evidence-based and aimed at healthspan. ⁠

A Nature Medicine paper published on 21 August 2026 examined 51 human intervention studies using 16 epigenetic clocks. The researchers found that the clocks responded differently to interventions, underscoring uncertainty over their use as measures of ageing.

⁠It does not show that a clinic package cuts deaths.

There is currently no established clinical-trial evidence that using biological-age assessments as part of longevity programmes reduces mortality. ⁠In 2025, Phil Newman of Longevity.Technology said he knew of about 320 longevity clinics worldwide; his organisation separately surveyed 82 clinics for its Longevity Clinics Survey. Only 39 per cent said they were in profit. ⁠

Why the Appointments Are Still Full

Demand has not waited. Family physician Younes wrote on 6 October that new longevity clinics charge up to £33,971 ($45,000) a year while promising longer life. 'Truth is, we don't have solid evidence these expensive tests work better than basics we already know,' he wrote. ⁠

Smoking cessation and regular physical activity are supported by extensive evidence linking them to lower risks of premature death. Evidence that biological-age assessments themselves improve health or extend life remains limited.

Longevity clinics inside major academic health systems continue to offer cash-pay programmes. Northwestern says biological age should not alter treatment unless a clinician advises it. ⁠Until a trial links the work-up to fewer deaths, the offer is a status report, not a longer life.

Douglas Vaughan's clinic grew out of research on PAI-1, a protein unusually low in some Indiana Amish families linked to longer, healthier lives. Baljash Cheema has called early results consistent rather than dramatic: many patients have more body fat and a lower peak VO2 than they expected.

Weill Cornell says it hopes to prove clinical value so insurers eventually pay. A 2025 clinic survey found 77 per cent planned to expand anyway.

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