🧬🛍 24- Birthday Wishes, Biological Aging Sucks, Longevity is Aspirational, The Plight of Women, DeSci’s Potential
It’s my birthday and all I wish for is for more people to get into healthy longevity. 🧬
👋 Hello, and welcome to Curation for Longevity by Laura Minquini. I am a longevity advocate, entrepreneur and the founder of MYKIGAI.
In this newsletter, we delve into longevity as a field and practice and look at what can help make it the next big consumer health & lifestyle category. 🚀
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On this birthday edition I will be very real and candid: Aging Sucks (biological aging that is) and being a woman is difficult.
And yet, I am more optimistic than ever!
Other subjects:
From fear to aspirational: From aging to longevity 🤩
The best of web3: DeSci (Molecule and VitaDAO) 🔬
Longevity molecules (Longevity ToolKit) 🧬
Aging sucks 🧬🥹
There I said it. No amount of slogans and good vibes can deny the fact that it does.
Biological aging that is. I have nothing against gaining wisdom and experience, all the things that happen with every minute one is alive. Aging is living, but living with diseases which happens with the way we are currently aging, is nothing to celebrate.
While the scientific debate rages on whether we should call it a disease or if aging is damage or evolutionary programming. Or question if it would be philosophically and morally right to stop or reverse this process. In lame terms, neither of these debates matter to most people, they are abstractions to their everyday life.
My friend Jonathan disappeared for months to take care of his father. I saw him only recently when he could sneak in for lunch during his office hours. His social and personal life are on hold for now. His account of the expenses and the perils of taking care of an aging parent is not for the faint of heart. When I told my sister about Jonathan being busy taking care of his dad she asked - “what happened to his dad?” - I reasoned: “Aging happened”. Plain and simple.
The costs, the isolation, and the lack of resources for caregivers add stress to our midlife that will also accelerate our aging. Which is another post in itself.
Parents are not the burden. The burden is that it’s the year 2022 and caring for an aging person is probably worse than in 1922.
We should not feel sorry for ourselves, or be ageist, or become afraid of aging, but no one can convince me that saggy skin, a headache the next day if you have two glasses of wine, or on the more serious side, Alzheimer’s, immobility, incontinence, dementia and everything in between - diseases of aging - are anything to be happy about.
“Time destroys all things” is the theme the film provocateur and master of shock, Gasper Noe, played around his big debut Irréversible. The 2002 Palme d'Or winner is one of the hardest films to watch in the history of cinema.
I thought he had already made the hardest movie to watch - a brutal act of violence towards a woman - but he figured out how to outdo himself when he made a movie about aging. Vortex debuted at festivals in 2021 and is now in cinemas, and it will stay with you because of its poetic depiction of the disintegration of life.
Irréversible stayed in my mind and while I lived in Paris, I was able to recognize that the tension and seediness that is part of the city alongside its glamour and beauty. Vortex will stay with you because of its poetic disintegration of life.
“It is terrifying to think of ourselves befalling such a state one day and to feel so close to it—so terrifyingly personified in Lebrun’s stumbling, stammering Mother—that Vortex could be seen as just as much a horror film as Noé’s other work. It is equally chilling to consider having to watch someone we love wither away in real-time, into a ghost of their former, vibrant self. In this challenging role, the legendary Suspiria director gives an impressive turn in a rare acting appearance—and his first lead acting part whatsoever.” The Guardian
It reminded me of when I used to visit long-term care facilities and once met a woman who reminisced with me about the amazing dance she went to at the end of WW2. In the end only the memories remain (if we are lucky).
It is also interesting to note that the director's recent brain hemorrhage is what led him to this exploration of life, aging, and death.
This all sounds grim, but to me, it is the biggest motivation to continue to push for healthy longevity.
From fear to aspirational: From aging to longevity 🤩
I know the people in the aging field are not going full on the use of “longevity” instead of aging, but they still think of the biotech companies that are trying to figure out rejuvenation as the folly of Silicon Valley. I recently saw an aging influencer, who I respect immensely, do a presentation where he mentions the importance of health innovation but derides the biotech field. I won’t name names because I want to extend an olive branch and say we all want the same things. It’s just the messaging that matters.
