The Key To Longveity Lies In Nature, Says Dr. Ash Kapoor

In a world where modern medicine increasingly relies on pharmaceuticals and symptom management, Dr. Ash Kapoor offers a radically different approach. This leading UK regenerative-medicine specialist and longevity expert believes the answer to optimum health lies not in adding more interventions, but in returning to nature’s wisdom – and learning to get out of our own way.

Returning to Nature to Boost Longevity

Dr. Ash Kapoor’s insights bridge the gap between cutting-edge longevity science and time-tested healing practices. He makes complex concepts accessible and actionable, offering a roadmap for anyone seeking to live closer to nature and unlock their body’s innate healing potential.

I first met Dr. Kapoor at the Conventional vs. Longevity Medicine conference his organization hosted in London in early 2025. With over 30 years as a medical practitioner – including two decades as a frontline NHS clinician – he brings unique credibility to his revolutionary approach.

“I’m still a GP looking after community hospitals,” he explains.

“I’ve done out-of- hours work and been a GP trainer for about 25 years. It’s given me insight into what’s happening in the medical profession. In the last 10 years of my career, I migrated into longevity, though it wasn’t called that then. It was just trying to do the right thing by the patient.”

This passion led Kapoor to create Levitas One, a practice dedicated to longevity and human optimization. Through Levitas Clinics in London and Guildford, he empowers individuals to take control of their health and wellbeing. His approach simplifies complex research into two actionable principles: “feed the cell” and “protect the cell.”

Kapoor’s work extends far beyond patient care. He trains doctors through the Levitas Academy, is writing a book on his health philosophy, and is developing the Longevity Retreat IAum in India, where patients will experience his comprehensive Nomad Program, starting in 2026. 

Why the current system is failing

Kapoor pulls no punches when discussing the shortcomings of conventional medicine. “The guiding principles are based very much on symptoms,” he explains.

“Patients come with symptoms; doctors are rewarded for making diagnoses, often using tests to reach those diagnoses. More recently, we’re finding that symptom addressing isn’t happening – people are just using diagnostic tests to make diagnoses. We’re testing more, looking at MRIs and CTs, but we’re not really looking at the patient.”

The numbers tell a stark story. The medical system now recognizes 126 000 diseases in the ICD code – a number that continues to grow. “With that number of disorders, our young doctors are trying to work out which one applies to the patient. But we don’t live in silo medicine; we’re one integrated unit. The fact that diseases keep multiplying is causing great discomfort to the profession.”

This disease-labeling approach creates a problematic cascade: patients receive fragmented treatment focused on managing individual diagnoses, usually with pharmaceuticals, rather than addressing root causes or treating the person holistically.

The outcomes reveal the system’s limitations. While conventional medicine excels at acute trauma, operations, and managing sepsis, chronic diseases are increasing. Mental-health issues, autoimmunity in younger populations, polypharmacy-related disorders, and cognitive decline are all rising.

“A third of hospital admissions are due to being on lots of drugs,” Kapoor notes. “It’s not unusual for patients to be on 20 or 30 drugs.”

Perhaps most telling: when Kapoor discusses advance directives with elderly patients,

“95% say they don’t want to be resuscitated. We’ve got to ask ourselves: what have we achieved with all these diseases?”

The longevity alternative: signals, not symptoms

Longevity medicine takes a fundamentally different approach.

“Where conventional medicine sees symptoms, we see signals,” Kapoor explains. “These are your body protesting, saying something: headache, bloating, abdominal pain. All of these are simple signals of something else going on.”

This shift from symptom management to signal interpretation leads naturally to root-cause analysis, although Kapoor acknowledges that the term means different things to different people. In longevity medicine, this means understanding that optimum health starts at the cellular level.

“The basic level is very simple: it’s your DNA cookbook and what that produces. If you get that journey right – the DNA cookbook and the cells it makes – surely everything else should look after itself.”

After decades of putting patients on “more and more drugs, and then more drugs to deal with the side-effects of those drugs”, Kapoor experienced a profound realization. He was caring for patients on 30 medications who were signing forms indicating they didn’t want to be resuscitated if they stopped breathing.

“We’re living in one of the biggest metropolises for healthcare in the world, yet these patients are telling me they don’t want to live anymore. I realized we’d bought years of existence to people’s lives, but we hadn’t bought quality.”

