Kicking off Dubai Fitness Challenge this month, eager-eyed cyclists in the Dubai Ride spied the first indication that the city's wellness industry is about to welcome a new player to the 'live longer, live better' game. Flags heralding The Ultimate Human Wellness Clinic lined Sheikh Zayed Road, while The Ultimate Human himself - American longevity guru and human biologist Gary Brecka, enthusiastically joined the 40,000 Dubaians riding along the city's main artery as the sun rose over the Museum of the Future.

It is Dubai's - and the wider GGC's - future that Brecka is determined to make more healthy. Last month, Brecka headlined the Middle East's first longevity and biohacking conference, the Zenos Health Summit, in Saudi Arabia, where he discussed cellular ageing and predictive health biomarkers among a lineup of global health experts, including number one New York Times bestselling author Dr Mark Hyman, women's ageing expert Dr Vonda Wright, and the founder of Saudi Arabia's International Medical Centre, Dr Walid Fitaihi. From Riyadh, he headed to the UAE, where the final stages are underway to unveil The Ultimate Human clinic and an at-home gene testing system.

Before teaching the world to live well, Brecka spent 22 years as a mortality researcher for large life insurance, a career that required him to predict, to the month, when someone would die. Looking back, he describes the role, which prevented any contact with the people whose health data he was evaluating, as,“sitting behind a thick glass wall just watching blind people walk into traffic”. He left 11 years ago.“I said, 'Why am I going to spend the rest of my life predicting death when I have so much knowledge on how to help people live healthier, happier, longer, more fulfilling lives?” Over the next few months, Brecka will be bringing that knowledge to Dubai. Teasing the launch, an Ultimate Human longevity space at the Kite Beach sports village in Dubai, erected for Dubai Fitness Challenge this month, offers a ninja-style assault course, high intensity workouts and education on the longevity benefits of sunlight, breathwork, wholefood nutrition, and a mirror that shows what you'd look like 10 kilos lighter. It's a taster of what is to come when Brecka's Ultimate Human functional medicine clinic opens in early 2026. The space has broken ground and is currently under construction. But before it opens, Brecka hopes to start offering The Ultimate Human Wellness at-home gene testing and supplements programme across the UAE. Recently launched in the UK, where the one-time genetic test costs £499 (Dh2,410) and supplements range from £21.42 (Dh103) to £60.48 (Dh292), Brecka says that he has regulatory approval for the tests in the UAE and that distribution will begin shortly.

With longevity and wellness concepts anchoring a plethora of real estate developments - from Majid Al Futtaim's Maravelle in Ghaf Woods, billed as Dubai's first ultra-premium wellness destination, to Akala by Arada, a 'precision wellness destination' under construction in DIFC - longevity clinics are set to become a cornerstone of UAE living.

So, what sets Brecka's method apart, and can he help build a city of 'ultimate humans'?“You have to start with the basics,” the 55-year-old says, in an exclusive interview with KT LUXE.“You can always try hyperbaric recovery, stem cells, exosomes, red light therapy, cold plunging, dry sauna. These things are amazing for you, but they will not fulfil the deficiency. The search for the deficiency is where we all need to begin. Because once the body has the raw material it needs to do its job. That's when magic happens, right?”

SUPPLEMENT BECAUSE SCIENCE, NOT TIKTOK, SAYS SO

Searching for the deficiency: The Ultimate Human Wellness gene test is an at-home test which, in scientific parlance, analyses methylation pathways. To those of us without a background in biology, that means it reveals how the body manages nutrients, energy and ageing markers. There is no manual for the human body, but our DNA contains clues about how our bodies work.

By testing the 12 most influential genes that impact how our bodies process nutrients and protect our health, The Ultimate Human programme can, Brecka says, offer personalised supplement suggestions to support the foundation of cellular health.“The way that the body methylates - gets rid of cellular waste - is all dependent on whether or not you have that raw material, that nutrient that your body needs to function properly,” Brecka explains.“If you've never introduced me to a person, but you showed me those 12 genes, I will tell you how they wake up in the morning, how they go to bed at night, what they ruminate on every day, whether or not the soles of their feet hurt when they get out of bed in the morning to walk to the bathroom for the first time. Whether or not they wake up sore and achy in the morning, like they had a workout the night before, when they haven't. Whether they have brain fog. If libido has left the building or not.”

