Operator Notes on Making Longevity Real
Writing this from Beijing after HYROX. A short reflection on how longevity becomes real — through diagnostics, performance & recovery, and even skin. The three ways people actually experience it.
👋🏼 Hi, I’m Shantanu — I run Xandro Lab, a longevity brand in Singapore. Every Sunday I write a note — reflections from building, traveling, and figuring out the messy world of health, performance, and aging.
I’m writing this week’s note from Beijing. It’s my first time here, and I came for HYROX — a race that combines running with functional fitness. We did a mixed doubles format, and our little crew from Singapore showed up strong. Seven of us, dripping sweat, grinding through an 8K run and 8 stations — sled pushes, wall balls, burpees. Treacherous while you’re in it, but at the end, you walk away with this odd mix of exhaustion and achievement.
And Beijing? I didn’t know what to expect. I thought it would be crowded, overwhelming, hyper-tech. But it feels surprisingly open, spacious, even homely. The malls are confusing to navigate, but the people are warm — every time I got stuck, someone went out of their way to help me. Architecturally, parts of it remind me of Japan (a bit of Sapporo) and Seoul, but with its own character. This trip was a test run — I’ll be spending more time in China soon, and this was the start of that journey.
Now, onto this week’s reflection. A shorter one, but an important one.
In this note:
Why longevity feels abstract
Diagnostics & bioinformatics: measuring what matters
Performance & recovery: making it felt
Skin: the visible marker
Closing notes from Beijing
1. Why Longevity Feels Abstract
When we started building Xandro, the word “longevity” felt powerful. Live longer. Extend healthspan. Push back aging.
But most people don’t connect with that. Not really!
A 30-year-old doesn’t worry about healthspan. They’re still enjoying life — five hours of sleep, alcohol, parties, overtraining, no recovery.
A 40-year-old doesn’t think in decades. They believe they’re still doing fine. (Arguably the most cynical age group.)
At 50, “20 years from now” still feels distant, though curiosity about interventions begins.
The fact is: people live in days, not decades.
And when you ask someone to take a supplement today for a benefit they might see in 15–20 years, it feels disconnected. Too good to be true. And supplements alone are not the answer anyway.
So the real question becomes: How do you make longevity real?
For anyone building in longevity or preventative health, this question is the crux.
2. Diagnostics & Bioinformatics: Measuring What Matters
One path is diagnostics. Blood tests, stool tests, saliva kits, wearables, patches. They give you data points — inflammation markers, nutrient levels, recovery metrics.
But diagnostics today still look like the image above: lab coats, electrodes, VO₂ masks, computers crunching signals in the background. It’s accurate, but it’s not consumer-friendly. For the average person, this setup is intimidating, expensive, and completely disconnected from daily life.
And even when you do get results, the real challenge is bioinformatics — making sense of the data.
What do you do if your test shows low magnesium? High inflammation? An epigenetic age five years older than your chronological one?
This is where most consumers get lost. Do you change your diet? Take supplements? Visit a doctor? Adjust your training? Start medication?
The truth is, the answer is usually a mix. But without clear interpretation, the data becomes noise.
That’s why the future of diagnostics has to move in two directions at once:
From lab-grade to consumer-friendly — imagine patches or biomarker devices that measure continuously and non-invasively, just like wearables do for steps and heart rate today.
From raw data to real guidance — turning “IL-6 elevated” into “your recovery is compromised, take a rest day” or “adjust your nutrition.”
Measuring is one part. Helping people act on the numbers is the real unlock.
3. Performance & Recovery: Making It Felt
This is where we leaned in as a brand.
Performance and recovery are the bridge between the abstract promise of healthspan and the lived reality of today.
People believe what they can feel now, not what you tell them might come decades later. They feel:
Muscle strength and endurance
Recovery speed after training
Better sleep and more energy
Sharper memory and focus
Or in simpler terms: cramps after a run, energy in the afternoon, whether they wake up fresh, how fast they can fall asleep, whether they can keep up with their kids.
These are the daily wins that compound into longevity.
That’s why we design protocols that don’t just talk about “longer life,” but deliver immediate, felt benefits.
And muscle, in particular, is the clearest marker. Strong muscle = better recovery, better protection as you age. It’s a language people understand intuitively.
Performance also has some of the most widely recognized biomarkers: VO₂ max, HRV, resting heart rate, speed. Anyone who does HYROX (or crossfit, marathons and so on) knows exactly what I mean — your performance and recovery show up in the speed you move, your ability to catch your breath between stations, how fast you cramp, how long it takes to bounce back the next day.
4. Skin: The Visible Marker
Then there’s skin. The most visible organ, and the one most people associate with aging.
That’s why we’re working on Protocol X Serum (shhhhh 🤫). Skin lets you show longevity in action. And many of the same ingredients that work when ingested can also deliver benefits topically.
The tricky part: most visible transformations happen in aesthetic clinics, through procedures and treatments. That’s a different world, with different regulations, expectations, and costs.
So as a brand, we ask ourselves: what role should we play here? How much can we do with the cash, talent, and expertise we have? Where should we add value, and where should we partner?
It’s a space we’ll continue to explore. And it extends beyond skincare alone — new categories like “beauty devices” (Current Body, for example) are showing promise too.
5. Closing Notes from Beijing
For me, longevity has always been the north star. But the way to make it real is through three layers:
Measure it (diagnostics + bioinformatics)
Feel it (performance & recovery)
See it (skin)
That’s the path we’re building at Xandro.
And as I write this from Beijing, reflecting on an 8K run and 8 brutal HYROX stations, it feels fitting. Because in the middle of a race like that, no one is thinking about “20 years from now.” You’re thinking: Can I get through this station? Can I recover? Can I keep going?
Performance and recovery are what make you believe in longevity. They’re what carry you from today into tomorrow.
This is just the start of a long journey — for me in China, and for us as a brand.
Closing
Thanks for reading. These weekly notes are my way of making sense of this longevity journey, and I’m glad you’re along for it.
If you enjoyed this piece, I’d love for you to share it with a friend. As a small thank you — if you refer someone, I’ll give one person of your choice a free lifetime subscription. Just let me know who you’ve brought along, and I’ll set it up.
See you next Sunday. Cheers.