A lifelong health and fitness buff, businessman Mike Chan has had to redouble his efforts to lead a healthy lifestyle after the birth of his first child when he was 47. He has eventually turned his newfound passion to try to live not only longer, but also to experience life to the fullest and share the possibilities with others through the House of Gaia.
By Alex Y. Vergara
Would you like to live up to 100 years old, even more? Is it even doable? Had you asked these questions a hundred years ago, when people’s global average lifespan was a mere 40 years, you’d probably be ignored or, worse, laughed at and branded as crazy.
Of course, since the beginning of time, not a few people would want to see 100 candles on their birthday cake. But even while people today are living longer, with average lifespans hovering as high as 85 years in some parts of the world, the question remains: Will they be strong and lucid enough to blow and snuff out even just one symbolic birthday candle when the time comes?
Mike Chan, businessman, book author and healthy-aging advocate, believes that breaching the century mark with your mind and body still intact is no longer a pipe dream. On the contrary, he believes, it will soon become a routine occurrence. “Optimizing the aging process by keeping people as healthy as possible for as long as possible,” he says, has now become one of the 53-year-old Chan’s passions in life.
Together with his German consultant, Dr. Evelyne Bischof, an oncologist, internist and advocate of healthy aging as well, Chan is building the House of Gaia in Lipa, Batangas.
A lifelong health and fitness buff, Chan, who married quite late, has had to redouble his efforts to lead a healthy lifestyle, which now includes regular doctor-supervised checkups and monitoring, after witnessing the birth of his first child, Mikhaela Danielle, when he was 47. He and his wife Alyssa has since been blessed with a second child, a newborn baby boy named Aiden Matthew.
“In a way, this whole idea began as a selfish program on my part,” he shares. “Whereas, I wasn’t as mindful with regards to my health before, my goal now is to live another 50 years to see my children grow up and witness many of the milestones in their lives.”
Based on a number of established research, the quality of one’s relationships, more than one’s diet and exercise, also plays an important role in extending both the quality and quantity of one’s stay here on earth, adds Chan. That’s probably why happily married people, on the average, live longer than their single counterparts. The former seem to have more reasons to live for.
“They say that the average lifespan these days is 85,” Chan adds. “It’s actually a bit more complicated than that. If you’re female and college-educated, it tends to be longer. The same thing is true if you have access to modern medicine. I believe it’s actually closer to 90.”
The fact that it is not another “glorified” lifestyle spa with fancy treatments designed to make you look and feel good without really delving deep into your state of health has convinced Bischof, also a sought-after speaker on the science of longevity and healthy aging, to sign up as a consultant. Exclusively open to members only, the House of Gaia, which is situated in the middle of a lush five-hectare property, will be featuring 30 tropical-style villas once the entire complex is finished later this year. “It’s a longevity center and not a spa,” Chan emphasizes.
But members who don’t have the luxury of time can still undergo regular and thorough checkups and monitoring in Metro Manila. Apart from maintaining an office at Uptown Mall in BGC, where it receives new and existing members, the House of Gaia is affiliated with St. Luke’s Medical Center.
The longevity center in Lipa will be a “bonus” that aims to provide members some peace and quiet amidst pristine and verdant surroundings while undergoing all the lab works as well as diagnostic tests, and waiting for their results. Designed to calm the nerves and soothe the senses, the soon-to-rise facility is envisioned as a come-on to make the task at hand — to extend one’s quality of life to the limits – more pleasurable.
Gaia, says Chan, is a goddess in Greek mythology who personifies the earth. “In a nutshell,” he continues, “we will try to optimize the aging process, which, in turn, would allow you to be as healthy as possible for a long as possible. It’s a very complicated process, but part of our services is to provide you with a series of comprehensive diagnostic tests wherein we measure your biological age with different aging clocks.”
Trained healthcare professionals at the House of Gaia will do, among others, a full body MRI, DEXA scan to measure a member’s bone density, muscle mass and all the other relevant factors that might affect a person’s health and quality of life as he or she ages.
“Yes, everything is based on science and Western medicine,” Chan reiterates. “Dr. Eve (Bischof), who, apart from being a seasoned oncologist, is also a foremost specialist in internal medicine, will not work with doctors who are not qualified.”
To Bischof, everything must be based on science and proven and established ways to heal and keep people healthy. To her, everything must also be based on Western medicine or nothing. Everything else, she says, is not as effective and, more likely, a waste of time. So, is the House of Gaia, in its pursuit of extending people’s ages and quality of life, open, even for just a wee bit, to alternative medicines and other unconventional ways of healing and prolonging one’s life?
“No,” Bischof quickly cuts us off. While Chan is open to calling members who seek the House of Gaia’s services as clients, Bischof simply calls them, whether they’re sick or not, “patients.” They do agree on one thing though. The center will be all about extending “healthy longevity.” But it’s not designed as a full-blown medical center. Those who are gravely ill, particularly the terminally sick, should go and seek help from a hospital.
And people shouldn’t expect any huge payback if they abuse themselves and take their health for granted indefinitely. To live to be a healthy, happy centenarian, they should also be disciplined enough on matters concerning their health and put in a great deal of work while they’re still young and strong.
“For sure, people need to play their part,” Chan says.
“One hundred percent,” Bischof chimes in. “Like in oncology, I can diagnose the type and stage of your cancer. I can tell you which is the best chemotherapy for you, but I can’t force the chemo into you. You actually have to allow me. It’s the same when it comes to [healthy] longevity, you have to follow orders and do what’s good for you. I can give you a pill, for example, but if you don’t want to take it, I will not force you by putting the pill into your mouth. If you can’t do this or that, it means you don’t want it.”
In the end, living long and healthy is also a choice.
For inquiries, email at info@houseofgaia.ph or call 0919-0783652
