Six hundred hopeful visitors attended the “Unlock Longevitiy” conference hosted by Eterna Health in Austin, Texas last weekend.  I have attended an impossibly unknown number of seminars on countless topics over my life, most leaving you with your pockets emptier and with few original learnings to take away. Not this one. Meaningful, insightful and future-forward thinking would be an understatement of this jam-packed event.

I assumed my 70+ year-old body would be amidst a sea of senior citizens gracing the event looking for the magic elixir of life. I was surprised at the demographic diversity from late teens to mid 90s in the audience, who all came with one quest in mind: to learn how to live a better, healthier and longer life.

I had the pleasure of meeting the event organizer Dr. Adeel Kahn several years ago at his clinic in Toronto, when an orthopedic surgeon was quick to suggest opening my damaged shoulder following a traumatic injury I had received years earlier in a plane crash in Canada’s Arctic. My surgeon had advocated cutting matter and inserting three or four screws into my damaged shoulder. A difficult procedure with varying outcomes and with the likelihood of brutal and uncertain recovery times.

Dr. Kahn made it clear to me there were options. “You’re an excellent candidate for PRP (Platelet Rich Plasma) therapy.  There’s a great chance you’ll avoid conventional surgery with this and have minimal recovery time,” noted Kahn. I was more than a little skeptical but elected to give it a try, in an effort to avoid the scalpel at all costs.  A quick ultrasound at his office showed a sizeable tear and large opening in the largest of four major shoulder tendons, the supraspinatus. “We’ll draw some of your blood, put it in a high-speed centrifuge, then extract the platelets, mix them into your plasma liquid base, extract and add in some of your body fat to give it a surface to bond to”.

It sounded like a procedure out of a Star Trek episode with Doctor “Bones” McCoy, but I was up for the ride. Two weeks later, I found myself in his operating theatre in Toronto’s Yorkville area, laying on my back as an ultrasound technician scanned the site to assist Kahn in guiding his oversized needle to the ultimate destination of the injection site. Painful to be certain, however relatively short in duration, the whole procedure was less than 20 minutes.

Watching the monitor, I was able to observe this magical cocktail built from my body and enhanced by technology, slowly infuse the opening of the tear and begin to fill it. “Now we wait and let mother nature do her job. Over time the tissue will begin to regenerate with the likelihood of near to full mobility back in your shoulder,” he said. True to his words, within two weeks I had significant mobility back in my shoulder and within a month I was back in the gym. I quickly became a believer in this man and his magic.

Since that day almost 10 years ago, Kahn has grown to become one of the world leaders in regenerative medicine, focusing on stem cell research and exploring unique ways to deal with everything from PTSD and other neurological disorders, to cancer treatment and gut-health enhancement. Most importantly, he has steadfastly committed to a lifetime of focusing on anti-aging and longevity.

So it was without hesitation that I accepted his invitation to the “Unlock Longevity” conference in Austin, Texas. Lured by my interest in hearing from Kahn himself and intrigued by an impressive all-star roster of leading professional, scientists  and speakers in the area of longevity, I eagerly boarded my plane from Toronto, en route to discover the fountain of youth.

In his opening remarks, Kahn stated: “There is a need for an alternative to help people live happier, healthier, longer lives. This is the world of regenerative medicine and longevity.”

This new wave of trailblazers focusing on longevity are new, proactive thinkers: they focus on our well-being, quality of life, vitality and essential youthfulness as ways to provide a gateway to a continual vibrant life. They understand life choices that could add years, if not decades, to your joyful existence on earth. It was noted in the seminar that the body is biologically built to enjoy over 120 years of life. The choices we make in our life define where our end point is in that continuum.

At the “Unlock Longevity” conference, keynote speaker Ben Greenfield, in a high energy and exhilarating presentation, tabled his principles for Life Optimization, many of which can be found on his web site.

1. Movement/Exercise – Building muscle mass as a defence against aging.
2. Fuel – Feeding your body for longevity and ultimate wellness.
3. Stress management – Everything from extreme heat to ice baths, massage therapy and meditation…inspire yourself.
4. Fasting – The ability to strengthen your brain while cleaning your body and soul.
5. Supplementation – Putting back in what mother nature intended but modern living deprives us of, with everything from gut health to mental health.
6. Spirit – Prayer, breathwork and human connectivity.

I was left with the underlying thought that your body/mind connection have the power to change anything. Brilliant building blocks for healthy living. There’s no magic bullet, he noted. It all takes focus, commitment and hard work. I’m paraphrasing, but he noted the rewards you reap are counted in years and not days of healthful living.

Ben Greenfield & Garrett Salpeter, author of the Neufit method.

Tom Bilyeu framed up the day with an equally powerful but simplistic narrative. “You are trapped in a biological experience”. To live longer you must make tough decisions, and once you make your choice, whatever you vision and dream can be your outcome. You must continually say to yourself: “I only do that which moves me towards my goal.” It’s a truly simplistic thought but a course fraught with mine fields of distractors and naysayers along the way to pull you off course. But most importantly, he noted: “The battle for your mind will define the outcome”.

There was a thread of commonality: “believe it and it will be.” Negative thinking was noticeably absent at the conference. No talk of gloom and doom, but rather a room full of wide-eyed hopefuls that viewed the cup as half-full. The room overflowed with a sense of goodness and light: that life was essential and to be lived to its fullest, with acknowledgement that to get there, there would be difficult choices.

Esther Hicks in her marvelous book “The Law of Attraction” talks to the principles of attraction, how believing and focusing on what you desire rather than what could go wrong, will bring your dreams to fruition. What outcome in life do you want? What results do you want? What feeling do you want? She rightly points out that if you focus on negativity then so it will be, but if you focus on attracting positivity so it will be. Simple principles to live your life by that underpinned the collective mindset of those in the room. There was great talk of the innovation in creating bio-identical peptides and the regenerative and curative effect on tissue thanks to cellular reconstruction via injectable DNA.

Thomas is treated for acute shoulder pain by electric stimulation therapy and experiencing Protein folding enhancement treatments.

In his closing comments, with a tear in his eye, Kahn called his wife and young daughter to the stage. “Life will get worse before it gets better for all of us unless we adopt and create fundamental change. We need a better path to a better future. I’m doing this for my daughter, so she has a brighter future. I’m doing this for all of you. I’m moving to Dubai to get out from working under the burden of bureaucracy and over-regulation so I can pursue my science and pursue my dream of creating a better world where all of us can live happier, healthier and longer lives”. Unsurprisingly the room erupted in a standing ovation. Every now and then you are in the presence of greatness. This was one of those moments I will forever cherish.

To be certain, this writer lives his life, has gone to the well and will continue to grow with and be a believer in regenerative medicine.

Amino acid rich coffee and hyper-ozonated water from the event sponsors.

Photos courtesy of Thomas Pigeon & Unsplash.

Disclaimer: please note that this article is for informational purposes only and does not substitute professional medical advice or consultations with healthcare professionals.