Practice-ready takeaways for advancing longevity-focused care.
Over 3,000 disruptive practitioners gathered in West Palm Beach last month, united by the goal of defining the standard for evidence-based, ethical, and effective longevity medicine. Focused on the future of aging care, A4M’s 33rd Annual Spring Congress provided a platform to advance how longevity medicine is practiced and applied in today’s clinical environments.
Across two action-packed days, sessions focused on what the industry demands now: sharper diagnostics, more individualized protocols, and faster translation of insight into action.
Between April 25-26, this signature A4M event showcased 100+ expert-led sessions, spanning hormone health, cognition, nutrition, precision diagnostics, sexual health, and more — all explored through the lens of innovative patient-centered care. From AI-driven stress management tools to hormonal mapping techniques for optimizing metabolic health, a panel of 50+ longevity leaders provided evidence-based protocols and practical solutions clinicians can implement immediately in their practice.
The medical momentum was palpable. Across every room, a shared understanding emerged: longevity medicine is no longer a niche; it’s at the core of how care is defined and delivered. The following takeaways reflect that shift – sessions that challenged assumptions, raised critical questions, and sparked real-time clinical changes.
Standout Sessions From Spring Congress 2025
The Neuroscience of Stress: Leveraging AI, Devices, and Psychedelics for Optimal Brain-Body Health
David Rabin, MD, PhD
Among the many systemic drivers of aging explored throughout the weekend, chronic stress stood out as both pervasive and underrecognized. Far from a secondary concern, it reshapes brain architecture, weakens vagal tone, and fuels the inflammatory processes underlying most age-related diseases. Dr. David Rabin urged attendees to approach stress through a trauma-informed lens – one that centers safety, supports neuroplasticity, and restores autonomic balance through targeted, non-invasive interventions.
His session outlined a layered clinical approach: AI-guided feedback and wearable technologies as first-line tools, with psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy emerging as a promising path forward, particularly in treatment-resistant cases.
Key Clinical Takeaways:
- Psychedelics and trauma resolution: MDMA-assisted therapy is showing >60% PTSD remission at 12 months in advanced trials. Ketamine remains the most widely accessible psychedelic treatment option.
- Vagal tone as a therapeutic target: Enhancing parasympathetic activity—via vibroacoustic stimulation, breathwork, or movement-based mindfulness—can help shift patients into safer, more regulated states.
- Wearables with measurable impact: Devices like Apollo Neuro, developed in psychiatric care settings, now show real-world benefits in HRV, sleep quality, and stress recovery through low-frequency vibration.
- Plasticity depends on safety: Neuroplastic change is not driven by input alone—it requires a nervous system that perceives safety and can adapt.
Dr. Rabin closed with a challenge: true healing may demand more than new protocols. It may require reexamining the very definitions of resilience, safety, and therapeutic success.
Brain Washing: Nutrition and Lifestyle Strategies to Clear the Brain Through the Glymphatic System
Deanna Minich, MS, PhD, CNS, IFMCP
Cognitive decline doesn’t begin with memory loss—it starts with buildup. In this session, Dr. Deanna Minich reframed brain health around the glymphatic system: a recently mapped network that clears metabolic waste from the brain. Once a fringe concept, glymphatic function is now central to neuroprotection and long-term resilience.
Dr. Minich’s key message was direct: treating the brain requires supporting its drainage. Without efficient waste clearance—especially during deep sleep—toxins accumulate, inflammation increases, and neurological risk compounds.
Her talk linked impaired glymphatic flow to a range of clinical concerns, from migraines and mood instability to Alzheimer’s disease. For clinicians focused on prevention, she offered a toolkit of simple, evidence-backed interventions ready for immediate use.
Key Clinical Takeaways:
- The glymphatic system is most active during deep sleep and plays a critical role in clearing neurotoxins. Its dysfunction is implicated in neurodegeneration and chronic neurological symptoms.
- Major disruptors include aging, inflammation, and poor sleep—each of which compounds the others.
- Modifiable enhancers include melatonin, omega-3s, hydration, exercise, and diets rich in polyphenols.