This revelation prompted him to look beyond the developed world’s medical model. In developing countries such as Kenya and India, he observed people living traditional lifestyles: 80-year-olds squatting, eating off the floor, content and interested. “What was clear was that they were joyful. I felt there had to be a different way.”

Getting back to basics: nature vs nurture

Kapoor’s core insight centers on the fundamental mismatch between our genetic programming and modern life.

“Our gene pool grew in the wilderness, in the veld and savannas, for millions of years. We adapted to nature. We haven’t adapted to this 250-year-old metropolis we’re living in. Genes take thousands of years to develop.”

This creates a critical disconnect: our cells are happiest in natural environments, but we aspire to increasingly artificial ones. Modern life – from school pressure to work stress – triggers the same physiological responses our ancestors experienced when facing genuine threats such as saber-toothed tigers.

“Our cells have been put through a normal life in a state of distress. And distress leads to disease. If we get that bit right, we’ll be okay.”

The solution isn’t about returning to primitive living, but understanding and working with our biological design.

“Everything was pointing to this being logical and intuitive, but the results showed more than anything else: people had a better quality of life. They were getting younger in their thought processes, connecting with families and partners. They became joyful individuals wanting to do more.”

The science behind longevity medicine

Despite perceptions, longevity medicine is firmly grounded in science. Kapoor points to over 300 000 research papers examining the journey from DNA to cellular function, summarized in what scientists call the “12 hallmarks of aging”.

These hallmarks fall into three categories:

• Four types of primary damage to your DNA (like dents in a car)
• Four types of bodily responses to that damage (attempts to repair or harmful reactions)
• Four types of expression of accumulated damage and responses

“When I explain this to patients, I use a car analogy: service the car properly, fix the damage, clean the fuel. We all understand the logic with machines, but we’re not applying it to our bodies, because we’ve delegated this to experts.”

THE LEVITAS ONE 8R PLAN

Kapoor has translated his longevity philosophy into a structured, science-informed framework: the Levitas One 8R Plan. This protocol supports physical, mental, and emotional transformation by targeting the core systems of healing and repair.

• Restore – Rebalance and replenish the body’s core systems, including hormones (DHEA, pregnenolone, testosterone/estrogen, progesterone, thyroid and adrenal function), key micronutrients (vitamin D, B12, ferritin, magnesium and zinc), and mitochondrial substrates (CoQ10, NAD and carnitine), to rebuild cellular infrastructure and energy
  “Everything is about energy – good health is right energy, right place. Sub-optimum health is the wrong energy, wrong place,” he says. Just as a car needs fuel, your body requires proper energy distribution. When primary energy sources fail, the body cannibalizes secondary systems – immune function, hormones, the autonomic nervous system – leading to gradual decline, until “things just fall apart.”
• Release – Eliminate accumulated toxins and metabolic waste via gut and liver detoxification (microbiome restoration and liver phase I/II support), fasting-induced autophagy, breathwork, and the removal of physical and emotional stressors, to reduce inflammatory The detox process addresses a critical modern problem: while our ancestors could handle about 200 toxins daily with a 300-toxin reserve capacity, we now encounter 2 million toxins daily with the same 300-toxin processing ability.
• Repair – Rebuild circadian rhythm and optimize vagus-nerve tone through sleep regulation, adaptogens, and nervous-system balancing; repair the gut-brain axis and stabilize mitochondrial function for long-term resilience. The protocol restores gut health with probiotics and peptides, and fixes circadian rhythms with melatonin, ashwagandha, and Seriphos.
• Renew – Regenerate tissues at a cellular level using bioregulator peptides, photobiomodulation, mitochondrial biogenesis protocols, and nutrient infusions to enhance collagen synthesis, immune modulation, and biological-age reversal.
  “We wouldn’t need this conversation about peptides 1 000 years ago. When you made a kill in the jungle, the food contained everything. The organs had it all. Now food is no longer nutrition – we’re well-fed but undernourished.”
• Reframe – Support patients in shifting limiting mindsets and unhelpful behavioral patterns by incorporating reflective practice, resilience training, conscious habit formation, and reconnection to personal values and purpose.
• Reconnect – Re-establish emotional, relational, and environmental harmony by encouraging connection with nature, strengthening social and family bonds, and addressing sexual and spiritual wellbeing as core elements of health.
• Remake – Apply regenerative-aesthetic interventions (PRP, exosomes, polynucleotides, and hair and skin rejuvenation, along with other bio- aesthetic protocols), to ensure the external presentation reflects the internal physiological healing.
• Represent – Integrate all previous stages and sustain the new state of health, becoming an example of “living longer, better”, and inspiring others by embodying regenerative living in everyday life.

