From Wellness to Medicine: Geroscience, Biomarkers and the Translational Emergence of Longevity Medicine

Longevity medicine has emerged at the intersection of geroscience, biomarker science, and preventive healthcare, yet its origins and relationship to conventional medicine remain incompletely understood. This article examines how advances in ageing biology transformed ageing from an inevitable consequence of life into a measurable and potentially modifiable determinant of health. Historically, medicine has focused on the diagnosis and treatment of established disease, limiting its ability to address gradual biological decline before pathology develops. Geroscience challenged this paradigm by identifying shared biological mechanisms that contribute to ageing and multiple chronic diseases, while advances in biomarker science enabled aging-related processes to be quantified in living humans. However, the ability to measure ageing biology developed more rapidly than the clinical frameworks required to act upon it. We argue that the emergence of longevity-focused services outside traditional healthcare systems represents a pre-institutional translational phase in the evolution of longevity medicine. The integration of ageing biology into clinical practice will require new clinical, regulatory, and educational frameworks to support healthspan-focused preventive care.