- Emerging therapies such as photobiomodulation, sound/light stimulation, and intermittent fasting are being explored for their glymphatic-enhancing effects.
- Sleep position matters: Right-side sleeping may promote better glymphatic flow compared to supine or prone positions.
Dr. Minich closed with a challenge to shift how cognitive health is approached, starting not with the brain’s inputs, but with how it clears its outputs.
Reframing Women’s Health and Longevity
Jennifer Garrison, PhD
Dr. Jennifer Garrison delivered the conference’s sole keynote address — a high-impact session that challenged entrenched assumptions in women’s health and reframed reproductive aging as a cornerstone of longevity care.
Drawing from molecular biology, epidemiology, and decades of underfunded research, Dr. Garrison made a compelling case: the ovary is not peripheral to aging — it’s pivotal. Declines in ovarian hormone production affect far more than fertility; they shape cardiovascular risk, cognitive performance, immune function, and long-term disease vulnerability.
And yet, out of 623 drugs approved since 2008, only 43 have targeted female-specific conditions. This disconnect, she argued, reflects a systemic oversight that continues to cost women both years and quality of life.
Key Clinical Takeaways:
- Ovarian aging begins years before menopause, triggering changes across the brain, bone, and immune systems long before symptoms appear.
- Women outlive men but spend more of those years in poor health. Reproductive decline is a major, overlooked contributor.
- Most biomedical research still defaults to male models, creating critical blind spots in diagnostics, treatment, and prevention for women.
- Investing in ovarian longevity has a projected return of $14 billion per $350 million spent—underscoring its value beyond gender equity.
Dr. Garrison closed with a direct call to the clinical community: if we aim to extend the healthspan for women, the ovary can no longer be treated as peripheral. It must become a central focus of inquiry and care.
Sexual Health, Menopause, and The Gut Connection
Jolene Brighten, NMD, FABNE, MSC
Dr. Jolene Brighten spotlighted a critical but often overlooked axis in women’s health: the interplay between hormonal decline, gut health, and the vaginal microbiome. As estrogen and progesterone levels shift during menopause, so do the systems they support, influencing everything from intestinal permeability to microbial balance and genitourinary health.
Her session emphasized that menopause is not a fixed endpoint but an ongoing hormonal transition with wide-reaching systemic effects. One of the most prevalent—and underdiagnosed—manifestations is Genitourinary Syndrome of Menopause (GSM), affecting over 80% of postmenopausal women. For many, it’s a silent source of discomfort that erodes quality of life. For clinicians, it’s an opportunity to intervene with microbiome-aware, evidence-based care.
Key Clinical Takeaways:
- Sex hormones influence gut and vaginal integrity. Declining estrogen and progesterone reduce gut barrier function and alter microbiome composition.
- The gut and vaginal microbiomes are interconnected. Lactobacilli populations in the gut are directly linked to those in the vaginal tract.
- GSM is widespread and underrecognized, despite impacting the majority of women in midlife and beyond.
- Treatment options include localized estrogen therapy, targeted probiotics, dietary adjustments, and regular monitoring of vaginal pH.
- Strains like Lactobacillus rhamnosus GR-1 and Lactobacillus reuteri RC-14 show documented benefits, offering clinicians a clear, actionable path forward.
Dr. Brighten urged clinicians to move beyond symptom-based treatment, emphasizing menopause as a multisystem transition that demands integrated care rooted in hormonal and microbiome health.
Leveraging AI and Technology for Longevity: Predict Disease Early to Reverse Biological Aging
Florence Comite, MD
In a data-rich, forward-looking session, Dr. Florence Comite laid out how biological aging can not only be measured but also reversed when clinicians shift from population norms to personalized, longitudinal care. Her model treats each patient as their own N-of-1 trial, integrating continuous data from wearables, advanced labs, genomic profiles, and lived behavior to anticipate dysfunction early and intervene with precision.
