International College

The Global Wellness Summit in Dubai hit hard—new ideas, new science, new horizons.
This year’s theme: longevity.
Here are the takeaways that actually matter.

1. Health is bigger than healthcare.
   Richard Carmona pushed the core truth: you don’t fix wellbeing inside hospitals. You fix it upstream—prevention, stress, social design, and daily environments.
2. Ancient wisdom still anchors the future.
   Connection, purpose, spirituality, nature, sleep, rituals—these fundamentals have outperformed modern hacks for centuries. The East–West divide is dissolving.
3. Longevity is social, not solo.
   Maggie Chen made the strongest point: relationships might be the most powerful health intervention humans have. Wellness is relational biology.
4. Science and spirituality are converging.
   Anna Bjurstam’s line—“Our souls are starving”—landed powerfully. Emotional, physical, and spiritual wellbeing are inseparable. Meaning is part of the biology.
5. Healthspan beats lifespan every time.
   Living longer doesn’t matter if you’re not living well. The goal is clarity, mobility, vitality, joy, and independence. Sam Nazarian framed it as: lifestyle = a mindset.
6. You are your own gene editor.
   Dr. Leroy Hood: one genome, infinite phenomes. Genes set the baseline, but your daily choices determine expression. Your habits are your operating system.
7. Technology is breaking old limits.
   AI, precision lifestyle tools, organ twins grown from stem cells, regenerative medicine, brain-interface nanotech. Isaac Bentwich joked your liver may text you soon—and it felt plausible.
8. Longevity isn’t the future—it’s here.
   Dr. Mike Roizen asked us to imagine +30 years of life expectancy within 30 years. Considering how fast lifespan doubled in the last century, the runway is real.
9. COVID accelerated the wellness economy.
   The pandemic dip was temporary; the wellness sector is now bigger than pre-COVID and still climbing. Check the GWI report for scale.