The longevity gold rush: Inside Utah's booming business of living better, longer

PARK CITY — Logan Jones-Olson and Kristen Roscher never set out to work in wellness. He came from marketing and tech startups, and neither had spent a day in the health care industry.

But in late 2024, the couple opened Upgrade Labs in Park City, a franchise built on the ideas of Dave Asprey, the entrepreneur who coined the term "biohacking," and placed themselves at the front edge of one of the fastest-growing industries in the state.

They are far from alone. In the past five years, physician-led healthspan clinics, adaptive resistance training studios, IV lounges, float centers and hyperbaric oxygen facilities have multiplied from Salt Lake City to Park City. Salt Lake City now hosts its own biohacking expo, and national brands are moving in: Pause Studio, the Los Angeles-born wellness chain, opens its first Utah location in Highland this September.

The bet these businesses are making is simple. Utahns already rank ninth in the nation for life expectancy, hold the lowest smoking rate in the country and live in the state that has topped U.S. News & World Report's Best States ranking three years running. The gamble is that a population this healthy wants to take it further.

Who's actually walking in the door

Biohacking tends to evoke Silicon Valley executives chasing immortality. The clientele in Park City looks different: mostly people in pain, whether from a fall on the ski hill or something they've quietly carried for decades.

"We just let life happen, and all of a sudden 20 years goes by, and we don't remember how good we can feel without that back pain," Jones-Olson says.

Members start with a medical-grade body scan, then work through a personalized protocol that can include AI-driven resistance training, red light therapy, cryotherapy and neurofeedback. The couple has no shortage of stories, like the client with neuropathy who couldn't feel the bottoms of his feet, walked barefoot into his basement after two months of red light therapy, and told his wife the floor felt cold before realizing what he'd just said.

"We have young women coming in solely to use red light therapy as a beauty treatment, and all the way over here we have an 80-year-old man who needs to build muscle," Roscher says. "I could literally pluck anyone off the street and find something that could help them."

The doctors are arriving, too

Dr. Timothy Duerler spent more than two decades in family medicine before launching Ovation Private Health this spring, a Park City concierge practice built around prevention and healthspan rather than sick care. He also owns Utah's two Smart Fit Method training studios.

"I became increasingly frustrated by how often traditional health care is forced to focus on disease after it has already developed," Duerler says. "I wanted to create a practice model with enough time, testing, and continuity to focus not only on lifespan, but on helping patients remain healthy, active and independent for as long as possible."

He is part of a wider migration of physicians into the space. In Salt Lake City, Stanford-trained Dr. Nicholas Kanaan co-founded Peak Healthspan, a longevity clinic pairing advanced diagnostics with dedicated health coaching, and Cenegenics, the national age management group, operates its own Park City location at Kimball Junction.

Duerler's reason for choosing Park City sounds almost identical to Jones-Olsen and Roscher. "People here are not simply interested in living longer," he says. "They want to continue skiing, hiking, cycling, working, traveling and participating fully in their families and community."

A coalition, not a turf war

Competition is coming, but the scene so far behaves more like a network. A Park City health and wellness business group meets monthly, and members routinely send clients to one another for services they don't offer. "More and more are coming in, and it's something we're always watching," Jones-Olson says. On one point, though, his center draws a hard line: "We make zero medical claims."

Where is it all headed? The answer sounds like most young industries: costs come down, access widens, and what starts as a premium niche goes mainstream. In the meantime, Jones-Olson points out that the entry fee is zero. "Go get some sunlight, get some exercise, eat healthy foods. Stop looking at your screen before bed. Those are the basics we always encourage people to start with."

The physician agrees, and offers the skeptics some validation while he's at it. "Healthy skepticism is appropriate, because the longevity field includes both legitimate science and a great deal of marketing," Duerler says. "The most important interventions are not exotic. They are managing blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar, maintaining muscle and aerobic fitness, sleeping well, eating appropriately, avoiding tobacco, and staying socially connected."

In other words: the longevity gold rush may be new, but in Utah, the gold was already in the ground.

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