Rather than relying on single-point labs or static biomarkers, Dr. Comite emphasized the value of trendlines. With examples from her clinic, she showed how real-time glucose monitoring, hormone mapping, and AI-informed pattern recognition can help detect subtle shifts long before they become disease. Her data-driven approach doesn’t just optimize protocols — it reshapes the trajectory of aging itself.
Key Clinical Takeaways:
- Single-point labs miss nuance. CGMs, sleep trackers, and longitudinal biomarker panels reveal metabolic dysfunction often masked in conventional tests.
- N-of-1 data is actionable. Each patient becomes their own control, allowing for earlier detection of risk and more responsive treatment adjustments.
- AI supports scalable precision. Pattern recognition models enhance clinician insight by connecting microchanges across domains like sleep, stress, and glucose response.
- Reversing biological aging is not hypothetical — it’s already happening in clinics using these tools today.
Dr. Comite stressed the fact that the tools are already here. The real differentiator comes from how, when, or if they are used.
FemSpan: Unlocking Female Longevity
Jennifer Pearlman, MD, CCFP, NCMP, FAARM, ABAARM
Dr. Jennifer Pearlman examined what she called the “longevity gender gap”—and how emerging models of female-focused care can begin to close it. Her presentation explored the genomic, hormonal, and mitochondrial drivers that shape women’s aging and disease risk while emphasizing a proactive, systems-based approach to optimizing healthspan.
Dr. Jennifer Pearlman addressed the persistent disparity in how men and women age—not in years lived, but in years lived well. Framing her session around the “longevity gender gap,” she made the case for a new model of care: one that’s not just personalized, but explicitly female-focused.
Her presentation connected the dots across genomics, hormones, mitochondria, and metabolism, showing how these systems interact to shape the female aging process. Rather than managing menopause as a standalone event, she advocated for a lifespan-wide view—where prevention begins early, hormone support is proactive, and care strategies reflect the complexity of female biology.
Key Clinical Takeaways:
- Women live longer than men but spend more years managing disease and disability—a gap that calls for gender-specific precision medicine.
- Hormones, mitochondria, and epigenetics play interdependent roles in driving female aging and resilience.
- Lifestyle remains foundational, but must be tailored: nutrition, movement, sleep, and stress interventions need to reflect individual context and stage of life.
- Hormone optimization during perimenopause and beyond is essential for preserving cognitive, metabolic, and musculoskeletal function.
- The 4P model of care—predictive, preventive, personalized, participatory— offers a scalable path forward for improving outcomes across the female lifespan.
Dr. Pearlman urged practitioners to shift their focus from disease management to lifespan-specific strategies that match the biological realities of female aging in order to finally unlock the true potential of the FemSpan.
As our second-largest event of the year, Spring Congress serves as a defining marker of where the field is headed and how rapidly it’s evolving. This year’s record-breaking attendance was more than just a sign of enthusiasm; it underscored a growing community-wide demand for credible, comprehensive education that addresses the complexities of aging in today’s clinical environment.
A4M stands proudly at the forefront of that shift.
As the field of longevity medicine expands, so too does the need for education that’s both innovative and actionable. The unprecedented turnout at this year’s Spring Congress demonstrates that clinicians aren’t just eager to learn—they are actively demanding the tools and knowledge to lead the charge in longevity care.
Couldn’t attend in person? Catch up on all the breakthroughs with Spring Congress 2025 On-Demand Access – don’t miss your final chance to secure your recordings with synchronized lecture slides – available here.
Longevity Looks Forward: LongevityFest 2025
And to keep the momentum going, join us at LongevityFest 2025 – A4M’s flagship event in Las Vegas this December. Learn more: a4m.com/longevity-fest-2025.html.
https://www.a4m.com/cart;cart,add_to_cart,2025_04_WPB_FL_SC_RECORDING,1.html
Recordings https://go.a4m.com/3F25uYu
‘
Defining Longevity, Redefining Medicine: Standout Sessions From Spring Congress 2025 Practice-ready takeaways for advancing longevity-focused care
Over 3,000 disruptive practitioners gathered in West Palm Beach last month, united by the goal of defining the standard for evidence-based, ethical, and effective longevity medicine. Focused on the future of aging care, A4M’s 33rd Annual Spring Congress provided a platform to advance how longevity medicine is practiced and applied in today’s clinical environments.