“We develop our personality around our genes,” Brecka posits that we have learned to live with sub-optimal physical performance, accepting it as the way we're made. Anxiety, gastrointestinal issues, water retention, sleep disruption, memory issues, symptoms that persist despite blood tests showing nothing amiss.“These are things that people have just learned to accept as a consequence of ageing. And they're not a consequence of ageing. They are a consequence of missing raw material. When you put that raw material back in the human body - maybe it's methylfolate, maybe it's methylcobalamin, maybe it's trimethylglycine - that's when magic happens,” Brecka says.“People learn to deal with brain fog. They learn to deal with lifetimes of poor sleep. These are all related to nutrient deficiencies, so that gene test will map out exactly what you can convert and what you can't,” he says. The test is carried out by a cheek swab at home, sent to a lab in Dubai (genetic material is not legally allowed to leave the UAE), and the results delivered back electronically. From there,“You take the converted form of the deficient nutrient for the rest of your life. Very simple. One multivitamin that's designed for you,” he says.“Most of us are just wandering around supplementing for the sake of supplements, because a TikTok Video told us it was great. The truth is, nothing else matters if you miss the deficiency in the human body.”

WOMEN HAVE BEEN MISINFORMED

Specifically, women in their mid-30s and upwards:“There's not a large sector that caters to women at that age,” Brecka says,“but this is where you really need the guidance, because hormone imbalances that start with perimenopause and pre-menopause begin in your late 30s. By the time you're in your mid to late 40s, you're fully premenopausal, maybe even going into menopause. And women don't realise that the reason for the brain fog, the irregular moods, the increase in anxiety, the water retention, the reduced libido appearing, is that the hormone disruption starts earlier than you think.” The now widely debunked 2002 Women's Health Initiative study, which raised concerns around hormone replacement therapy (HRT), saw about half of women at the time stop hormone treatment due to concerns over increased risk of breast cancer, stroke and heart disease. While the study has subsequently been shown to be flawed, a legacy of uncertainty surrounding HRT remains.“Women are afraid of hormone therapy. These things set, they grow roots and they take a long time to unlearn,” Brecka says.

Don't be afraid of hormone replacement therapy as a panacea to solve a myriad of problems: Brecka advises women to investigate hormone therapy,“earlier than you would think.” He recommends a DUTCH (Dried Urine Test for Comprehensive Hormones) test to establish the ratio of hormones to one another. Oestrogen alone, he says, regulates mood, so when levels plunge, the effects can be severe.“It's responsible for emotion, it regulates sleep. It cleanses the brain. Every cell in the body has a receptor for oestrogen. So, brain fog, weight gain, water retention, poor concentration, no response to exercise, joint pain. All of these things start to creep in.”

The first 90 minutes of the day are for you:“Women have a tendency to develop 'caregiver syndrome', putting the needs of everybody else before the needs of themselves. The reason why 82 per cent of all autoimmune disease is in females is because they take self-care as being selfish.” The conflict between putting children, spouse, co-workers first on one hand, and yet aspiring to look better, to feel better, to perform better on the other, causes internal havoc.“What this does is it slowly breaks the immune system down. Women suffer from something called immune fatigue; a slow progressive overwhelm of the immune system. The first thing women need to do is be given a license that self-care is not selfish. And I don't mean beauty care. I'm not talking about your hair, makeup; I'm talking about real self-care. The first 90 minutes of every day belongs only to you. And you're very selfish about that 90 minutes so that you can be selfless with the rest of your day. It's a mentality shift. Self-care needs to be non-negotiable.”

THERE IS NO MIRACLE CURE, BUT IF THERE WERE, IT MIGHT JUST BE HYDROGEN

A miracle molecule in the human body:“Hydrogen, which is the smallest, lightest element in the universe, which is also 10 per cent of your body weight, is a miracle molecule in the human body. It is the only truly selective antioxidant that I'm aware of,” Brecka says. By 'selective antioxidant' Brecka means that hydrogen is understood to supress oxidation - the rusting of cells - down to neutrality, not eliminate the process entirely. He explains,“Without oxidation, none of us would actually be alive.” We need some oxidation, just not so much oxidative stress that causes ageing trauma.“What if there was a molecule that when you put it into the body was a selective antioxidant? It only suppressed oxidation down to neutrality and raised inflammation if it needed to neutrality. What if it targeted homeostasis? That's what hydrogen does. It uses the intelligence inside of your cell to restore perfect balance.” Brecka himself drinks water fortified with hydrogen via a tablet, which he also adds to the ice baths he posts on his social media.“It is an elemental magnesium tablet. You drop it into water, it effervesces into pure hydrogen gas. There is not a professional athlete I work with in the world that is not drinking hydrogen water on a regular basis,” he says.

With Dubai fast becoming the ultimate city in the world, if Brecka has his way, the emirate will soon be populated with Ultimate Humans. Will you be joining them?

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