-“Oh man, I am DY-ING for coffee and a cig… Did you save me a doughnut? I’ll just nip out onto the terrace for 5 minutes. Can you check Hansen in Room 351 for me, his saturation is still too low, and I don’t like the sound of Burke’s cough in 358. Tell Jake to wheel her down to radiology, I booked a CT slot for her this morning…”
-“Yeah, sure: will do! You coming to Sarah’s bash tonight? I’m bringing 2 bottles of that amazing rum from my cousin in Antigua. I’m telling you: we are going to get sooo wasted!”
-“Yep ,I’ll try but I may not stay that long. The night was really rough…”
If you happen to be in a healing profession, you will be familiar with that kind of dialogue. If you’re not, you may be a bit shocked.
Because this is the sick medical paradox: you spend your time painstakingly monitoring the health parameters of your patients, but you have no time or energy left to check in with your own body. Indeed, it is difficult to find a lifestyle that is as unhealthy as the one experienced in most clinical settings: long stressful hours, lack of sleep and exercise, junk food and stimulant abuse are the rule rather than the exception.
So, what happens to physicians when they are suddenly on the receiving end of scary test results?
Take German Swiss doctor, Felix Bertram. On a whim, the 49-year-old physician decided to have his biological age tested last year. Then came the earth-shattering result: 74 years old!
Bertram was aghast: was he about to experience his last decade on earth?
Upon further reflexion though, he was not completely taken aback because he knew that he had been burning the candle at both ends. After founding a number of clinics and practices as well as launching his own skincare brand, he readily admits that his daily routine spelt pure stress – including plenty of beer and sleeping pills to unwind at the end of another hectic day.
So, what do doctors do when they are put on the spot like that?
Like any other human beings, they can go into fear, anger or grief mode. Often, it translates as denial: they reject the validity of the test or the test result and brush it off to pursue business as usual. Sometimes, they experience terrifying paralysis: they feel so overwhelmed with the news that they don’t know what to do. So, they do nothing. Or they go into blind activism, frantically clutching at any straw that promises renewed health and longevity.
Not Bertram. After all, this was not his first existential challenge. As a young man he experienced a brutal motorcycle accident that cost him half a leg. Ever since, he has had to adapt to life with a prosthetic limb.
He therefore enrolled the same cool-headedness that guided this initial recovery (and his business endeavours) to assess and transform his lifestyle – not in great leaps and bounds but in small and deliberate steps to ensure sustainable change and… biological age reversal.
18 months later, he is down to 70 years old and as motivated as ever to stay healthy and focused.
So, what is it that fuelled this impressive reversal: new-fangled pills or a tightly synchronised longevity master plan?
No, Felix Bertram doesn’t go for the quick fix because he recognises that his age acceleration was the cumulative result of bad decisions and poor habits over many years. Hence, he knows that rejuvenation will not happen overnight.
Instead, his recipe focuses on the tried and tested lifestyle pillars of movement, sleep, diet and stress management. Movement – and plenty of it – has been his lodestar. Also, he tries to avoid meetings before noon (admittedly a luxury not everyone can afford) but holds a fixed meeting with himself every week (something most of us could do!). This is when he truly gets in touch with himself and reflects on what went well or not so well, and what he would like to change in the coming week.
This is the kind of longevity mentality change we support at epiAge: small but consistent steps for enduring rejuvenation. And we particularly applaud physicians when they take up the challenge of healing themselves. This, after all, is what true role-modelling is all about!
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Sources
Kreisel, Kristina. „Er ist 49, sein Körper 70: Wie Arzt Felix sich wieder radikal verjüngen will“. Fokus, 15.10.2025. Online: https://www.focus.de/gesundheit/er-ist-49-sein-koerper-70-wie-arzt-felix-sich-radikal-wieder-verjuengen-will_d64812b4-f5d9-4861-94fe-96f19101a972.html
Bertram, Felix. Hacking Age. München: Gräfe und Unzer, 2025. Online: https://gu.de/products/81921-hacking-age?srsltid=AfmBOoo0rwsUbXjA7yk9X0Cq7F8M0rkns1_H8_J7z8XSsp8k6-Ai5NY4
Illustration
Karola G. / pexels
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