Across two action-packed days, sessions focused on what the industry demands now: sharper diagnostics, more individualized protocols, and faster translation of insight into action.
Between April 25-26, this signature A4M event showcased 100+ expert-led sessions, spanning hormone health, cognition, nutrition, precision diagnostics, sexual health, and more — all explored through the lens of innovative patient-centered care. From AI-driven stress management tools to hormonal mapping techniques for optimizing metabolic health, a panel of 50+ longevity leaders provided evidence-based protocols and practical solutions clinicians can implement immediately in their practice.
The medical momentum was palpable. Across every room, a shared understanding emerged: longevity medicine is no longer a niche; it’s at the core of how care is defined and delivered. The following takeaways reflect that shift – sessions that challenged assumptions, raised critical questions, and sparked real-time clinical changes.
Standout Sessions From Spring Congress 2025
The Neuroscience of Stress: Leveraging AI, Devices, and Psychedelics for Optimal Brain-Body Health
David Rabin, MD, PhD
Among the many systemic drivers of aging explored throughout the weekend, chronic stress stood out as both pervasive and underrecognized. Far from a secondary concern, it reshapes brain architecture, weakens vagal tone, and fuels the inflammatory processes underlying most age-related diseases. Dr. David Rabin urged attendees to approach stress through a trauma-informed lens—one that centers safety, supports neuroplasticity, and restores autonomic balance through targeted, non-invasive interventions.
His session outlined a layered clinical approach: AI-guided feedback and wearable technologies as first-line tools, with psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy emerging as a promising path forward—particularly in treatment-resistant cases.
Key Clinical Takeaways:
- Psychedelics and trauma resolution: MDMA-assisted therapy is showing >60% PTSD remission at 12 months in advanced trials. Ketamine remains the most widely accessible psychedelic treatment option.
- Vagal tone as a therapeutic target: Enhancing parasympathetic activity—via vibroacoustic stimulation, breathwork, or movement-based mindfulness—can help shift patients into safer, more regulated states.
- Wearables with measurable impact: Devices like Apollo Neuro, developed in psychiatric care settings, now show real-world benefits in HRV, sleep quality, and stress recovery through low-frequency vibration.
- Plasticity depends on safety: Neuroplastic change is not driven by input alone—it requires a nervous system that perceives safety and can adapt.
Dr. Rabin closed with a challenge: true healing may demand more than new protocols. It may require reexamining the definitions of resilience, safety, and therapeutic success.
Brain Washing: Nutrition and Lifestyle Strategies to Clear the Brain Through the Glymphatic System
Deanna Minich, MS, PhD, CNS, IFMCP
Cognitive decline doesn’t begin with memory loss – it begins with buildup. In this session, Dr. Deanna Minich reframed brain health around the glymphatic system, a recently mapped network responsible for clearing metabolic waste from the brain. Once a fringe concept, glymphatic function is now central to neuroprotection and long-term resilience.
Dr. Minich’s key message was direct: treating the brain requires supporting its drainage. Without efficient waste clearance—especially during deep sleep—toxins accumulate, inflammation increases, and neurological risk compounds.
Her talk linked impaired glymphatic flow to a range of clinical concerns, from migraines and mood instability to Alzheimer’s disease. For clinicians focused on prevention, she offered a toolkit of simple, evidence-backed interventions ready for immediate use.
Key Clinical Takeaways:
- The glymphatic system is most active during deep sleep and plays a critical role in clearing neurotoxins. Its dysfunction is implicated in neurodegeneration and chronic neurological symptoms.
- Major disruptors include aging, inflammation, and poor sleep—each of which compounds the others.
- Modifiable enhancers include melatonin, omega-3s, hydration, exercise, and diets rich in polyphenols.
- Emerging therapies such as photobiomodulation, sound/light stimulation, and intermittent fasting are being explored for their glymphatic-enhancing effects.
