What Is Longevity Medicine?

By Dr. Kathryn Dundas | Sublime Life

Slow Age with Intention

A buzzword, or the future of health?

Everywhere I look lately, the word longevity is trending. It’s on wellness podcasts, splashed across magazine covers, woven into the latest biohacking fads. Depending on who you ask, longevity medicine is either the future of healthcare—or just another over-hyped buzzword. There’s a lot of noise, and people are right to wonder: what actually is longevity medicine? 

Here’s what gets lost in the noise: longevity medicine isn’t new, and it isn’t about extremes. It’s about the basics done well, consistently, and grounded in science. Nutrition. Hormone balance. Nervous system regulation. Sleep. Movement. Connection.

I smile when people ask me, “So when did you start practicing longevity medicine?”

The truth? I always have.

A rebrand of what we’ve always done

When I started Sublime Life (and even earlier in my Primary MD practice), I called it preventive medicine. Before that, the term “anti-aging medicine” had a short run, but it always felt off-putting to me. Words matter, and fighting against “aging” never felt like the right frame. Aging is natural; the goal is to age well.

Now the world has landed on longevity medicine, which I fully embrace—not because my practice has changed, but because the language finally matches what I’ve been doing for 30 years. The shift is less about a new field emerging and more about a widening lens: from sick-care to healthspan care.

Figure 1. The compression of functional decline through Longevity Medicine.

ADL = Activities of daily living.

The Sublime Life lens: Science with Soul

At Sublime Life, we ground longevity in three pillars: vitality, balance, and connection. I’ve always looked at the whole picture—nutrition, hormones, movement, meditation, recovery. My background as a varsity athlete taught me that performance comes from integration, not single fixes.

And this is where many “longevity hacks” miss the mark. You can supplement yourself to death, but if your nervous system is stuck in fight-or-flight, your body won’t absorb the benefits. I like to say, “presence is our protocol, regulation is our medicine.”

Studies back this up:

• Research on heart rate variability (HRV) shows that nervous system regulation predicts longevity as strongly as cholesterol or blood pressure.

• Meditation and journaling have been shown to calm the amygdala and increase prefrontal cortex control—leading to better stress regulation and healthier aging trajectories.

• Even simple breathing practices lower cortisol, reduce inflammation, and improve cellular repair mechanisms like autophagy.

This is longevity medicine: the union of evidence-based science and embodied presence. This is why our philosophy is what I like to call Science with Soul. 

Yes, we use evidence-based medicine and nutraceuticals. But we anchor them in presence, regulation, and connection.

What to be careful of

1. Snake oil: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Be wary of “miracle cures” not backed by peer-reviewed studies.

2. Lack of practitioner training: A whole generation of doctors received little to no training in hormone therapy, nutrition, or lifestyle medicine (a ripple effect of the WHI study). That gap created space for less-qualified providers to step in. At Sublime, our continuity of practice means decades of experience safely integrating these therapies.

3. Over-biohacking: Gadgets are fun, but they’re not the foundation. Basics—sleep, movement, connection—are always first.

Why presence matters

Longevity medicine isn’t just what you put in your body. It’s how you live in it. Supplements and peptides won’t land if your baseline state is chronic stress. Grounding practices—whether through journaling, equine connection, a walk outside or simply pausing to breathe—make the science work. Your biology shifts. Your body remembers how to thrive.

Practitioner Picks

Treatment: HeartMath Biofeedback — retrain your nervous system into coherence.

Service: Longevity Consult — your personalized blueprint for thriving decades ahead (nutrition, hormones, sleep, movement).

Product: MitoCore — a nutraceutical designed to support mitochondrial function, helping your body’s energy engines fire more efficiently.