Dr. Andrea Gartenbach: Precision medicine is the key to a healthy and happy life.

Imagine you are 85 years old. You stand on a mountain peak, take a deep breath of the clear air, and feel awake, strong, and alive.

Aging does not necessarily mean a loss of quality of life – on the contrary: The desire to experience the last years of life consciously, healthily, and fulfilled is more achievable today than ever before. Precision medicine makes it possible: tailored health strategies based on your individual biology. Precision medicine is fundamentally changing how we understand health and aging – away from mere life extension, towards more meaning, vitality, and joy of life.

From symptom control to individualized health management

Traditional medicine has followed a simple scheme for centuries: wait for symptoms to appear, diagnose, treat. For optimal health in old age, this is comparable to a navigation system that only responds when you have already turned into oncoming traffic on the highway.

You don't have to have worked in palliative medicine like I have, to understand the following: When patients present with type 2 diabetes, chronic cardiovascular diseases, or neurodegenerative problems, important biological processes have often been derailed for decades - long before the first noticeable symptoms appear.

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Dr. Andrea Gartenbach: Growing old healthily - This is how prevention works

Longevity expert Dr. Andrea Gartenbach explains which preventive measures each individual can take for a long and healthy life and what role genetic tests play in it

The average man spends the last almost ten years of his life with severe – and preventable – chronic diseases. For the average woman, it is even twelve years. This is the sobering result of an observational study from the year 2024.

However, a meta-analysis in the Journal of Personalized Medicine (2023) with data from over 12,000 patients shows that precision medical approaches reduce hospital stays by 37% and improve healthy life expectancy by an average of 8.3 years compared to conventional treatment methods.

So there is hope. Because health alone is not the end goal. What we really seek are more years full of energy, joy, and meaningfulness. And that's exactly what the next step is about - a new understanding of healthy aging.

"I would hope that health insurance companies recognize that a paradigm shift away from sick care towards actual health care is necessary," said Dr. Gartenbach.

Fullgevity – what does it mean?

"Fullgevity" – a fusion of the words "Full" and "Longevity" – describes this holistic approach: a healthy, fulfilling life with everything that comes with it.

What this means in concrete terms will look different for everyone. X wants to climb a mountain at 75, Y wants to read a good book by a lake with a glass of wine, and Z may want to start a company.

Just as individual as our ideas of a fulfilling life in old age are, so must medicine be. Every person represents a unique biological and psychological system.

A remarkable study by the Weizmann Institute of Science showed, for example, that identical meals can cause completely different blood sugar reactions in different people – depending on their individual gut flora, genetics, and lifestyle.

Precision Medicine and Prevention

While conventional check-ups often only examine standard markers such as LDL cholesterol or blood sugar, precision medicine uses a wide range of cutting-edge diagnostics – from genetic sequencing to comprehensive blood analyses with over 100 biomarkers, microbiome analyses, and AI-supported health analysis. Based on these insights, highly individualized prevention strategies are developed: from personalized nutrition plans to targeted supplementation and optimized sleep, exercise, and stress management protocols.

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Live healthier for longer: A new blood test measures the true age of organs

The latest scientific research allows the determination of the biological age of individual organs. A new test can thus indicate possible diseases and pave the way for targeted preventive medicine.

Our biological age – the aging state of our cells – is not fixed, but surprisingly malleable. This is comparable to a house, whose foundation we cannot move, but whose condition we can significantly influence. This is not science fiction but reality.

It's far from just about disease prevention. It's about vitality, cognitive performance, and emotional resilience. A 2022 study published in Nature Aging showed that targeted epigenetic interventions can not only positively influence biological age – but measurably lead to greater well-being.

© Karolina Grabowska

Precision medicine utilizes a wide range of state-of-the-art diagnostics.

The smartest investment: In the quality of your years of life.

A common objection? "That sounds expensive. And costly." And yes – precision medicine is not a quick fix. It is an investment. In quality of life. In independence. In healthy, not just long years.

Unfortunately, many of these services are not yet covered by health insurance. Would I like health insurers to recognize that a paradigm shift from sick care to actual health care is necessary? Definitely. Preferably yesterday rather than tomorrow.

Especially because it is a smart financial investment in the future. An economic analysis by the Global Longevity Consortium (2024) clearly shows: Every euro invested in preventive precision medical measures saves about 5.2 euros in future treatment costs for chronic diseases in the long term.

Health is wealth

As long as this message has not yet reached everyone, the responsibility lies with us. We have the tools at hand to live not only longer, but above all better, healthier, and happier.

The question is not whether we want to make this investment in our health, but whether we can afford to do without it.

Dr. Andrea Gartenbach is a specialist in internal and functional medicine, an expert in longevity, a founder, speaker, and former competitive athlete. She is at the forefront of a new generation of doctors who have known and practiced traditional medicine from the ground up for years, but have expanded it to include other aspects.

Through a national and international network of outstanding experts, doctors, and scientists in their respective fields, Dr. Gartenbach has access to the latest methods, studies, technologies, and insights that are applied in treating her patients.