Taking things out, rather than adding things in

One of Kapoor’s most counterintuitive insights involves subtraction rather than addition.

“It’s not about adding things in. We start taking things out – bad stress, toxins, alcohol, lower-frequency emotions like guilt that’s been weighing you down. I started seeing that the innate intelligence of the body would take over and do miracles if you just removed the interference.”

This approach challenges both conventional medicine’s additive pharmaceutical model and even many alternative practices that pile on supplements and interventions.

The truth about fasting and emotional eating

Kapoor practices what he preaches, doing three to four-day water fasts monthly, and he’s completed a 30-day water fast.

“It’s absolutely revolutionized my life. My biological age has reversed faster than anything else. Today, I’m much fitter, stronger, and healthier than in my 20s.”

He addresses common fasting concerns directly:

“Patients say, ‘But I eat because I’m emotional,’ or ‘What if I lose muscle?’ We’ve been duped into thinking we must eat constantly.”

The key insight involves understanding stress responses. “What was stress a million years ago? A saber-toothed tiger, finding food, water, shelter – it was physical. Your body only understands physical stress responses.”

Modern emotional stress triggers the same mechanisms, but we respond by consuming comfort foods, rather than engaging in physical activity.

The power of breathwork

Kapoor discovered breathwork through personal experience with Holotropic breathing, which created what he describes as a “paradigm shift”.

“Things got better and better, then that psychedelic moment where the brain felt like it opened up. The energy that came through was immense. It’s hard to explain until you experience it. Yet this was just 30 minutes.”

The effects were profound and lasting:

“I felt at peace for at least two weeks afterward. I communicated better with family and friends, had better perception, and became a responder rather than a reactor.”

This experience convinced him of breathwork’s clinical value.

“Breathwork is legal and free. For Lyme patients, sleep disorders – it’s now part of my treatment plan. Once I’ve restored the physiology, we go into Holotropic breathing.”

Plant medicine and natural healing

Kapoor sees plant medicine as a cornerstone of longevity, emphasizing its historical precedent.

“For thousands of years, it’s been used in almost every culture. They recognized that if you’re stuck physically, psychologically, emotionally, and your rational mind doesn’t make sense or you’re not listening, you’ve got to dig deep.”

Through personal exploration of psychedelic-assisted therapy, he’s witnessed profound healing potential.

An apology to the holistic community

Perhaps most remarkably, Kapoor offers a public acknowledgment of conventional medicine’s blind spots.

“The medical profession owes a huge apology to the holistic community. When patients brought lists of supplements or talked about functional gut health, breathwork, or meditation, it was my ego that cut the conversation down, thinking, ‘This isn’t in NICE guidelines or textbooks.’”

He recognizes that this dismissal stemmed from ignorance, not evidence.

“I was uncomfortable because I was ignorant. These practitioners have been around for millions of years. We need to bring them back to the frontline and into medical schools, to recalibrate the system.”

Take back your power

Kapoor’s ultimate message empowers individuals to reclaim authority over their health.

“I tell patients who come in with ‘white-coat syndrome’ – expecting me to have all the answers – ‘No, listen, I’ll give you options. You have the answer. You’re the doctor. When you get a cut, you do the healing. Doctors can dress wounds, but only you can heal. Take the power back.’”

This philosophy extends beyond healthcare into a complete reimagining of human potential. When we’re optimized, “you think better, have bandwidth, are perceptive, have emotional intelligence, and remain calm. This narrative extends beyond health into a totally different way of living.”

The path forward

Kapoor’s work represents more than medical innovation; it’s a return to human wisdom, combined with scientific understanding. His approach acknowledges that, while we can’t return to our ancestral environment, we can honor our biological design and work with, rather than against, our natural systems.

The choice, as he sees it, is clear: continue down a path of increasing pharmaceutical dependence and declining health quality, or embrace the body’s innate healing wisdom, enhanced by modern scientific understanding.

“We have a co-pilot within us; we just need the confidence to listen. As clinicians, our role isn’t to dictate from the top or prescribe, but to make people aware of the connection, which is so strong.”

For Kapoor, the future of medicine lies not in more complex interventions, but in the elegant simplicity of supporting what our body already knows how to do: heal itself.

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