For years, wellness culture sold us a neat little myth: longevity is written in your DNA. Spit in a tube, read your report, brace yourself. But as the science evolves, a different truth is taking centre stage—one that feels far less fatalistic and far more hopeful. How you live inside your body matters more than what your genes predict.
“Genetics shows potential, but internal diagnostics show reality,” says Dr Doris Schuscha, senior physician and specialist in functional and integrative medicine at VIVAMAYR, one of the world’s premier health and longevity resorts that’s based in Austria. In plain terms, that reality shows up in everyday things: how you digest your meals, how well you recover from stress, how your nervous system behaves when life gets loud. Or, as Gabriel Wernig, head of sports science at VIVAMAYR, puts it more bluntly: “Ageing doesn’t begin in the joints. It begins in the nervous system and inside the muscle.” Biology reacts instantly. Genes don’t.
And that’s the quiet revolution happening in longevity right now. Research increasingly shows that biological age can move—sometimes noticeably—according to gut health, inflammation, muscle quality, and nervous system balance.
Last month, Mumbai’s Dhun Wellness hosted the two VIVAMAYR experts for a week-long residency, where they shared such learnings and more with the city’s health-conscious. The intention wasn’t to introduce another wellness trend or dramatic reset but to explore something more grounded: what happens when you focus on the body’s mechanics—digestion, recovery, movement, and stress regulation—in a way that actually fits urban life. Appointments were sold out before they landed in the city, an indication maybe of just how popular these conversations are right now.
“What drew me to this collaboration was how naturally our philosophies aligned,” says Dhun founder Mira Kapoor. “Dhun’s focus on deep, targeted healing complements VIVAMAYR’s scientifically grounded approach to gut health and metabolic balance. Together, it reframes wellness not as a passing indulgence but as a structured, enduring practice embedded in modern life.” For Kapoor, that structure matters. “Daily stress mitigation shouldn’t be optional,” she adds. “When you release accumulated tension and support gut health regularly, the body stays in healing mode instead of constantly reacting to damage.”
Why your body knows more than your DNA
Genetic reports are good at telling you what might happen. They’re less useful at telling you what is happening right now. That’s where functional markers come in. According to Dr Schuscha, factors such as digestive efficiency, micronutrient absorption, inflammation levels, and nervous system balance provide a much clearer picture of current ageing patterns. One area she pays close attention to is the small intestine, which plays a surprisingly central role in everything from immunity to hormone regulation and energy production.
“When digestion is compromised, even strong genetics struggle,” she explains. “But when digestion is working well, the body often compensates beautifully—even when there’s a genetic vulnerability.” It’s why two people with similar genetic risk profiles can age in completely different ways.
The subtle habits that quietly age us
Among high-performing urban populations, the same internal patterns appear repeatedly. Detox pathways are overloaded by pollution, alcohol, ultra-processed foods, and chronic low-grade inflammation. Digestive rhythm is disrupted by rushed meals, late dinners, and constant snacking. Nervous systems remain locked in fight-or-flight, rarely entering repair mode. “They show up as bloating, acidity, fatigue, poor sleep or irritability—signals people normalise, even though they are powerful predictors of long-term health,” says Dr Schuscha.
Her approach to longevity is rooted in restoring basic physiological rhythm. One of the most overlooked factors is how we eat. Digestion begins in the nervous system, which means rushed, distracted meals impair absorption before food even reaches the gut. Slow, deliberate chewing signals safety to the body, allowing digestion to function optimally.
Timing matters just as much. Late dinners and irregular meal patterns disrupt the body’s internal digestive clock, forcing digestion to compete with sleep and repair. Earlier, well-spaced meals give the gut time to rest—an essential but often forgotten pillar of metabolic health.
Hydration, too, is about timing rather than volume. Drinking large amounts of liquid with meals dilutes digestive enzymes, reducing nutrient absorption. Spacing fluids away from meals allows digestion to do its job properly.
Underlying all of this is the need to reduce chronic sympathetic dominance. Without moments of calm—through slow eating, breath awareness, or simply leaving space between meals—the body never fully enters repair mode. Longevity, in Dr Schuscha’s view, isn’t about doing more. It’s about removing the friction that prevents the body from repairing itself.
Movement, reimagined
If digestion is one pillar of health span, movement is another. According to Wernig, longevity isn’t built during intense workout windows—it’s built into how the body moves throughout the day. “Most people think movement is about intensity,” he says, “but it depends on how often the body is reminded to move well.” He emphasises restoring baseline mechanics before chasing performance. Posture, breath, and gait matter more than most people realise. Shallow breathing, slumped sitting and restricted hips quietly dysregulate the nervous system, keeping the body in a low-grade stress state. Correcting these patterns helps shift the body into recovery mode.
He also stresses frequent, low-intensity movement over sporadic high-intensity training. Long periods of sitting compress joints, reduce circulation, and impair metabolic signalling. Walking, gentle mobility, and regular position changes keep muscles metabolically active and joints resilient.
Strength remains important, but it should be restorative, not depleting. Controlled resistance work that improves joint stability, balance and coordination protects against injury and age-related muscle loss without overwhelming the nervous system. “The goal,” Wernig says, “is to feel more regulated after movement.”
Perhaps most importantly, he links movement directly to digestion and recovery. Restricted breathing mechanics and poor gait patterns can also impair gut motility and sleep quality, connecting movement dysfunction to issues rarely associated with exercise, such as bloating or fatigue.
Why eating ‘clean’ isn’t enough
Another surprise for many people is that micronutrient deficiencies aren’t always about what’s on your plate. Magnesium, zinc, vitamin D, omega-3s, and B-vitamins—essential for repair and energy—are often low simply because the body isn’t absorbing them well. “You are not what you eat,” Dr Schuscha reminds. “You are what your body can absorb.” Without the raw materials for repair, ageing speeds up quietly, long before anything shows up on a report.
If there’s one system that connects digestion, movement and recovery, it’s the nervous system. When it’s overloaded, the body never fully enters repair mode. This is why practices that once sounded indulgent—slow eating, breathwork, restorative therapies—are now being taken seriously. While genetics set the backdrop, how you digest, how you move, how you recover, how well your nervous system calms down are the quiet decisions shaping health span in real time. And unlike DNA, they’re entirely changeable.
