Global Wellness Summit Showcases Longevity as Complex Melding of the Basics and Futuristic Innovation
- Nancy Griffin
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
The 19th annual Global Wellness Summit, held in Dubai November, 18 to 25, 2025, explored the theme “Longevity Through a Wellness Lens.” Expert speakers from the medical, wellness, and business communities addressed a wide spectrum of topics—from the foundational pillars of longevity, including nutrition, movement, sleep, social connection, and purpose, to cutting-edge innovations such as senolytics, stem cells, and nootropics that promise to dramatically extend both lifespan and healthspan.
The Promise of Reversing Aging
GWS speaker Dr. Michael Roizen, MD, FACP, Chief Wellness Officer Emeritus and Professor at the Cleveland Clinic, delivered a compelling presentation titled Wellness Evolves Into Longevity: The Next and Most Major Disruptor. Dr. Roizen framed wellness as the practice of “slowing aging,” while defining longevity as “reversing aging,” calling it “the opportunity of a lifetime—to be 40 again when the calendar says 90.”
He offered a provocative glimpse into the future of longevity medicine, highlighting innovations such as senolytics (the removal of aging cells that accelerate decline in surrounding cells), fasting-induced autophagy, gene editing with immunomodulation, immunologic targeting, stem cell therapies and telomere regeneration, proteostasis and protein inhibition, mitochondrial regeneration, microbiome reprogramming and photomodulation, bionic bodies, induced tissue regeneration, and epigenetic reprogramming.
Despite the promise of these advanced interventions, Dr. Roizen emphasized that the fundamentals remain essential. He stated that practices such as regular exercise, sound nutrition, and effective stress management directly influence gene expression—“changing which of your genes are turned on.”
The Basic Pillars of Wellness
In a world crowded with longevity quick fixes and extreme biohacking, aging well ultimately comes down to the basics of healthy living. These are the true “biohacks” proven to support longevity, a point underscored in GWS founder and CEO Susie Ellis’ opening statement. She acknowledged the growing convergence of the medical and wellness worlds — “bringing science and evidence-based results”— while reaffirming her deep belief in "the foundational pillars of wellness: exercise, nutrition, stress reduction, quality sleep, community, beauty, nature, and purpose:"
"At its core, a long and well-lived life isn’t driven by hacks or trends, but by fundamentals that sustain the body, mind, and relationships over time."
Keep Moving
With physical inactivity projected to lead to 500 million new cases of preventable non-communicable diseases globally by 2030, exercise clearly emerges as a frontrunner in the quest for longevity. As Global Wellness Summit speaker and ultra-endurance runner Charlie Engle put it, “Keep moving—don’t ever stop moving. That is the key to longevity.”
The Powerful Partnership between Medicine and Music, a session featuring Freddy Moross, founder and CEO of Myndstream and Dawn Mussallem, MD, integrative oncologist at the Mayo Clinic, also drove home the message of the importance of staying fit to age well. A stage IV cancer survivor, Dr. Mussallem emphasized that exercise is not merely supportive, but foundational to cancer care—sharing that regular physical activity can improve breast cancer outcomes by nearly 50%.
Food as Medicine
Dr. Mussallem is also a passionate advocate for food as medicine. She shared that every time we put food in our mouths, we are choosing either a healthier or an unhealthier version of ourselves. According to a 2022 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, diet-related factors are now the leading cause of death in the United States—driven largely by the overconsumption of ultra-processed foods, which account for nearly 60% of the American diet.
In a podcast conversation with Mel Robbins, Dr. Mussallem emphasized that it is never too late to improve longevity through better nutrition. “If we start eating better at age 20, women can add up to 11 extra years of life and men up to 13,” she shared. “Even starting in our 60s can add eight years to life expectancy, and beginning in our 80s can still add an average of 3.4 years.”
Longevity and the Built Environment
The worlds of wellness real estate and longevity converged at the Summit, highlighting innovative projects in the UAE and across the globe. In his presentation The Evolution of Serenbe: Building a Wellness Community in My Own Backyard, founder Steve Nygren shared how active design principles are intentionally woven into the community to encourage physical movement, healthy eating, and intergenerational connection.
Additional development projects featured at the Summit emphasized longevity-focused design elements, including:
Walkable and bike-friendly infrastructure such as multi-use trails, hiking paths, greenways, parks, and playgrounds and water features.
Outdoor recreation amenities, access to water, and preserved wooded or green spaces.
On-site fitness and sports facilities, equipment, and wellness programming.
Food co-ops and retail outlets offering fresh, healthy food options within the community.
On-site organic farms, farmers markets or farmstands, community-supported agriculture, and farm-to-table dining.
Food-growing and gardening spaces, including edible landscaping, community garden plots, and in-home or shared kitchen gardening facilities.
GWS speakers brought renewed attention to the pervasiveness of stress and social isolation, underscoring the urgent need to create environments that strengthen social connections and cultivate purpose and meaning in daily life. They also elevated the role of nature—not only from an environmental or sustainability standpoint, but as a powerful force for mental well-being, healing, and spiritual renewal.
In the presentation Democratizing Wellness on an Imaginable Scale, Nancy Davis, Chief Creative Officer & Executive Director of the Global Wellness Summit, and Robert Hanea, founder & CEO of Therme Group, discussed the importance of nature, culture and community coming together.
Consistency and Intention Win in the Longevity Game
While cutting-edge innovations and “biohacks” promise to transform the future of longevity, many remain unproven, out of reach, or prohibitively expensive for most people.
Dr. Kenneth Pelletier, best-selling author and Clinical Professor of Medicine at UCSF School of Medicine, in his GWS Presentation Research, Science, Genes and Longevity, warned that “in the ocean of biohacks, ‘here Dwell Dragons:'
There are literally thousands of promises and perils with longevity biohacks, and virtually no longitudinal or clinical trials, and no objective data results. Side effects and interactions are to be determined. I don’t believe longevity will ever be achieved by a magic bullet, single pill, or single intervention, it is a systems manifestation…the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.”
The real secret to living longer, healthier lives, however, is often far simpler—and far more accessible. Longevity comes down to the basics: moving your body, nourishing yourself with wholesome food, managing stress, prioritizing sleep, fostering social connections, and finding purpose and meaning. Practiced consistently and with intention, these foundational habits can have a profound impact on health and life expectancy. The beauty is that these essentials don’t require costly interventions or high-tech solutions—they only demand commitment, mindfulness, and alignment with what truly supports well-being.
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