Hi Reader,

Longevity is evolving.

Apple just dropped a bunch of new devices, and said the word "longevity" out loud. That's both exciting and scary—the adolescent consumer wearables market a la Oura, Whoop, Polar, Ultrahuman can expect Goliath to eat up more and more of their share.

In other spheres, we have billionaires fascinated with longevity (what else is new?), space aging, and heat waves worsening overall health.

Let's dive in.

The Money Gets Serious

The Next Brain Reset Pill

Sam Altman’s Retro Biosciences is gearing up for its first human tests of a molecule called RTR242, a drug designed to revive autophagy — the brain’s natural “cleanup” process — with hopes of pushing back Alzheimer’s-type damage.
What’s new:

• The trial is set in Australia and is slated to begin dosing by end of 2025.
• The goal is not just slowing decline, but reversing toxic protein buildup inside neurons.
• Meanwhile Retro has also licensed a breakthrough in blood stem cell tech from MCRI (Melbourne) to build better matched, personalized therapies for blood disorders including leukemia.

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The $5 Billion Club + $101 Million Validation

This bit is for the investors in the crowd. Peter Thiel, Sam Altman, and friends have poured over $5 billion into longevity startups in recent years. Sovereign wealth funds and family offices are now outspending traditional VCs. If there's one thing we can be sure of, billionaires won't tire of the quest for immortality.

Meanwhile, the XPRIZE Healthspan competition just launched with $101 million up for grabs, aiming to rejuvenate muscles, cognition, and immunity in people aged 50-80. Teams are using stem cell therapies, immunotherapy, and personalized interventions.

Why this matters: This marks a shift: longevity research moving from theory / animal models into human trials aimed at aggressive rejuvenation. Whereas longevity investments have fallen flat in the past, we're facing an AI-enabled boost to the field. I expect it'll be another decade before we have commercially available solutions, but that's not forever...

Meanwhile, focus on the proven foundations. To live to see the day these drugs are available, it's still most important to take care of preventive screenings, avoid destructive habits/toxins, sleep well, keep moving, and eat whole foods.

Your Moves in Longevity Today

Apple Makes Your Wrist AND Ears a Health Lab

Yesterday's Apple event wasn't really about phones (who cares—where's my foldable phone?). It was about turning 2 billion wrists into continuous health monitors.

What's new:

• Apple Watch Series 11 uses machine learning to detect hypertension (high blood pressure) by analyzing how your blood vessels respond to heartbeats (cue WHOOP battle with the FDA)
• New sleep score helps you understand rest quality (finally catching up to Oura)
• Sleep apnea testing at home is solved as well
• Airpods Pro 3 ironically allows you to leave behind your Apple Watch at the gym—now you can use them for biohacker level heart rate, HRV insights

Why this matters: Apple entering longevity out loud is the biggest surprise to me. This acknowledgement of an emerging field validates it in a big way. And while I feel bad for the little guys (I think it's just a matter of time before they'll eat them alive), I'm betting on Apple's health play being one of the most significant in history.

Your takeaway: If you've been on the fence about wearables, this is your moment. I'm eyeing not a new phone this year, but maybe both new Airpods and Watch...

One Minute a Day Can Move the Needle

A new study out (in preprint) found that just ~1 minute of vigorous physical movement daily — think stair climbing, brisk effort, maybe carrying heavy grocery bags — is associated with a ~38% lower risk of premature death over six years among people who otherwise do no structured exercise.

What’s new:

• Sample: ~3,300 U.S. adults, average age ~51, who don’t engage in regular formal exercise.
• The activity is unstructured, spontaneous (“vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity” or VILPA) — not gym sessions, but brief bursts like stairs, errands, or heavy lifts in daily life.
• More frequent short bursts (≈5 per day) showed even stronger benefit; after a point (about 8) the returns diminish.

Why this matters:

• It lowers the barrier for people who feel they can’t “exercise” formally: one minute is doable.
• Public health guidelines might shift more toward incidental movement vs just structured exercise.
• For longevity, this reinforces that consistency + intensity, even in tiny doses, can have outsized effects.

Your takeaway:
​If you’ve been thinking “I don’t have time for the gym,” this is your permission slip to rethink “exercise.” Staircases, bursts of speed, carrying stuff — tiny windows of effort — may add up. Try to build a few moments of vigorous movement into your day and see if you can scale up.

Hillary Lin, MD

Co-Founder & CEO

​Care Core​

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