Chris, founder of WellnessTravelPRO, interviewed Dr Vicente Mera at SHA Spain in 2024. The full conversation is on YouTube. This is what he took from it.
Dr Vicente Mera is known in Spain as the king of longevity. He leads internal and anti-ageing medicine at SHA Wellness Clinic, and he describes his role simply. He is the conductor of the orchestra, bringing together the doctors, dieticians, trainers and therapists who work on each guest.
I asked him the question I hear from every entrepreneur around me. Working through the night was easy at 30. Why does it get so much harder at 45?
The body changes every seven to ten years
His answer starts with biology. Over seven to ten years, he says, most of the body renews itself. Muscle, bone and skin change completely, and each decade asks us to adapt.
He compares ageing to climbing Everest. Each stage of 1,000 metres can be climbed from the easy side or the hard one. Pick the right side and you reach a valley, where the next stage feels easy. Pick the wrong one and you climb the whole way with difficulty. Most people reach the top either way, because medicine is good. What changes is the quality of the climb.
Four pillars you manage every day
Dr Mera works from seven pillars of health. Four of them are daily habits.
- Nutrition. The right food in the right quantity, for the life you actually lead. Physical work and intellectual work do not call for the same plate.
- Exercise. Cardiovascular and strength, adapted every decade. What worked at 30 will not work at 50.
- Stress management. He asks leaders with 40,000 employees what they do for stress, and the answer is often nothing. Stress itself matters less than resilience. At SHA he leans on yoga, meditation, pranayama, tai chi and breathing, which you can carry on at home.
- Sleep. At least 40 hours a week, ideally 50, and naps count. He sees the cost of less in grey hair, wrinkles and weakness.
He applies the Pareto rule to all of it. A few habits produce most of the result, and he calls them million-dollar tips. During a week at SHA, guests leave with one for each pillar. He is happy if they keep five of the seven.
Three things to test every year
The other three pillars need testing, at least once a year.
Hormones. Testosterone falls from our thirties, and weight, insulin and cortisol follow. For women, he finds the decade from 45 to 55 particularly hard, and he sees menopause arriving earlier than it used to. He treats with bioidentical hormones, at exactly the dose each person needs. In men, he says, the decline is easy to miss because nothing marks it. It shows in strength, stamina and drive as much as in sex life.
Toxins. Some we take knowingly, from cigarettes to the ten tablets some people take each day. Others we do not notice, such as mercury and arsenic in food. SHA tests the blood, urine, stool, skin and hair to find them. He also measures the radiation that frequent flyers accumulate, and here he goes further than most doctors would. When he started practising, he saw one brain tumour a year in his consultations. He now sees one a month, and he points to the research looking at radiation, from flights in particular, as a possible cause. His advice to clients is blunt: flying constantly is nothing to be proud of, so delegate the trips you can.
The microbiota. The gut talks to the brain. Dr Mera puts a tenth of our neurons in the gut, and he links mood, endurance and ageing to it. He adjusts probiotics, prebiotics and postbiotics to each person's age and diet, with supplements where food alone falls short.
Built for 120 years, living about 90
Human cells divide about 60 times before they stop, which matches a lifespan of around 120 years. He tells the story of his electric car, sold with a range of 600 kilometres. It managed 300, at full speed, with two people and three suitcases on board. We are the same. Built for 120 years in perfect conditions, we live around 80% of that.
So he sees little room to add years. The gain is in their quality, and two ages matter most. Reach 50 in good shape and you reach 70 in good shape. Reach 70 with your mind and muscles intact and you reach your nineties without operations, chemotherapy or a bypass.
The decline starts at 25, he says. Until about 45, life flies us first class. Then the crew moves us to business, and a decade later to economy. His advice is to be at your best at every age, without trying to be 40 at 50.
The grip test
Then he tested me. Each hand should grip half your body weight, because that is what holds you if you fall. Without it, the impact goes to the bones, and a broken hip later in life can change everything.
At 68 kilos I needed about 34. I squeezed 41. Dr Mera, 20 years older than me, squeezed 54. He is not a bodybuilder. He does what he calls snack exercise: a few squats between two consultations, push-ups or pull-ups between two problems, every day, for years. The point, he told me, is that he started at my age.
Regeneration with plasma
He also showed me a newer treatment, brought from Germany. It uses plasma, the fourth state of matter, to realign the body's electromagnetic field. In 2024 SHA ran it in sessions of one hour, usually in a series of five, for muscle, liver and skin, and for slow-healing wounds in people with diabetes. It is not suitable for people with a pacemaker.
What struck me was less the machine than the openness behind it. SHA is willing to consider many approaches and to bring them into one programme, which says a lot about how broadly it thinks about health and medicine. Ask us whether this treatment is still offered when you book.
If you keep one habit
When I asked for the single habit with the biggest effect, he did not hesitate. Avoid sugar, and replace it with protein and complex carbohydrates.
And eat miso soup, every day. He credits it with four effects: it curbs appetite, supports detox, feeds the gut with probiotics and helps regeneration. Like a shower, he said, it works only if you take it daily. Breakfast at SHA starts with it.
Where to start
Advanced Longevity is the most medical programme at SHA Spain, and the closest to what Dr Mera describes. The shortest stay with the entry room comes to this: From €7,400 for 4 nights. For a gentler first stay, read my review of Rebalance & Energize. Our SHA prices page sets out every programme and room.
If you would like to know which SHA programme fits where you are in life, ask us. We can tell you whether to start now, and from which side of the mountain.
