*Source: https://www.years.co/en/praevention-vs-longevity* Terminology # Four terms that get muddled. Three of them on purpose. Prevention, preventive medicine, longevity and anti-aging are used synonymously in the market and are not. What each term means, what is evidenced, where biohacking sits — and what we explicitly do not offer. Free intro call Book an appointment - Four terms compared - What is evidenced, what is not - An exclusion list, not a promise - Private practice in Berlin In brief ## The dividing line in four sentences Prevention aims to avert or detect a specific condition early, with guidelines and assessed programmes for it. Preventive medicine is the discipline behind it, with three levels from primary to tertiary prevention. Longevity aims not at one condition but at ageing as the common denominator of several conditions and at the number of healthy years; in clinical application it works with the same factors as prevention, but at the edges with procedures lacking endpoint data. Anti-aging in the market mostly denotes offerings promising to reverse ageing, for which no evidence on patient-relevant endpoints exists in healthy people. Biohacking sits outside medicine: self-experiment without a control group. The fundamentals: Preventive medicine — levels, standard care, limits The comparison ## Term by term. Ordered by evidence, not by popularity. The last column names a concrete example so the difference becomes tangible. Term | Goal | Evidence base | Example | Prevention Established | Avert a specific condition or find it at a symptom-free stage | Guidelines, defined programmes, effect on patient-relevant endpoints assessed | Colonoscopy from 50, blood pressure lowering, smoking cessation, vaccination | Preventive medicine Established | The discipline: three levels from primary to tertiary prevention, plus protection against overtreatment | Established as a discipline. The term is not protected and says nothing about the scope of an offer | Health check-up, screening programmes, rehabilitation after a heart attack | Longevity Mixed | Address ageing as the common denominator of several conditions, increase healthy years | At its core the same factors as prevention, and therefore well evidenced. At the edges, procedures without endpoint data | VO2max training and lipid management (evidenced) alongside epigenetic clocks (research-adjacent) | Anti-aging Weak | Reverse or slow ageing | For the typical offerings there is no evidence on patient-relevant endpoints in healthy people | Infusion therapies, stem cell and exosome offerings, plasma exchange, high-dose preparations | Biohacking Outside medicine | Self-optimisation by self-experiment, mostly without medical supervision | Individual elements well studied, others barely. Without a control group no effect can be inferred | Wearable tracking, cold and heat protocols, fasting protocols, supplement stacks | Prevention Established Goal Avert a specific condition or find it at a symptom-free stage Evidence base Guidelines, defined programmes, effect on patient-relevant endpoints assessed Example Colonoscopy from 50, blood pressure lowering, smoking cessation, vaccination Preventive medicine Established Goal The discipline: three levels from primary to tertiary prevention, plus protection against overtreatment Evidence base Established as a discipline. The term is not protected and says nothing about the scope of an offer Example Health check-up, screening programmes, rehabilitation after a heart attack Longevity Mixed Goal Address ageing as the common denominator of several conditions, increase healthy years Evidence base At its core the same factors as prevention, and therefore well evidenced. At the edges, procedures without endpoint data Example VO2max training and lipid management (evidenced) alongside epigenetic clocks (research-adjacent) Anti-aging Weak Goal Reverse or slow ageing Evidence base For the typical offerings there is no evidence on patient-relevant endpoints in healthy people Example Infusion therapies, stem cell and exosome offerings, plasma exchange, high-dose preparations Biohacking Outside medicine Goal Self-optimisation by self-experiment, mostly without medical supervision Evidence base Individual elements well studied, others barely. Without a control group no effect can be inferred Example Wearable tracking, cold and heat protocols, fasting protocols, supplement stacks Confusing longevity with anti-aging harms the serious part of the field most. It is also why we assign every procedure in our programmes to an evidence tier and name the research-adjacent ones as such. The overlap ## Where all the terms mean the same thing. Before the differences matter comes the shared core. These four factors come first in every serious version of the topic. ### Not smoking ### Aerobic fitness ### Blood pressure and lipids ### Sleep regularity Anyone with something open on these four points gains more from that than from any procedure the terms argue about. That is the uncomfortable punchline of the whole debate — what sits behind the four factors, and in what order they count, is set out on the preventive medicine page. The four factors in detail: Longevity for beginners — what is evidenced and what is overrated At YEARS ## Two layers, clearly separated. We practise preventive medicine within a longevity framing and state where the line runs. The difference from a provider that conflates the two lies not in the offering but in the labelling. Layer 1: guideline- and endpoint-based - — Lipid diagnostics with ApoB and Lp(a), blood pressure, HbA1c and insulin resistance - — Cardiac and vascular ultrasound, ECG, lung function - — Spiroergometry with directly measured VO2max instead of a wearable estimate - — Cancer screening, monogenic genetic findings, pharmacogenetics Layer 2: explicitly research-adjacent - — Whole-body MRI as screening without a specific indication - — Liquid biopsy for multi-cancer detection - — Epigenetic clocks as a longitudinal measure across years - — Microbiome analysis and polygenic risk scores For layer 2 we state that no diagnosis and no treatment follows from it. We use it because the longitudinal data we want to build does not yet exist — not because it is evidenced. This assignment is set out per procedure on our