I had an exciting and profound conversation with Thrive about the reasons why I want people to become educated on longevity rather than be afraid of it. Our conversation also covered the work I do to dispel misinformation, fear, and disbelief that topics of longevity and living to 120 commonly incite. We went on to discuss why the US healthcare system is one of the worst among high-income nations, and the innovations my team and I bring to the healthcare industry and much more. Here is the article:
…Treat longevity as a national issue. Once again, the UK (let’s not forget that their healthcare costs are less than half of those in the US!) offer a great example here. Theresa May, the British Prime Minister, announced a plan called “HLE+5” (“HLE” is an abbreviation for “healthy life expectancy”), aiming to extend healthy lifespans of their citizens by 5 years by 2035. It would be great to see a similar initiative in the US
As a part of my interview series with leaders in healthcare, I had the pleasure to interview Sergey Young. Sergey Young is Founder of Longevity Vision Fund, one of the world’s top three investment funds specializing in life extension. Sergey is also on the Innovation Board of the XPRIZE Foundation (which is most known for its Ansari XPRIZE and Google Lunar XPRIZE competitions). Sergey Young is also the Development Sponsor of Longevity XPRIZE, a global initiative to cure aging, and a member of the Financial Advisory Board of the Parliamentary Group on Longevity in the UK, helping to devise the national strategy on longevity. Based between the UK & US, Sergey Young’s mission is to extend healthy lifespans of one billion people around the world on both sides of the Atlantic through impactful socially responsible investments and by setting a personal example — after all, his own goal is to live to 200
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
Sure! My personal story can appear quite mundane at first, but it is one that affects 95 million Americans. It all started with a routine visit to a doctor, where my blood tests — which I neglected for 7 years, thinking I was in perfect health — showed that my cholesterol was very high, which put me at risk of heart disease
The only treatment offered by my doctor at the time was to take statins (cholesterol-reducing drugs), which I would have to take for the rest of my life. I definitely did not want to “live” on a pill forever, so I kept pushing my doctor for alternatives. Eventually, the doctor suggested I try a Mediterranean-style diet (lots of healthy fats, no sugar, etc.), which worked in bringing my cholesterol down to a normal range without any medication. Since then, I developed an interest in health and longevity, and decided to use my investment experience (I had been managing a $2 billion private equity fund for 20 years by that point) to accelerate longevity breakthroughs and to make them more affordable and accessible in general. This is how Longevity Vision Fund was launched and the company mission was shaped