And ultimately it is a disservice to all to vilify capital used for things that matter. Better than funding Tinder for dogs - for the record - a startup showing at a tech conference in Toronto did have such a startup.
Getting people into longevity is not an easy task.
Longevity biotech marketing looks either very scientific or medical. Then there are the tag-lines to “end aging”, fight aging”, or that state that “aging is a disease” that turn most people off. The articles that speak of the investments speak of the folly of billionaires. And so on and so forth…I have been advocating for “longevity” as a better way to rebrand “aging” for a while. So much so that a lot of people thought we were a marketing vehicle for brands. LOL, I wish!
I just have experience in storytelling and my years in trend forecasting working for companies like LVMH taught me that ASPIRATION is the best seller, and LIFESTYLE is how you make people want what you offer. That’s why Martha Stewart is my business idol.
When I launched the company making lifestyle cases I understood the importance of brand association and made my target the temple of hype (a decade ago) colette Paris.
Laura Minquini, a Canadian expat who is the brand director for Case Scenario, which produces specialty iPhone shells including the limited-edition 15th-anniversary Colette design as well as one in Pantone-approved Colette Blue, says the store lends an imprimatur that resonates across the style industry. "To be carried at Colette is [to be]part of a very special, trend-forward selection of products," she notes. "[Andelman's] name carries a lot of power." The Globe and Mail
I am seeing the aging space finally getting this. For those who are interested in how we move the needle forward, I also take a couple of hours of my day for chats on this. I am working on a case study that involves looking at the potential of collaborations like Gucci x Oura and can’t wait to bring back my rolodex to all my luxury and design contacts!
Let’s Talk Longevity and book a time! 👉 HERE
Being a woman is difficult 💁♀️
For the amount of execution a woman has to do to be credible, a man would already be perceived as a god.
A young man pitching the same concept as a female founder will get the capital, even if he does not know what a CAC, LTV, or 5 year roadmap is. A woman will instantly be asked this, deliver it, and the likelihood is she will still not get the capital.
Women also get asked “how do you do this?” Or “we love what you do” but let me copy your ideas for free - while men are offered paid consulting gigs or do get credited. I still have to do my post on the WSJ reporter who asked me for brands, intros to users and used my lines, but gallantly left me out of the story… Then the media wonders why people distrust them so much.
That’s why I am always immensely grateful to everyone who values my work with offers of intro to capital, a paid subscription, or pays for my contribution to projects. THANK YOU TO THE FRENS 💙🙏
Some factoids about womanhood:
Women live on average 5 years longer than men and yet these years are usually spent with neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, cardiovascular disease, and osteoporosis. Source
Women also have to work longer as we accumulate almost a million less than men over our lifetime for retirement. Source
Women entrepreneurs and founders also only get 2% of funding capital so projects led by them get less funding or see the light of day. Source
Due to gender biases, research studies don’t include women in the cohorts and grant awards to study women’s health problems are disproportionately smaller.
The news last week on reproductive rights and choice will have an adverse effect on women’s health. As usual, mostly minorities and low income households will be affected the most. Source
And yet as the French women say “Vive la difference!” and I love being a woman. 👸
The Best of Web3: DeSci 🔬🚀
The subject I wrote about above makes me believe the new models to change the game so this is why I am so bullish on web3 and DeSci (Decentralized Science) in particular.
I have seen what is possible to get capital into much needed research with VitaDAO, the collective funding longevity.
On that note about VitaDAO, I also wanted to congratulate Molecule (the open platform connects life science research to funding) for their incredible seed round. The future of DeSci is in good hands with them; the team are some of the best people I have had the pleasure of working with in my longevity career. 🎉
There are a lot of other existing projects in the DeSci space. If you want to learn more please read this recap I wrote on DeSci.Berlin and attend the Twitter Spaces next on Tuesday July 5th at 1 pm EST/ 7 pm CET to hear from a lot of the innovators in the space.
The only caveat is that a lot of those projects are led by men…so I am determined to also make this work to advance women’s health and in particular reproductive health.
If you are interested in joining a community led by women to fund women’s health research. We are in the inception stages but the are looking for the people that want to join our cause. 👉
Reminder that today as usual we published on our Longevity ToolKits section 👉