evidence page. The exclusion list ## What we do not offer. More checkable than any promise: the concrete procedures that earn money in this market and that we do not carry. No infusion therapies as anti-aging For NAD, vitamin and build-up infusions there is no evidence on patient-relevant endpoints in healthy people. No stem cell, exosome or plasma exchange offerings Experimental procedures without a robust evidence base for healthy people, some carrying substantial risks. No promise to slow or reverse ageing We can measure, interpret and reduce risks. Nobody can promise to halt ageing. No supplement sales, no commissions Anyone earning from a preparation they recommend has a conflict of interest. We do not take it on. No substitute for established screening Colonoscopy, mammography and skin screening remain independently indicated, even after a complete check-up. No diagnosis from a single value A marker without context is a number. A finding emerges from values, imaging, history and trajectory. No remote diagnosis from wearables Tracker data is a trend signal, not diagnostics. We make no diagnoses from it. No acute and no routine care Where symptoms exist, the work-up belongs in treating care, not in a screening programme. The complete version with sources: Evidence and scientific standards ## Frequently asked questions about the distinction What is the difference between prevention and longevity? + Prevention aims to avert or detect a specific condition early. It has defined targets, guidelines and programmes whose effect on patient-relevant endpoints has been assessed. Longevity aims further: not at one condition but at ageing as the common denominator of several conditions, and at the number of healthy years rather than merely avoiding an event. The overlap is large. What works in prevention works in longevity too: not smoking, aerobic fitness, blood pressure, lipids, sleep. The difference lies at the edges, where longevity uses procedures for which no endpoint data exists. That edge is the source of most mistaken expectations. Is longevity the same as anti-aging? + No, and the confusion harms the serious part of the field most. In the market, anti-aging mostly denotes offerings that promise to reverse or slow ageing: infusion therapies, stem cell and exosome offerings, plasma exchange, high-dose preparations. For none of these is there evidence on patient-relevant endpoints in healthy people. Longevity as a research field studies mechanisms of ageing and, in clinical application, works with the same factors as prevention. We do not offer anti-aging: no infusion therapies, no stem cells, no exosomes, no plasma exchange, and no promise to slow or reverse ageing. And preventive medicine, is that something else again? + Preventive medicine is the medical discipline; prevention is its subject. The discipline covers three levels: primary prevention before the condition, secondary prevention as early detection at a symptom-free stage, tertiary prevention against progression and relapse. Some authors add quaternary prevention, protection against overtreatment. In Germany a substantial part of this is standard care with specifications from the Federal Joint Committee. When a clinic describes itself as preventive, that says nothing yet about the scope of its offer: the term is not protected and ranges from an extended basic check-up to programmes with imaging and sequencing. Which of the two does YEARS do? + Preventive medicine within a longevity framing, and we state where the line between them runs. The core is conventional: lipid diagnostics with ApoB and Lp(a), blood pressure, metabolism, cardiac and vascular ultrasound, spiroergometry with directly measured VO2max, cancer screening. That is guideline-based preventive medicine. Above it sits a second layer that we explicitly label research-adjacent: whole-body MRI as screening, liquid biopsy, epigenetic clocks, microbiome analysis. For that layer we state that no diagnosis and no treatment follows from it. We use it because the longitudinal data we want to build does not yet exist. Where does biohacking sit in this classification? + Outside medicine, and that is a placement rather than a judgement. Biohacking describes self-experiments with wearables, supplements, cold, heat and fasting protocols, mostly without medical supervision and without a control group. Individual elements are well studied, such as endurance training and sleep regularity; others barely at all. The problem is not the experiment but the inference from one’s own course to an effect: without a comparison there is no separating what the protocol did from what would have happened anyway. We sell no supplements and take no commissions, and we make no remote diagnoses from wearable data. How do I recognise a serious provider? + By what it says about its own limits. Five checkable points. First: is evidential weight declared openly per procedure, or is everything sold with equal conviction? Second: is it stated that guideline-based early detection is not replaced? Colonoscopy, mammography and skin screening remain independently indicated. Third: does overdiagnosis come up before the examination or only afterwards? Fourth: is there a personal medical consultation after the report and coordination of onward care? Fifth: are preparations sold from which the provider earns? Anyone who answers all five clearly is more reliable than one with the larger equipment inventory. ## Also of interest Preventive medicine The levels, statutory care, and where screening does harm Precision prevention What helps, what informs, what is open — plus the providers Evidence and standards Three tiers, five claim levels, procedure by procedure Longevity Berlin The YEARS offer: programmes, process, physicians ## We would rather tell you what we cannot do. In a free intro call we clarify what would genuinely change something in your situation — even where the answer is that no clinic is needed for it. Free intro call Book an appointment Medical Disclaimer This information is provided for general education and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Please discuss findings and individual medical decisions with a qualified physician. Content is reviewed periodically against the current state of scientific evidence.