- Sleep position matters: Right-side sleeping may promote better glymphatic flow compared to supine or prone positions.
Dr. Minich closed with a challenge to shift how cognitive health approaches—starting not with the brain’s inputs, but with how it clears its outputs.
Reframing Women’s Health and Longevity
Jennifer Garrison, PhD
Dr. Jennifer Garrison delivered the conference’s sole keynote address — a high-impact session that challenged entrenched assumptions in women’s health and reframed reproductive aging as a cornerstone of longevity care.
Drawing from molecular biology, epidemiology, and decades of underfunded research, Dr. Garrison made a compelling case: the ovary is not peripheral to aging — it’s pivotal. Declines in ovarian hormone production affect far more than fertility; they shape cardiovascular risk, cognitive performance, immune function, and long-term disease vulnerability.
And yet, out of 623 drugs approved since 2008, only 43 have targeted female-specific conditions. This disconnect, she argued, reflects a systemic oversight that continues to cost women both years and quality of life.
Key Clinical Takeaways:
- Ovarian aging begins years before menopause, triggering changes across the brain, bone, and immune systems long before symptoms appear.
- Women outlive men but spend more of those years in poor health. Reproductive decline is a major, overlooked contributor.
- Most biomedical research still defaults to male models, creating critical blind spots in diagnostics, treatment, and prevention for women.
- Investing in ovarian longevity has a projected return of $14 billion per $350 million spent—underscoring its value beyond gender equity.
Dr. Garrison closed with a direct call to the clinical community: if we aim to extend the healthspan for women, the ovary can no longer be treated as peripheral. It must become a central focus of inquiry and care.
Sexual Health, Menopause, and The Gut Connection
Jolene Brighten, NMD, FABNE, MSC
Dr. Jolene Brighten spotlighted a critical but often overlooked axis in women’s health: the interplay between hormonal decline, gut health, and the vaginal microbiome. As estrogen and progesterone levels shift during menopause, so do the systems they support — influencing everything from intestinal permeability to microbial balance and genitourinary health.
Her session emphasized that menopause is not a fixed endpoint but an ongoing hormonal transition with wide-reaching systemic effects. One of the most prevalent—and underdiagnosed—manifestations is Genitourinary Syndrome of Menopause (GSM), affecting over 80% of postmenopausal women. For many, it’s a silent source of discomfort that erodes quality of life. For clinicians, it’s an opportunity to intervene with microbiome-aware, evidence-based care.
Key Clinical Takeaways:
- Sex hormones influence gut and vaginal integrity. Declining estrogen and progesterone reduce gut barrier function and alter microbiome composition.
- The gut and vaginal microbiomes are interconnected. Lactobacilli populations in the gut are directly linked to those in the vaginal tract.
- GSM is widespread and underrecognized despite impacting the majority of women in midlife and beyond.
- Treatment options include localized estrogen therapy, targeted probiotics, dietary adjustments, and regular monitoring of vaginal pH.
- Strains like Lactobacillus rhamnosus GR-1 and Lactobacillus reuteri RC-14 show documented benefits, offering clinicians a clear, actionable path forward.
Dr. Brighten urged clinicians to move beyond symptom-based treatment, emphasizing menopause as a multisystem transition that demands integrated care rooted in hormonal and microbiome health.
Leveraging AI and Technology for Longevity: Predict Disease Early to Reverse Biological Aging
Florence Comite, MD
In a data-rich, forward-looking session, Dr. Florence Comite laid out how biological aging can not only be measured — but reversed — when clinicians shift from population norms to personalized, longitudinal care. Her model treats each patient as their own N-of-1 trial, integrating continuous data from wearables, advanced labs, genomic profiles, and lived behavior to anticipate dysfunction early and intervene with precision.
Rather than relying on single-point labs or static biomarkers, Dr. Comite emphasized the value of trendlines. With examples from her clinic, she showed how real-time glucose monitoring, hormone mapping, and AI-informed pattern recognition can help detect subtle shifts long before they become diseases. Her data-driven approach doesn’t just optimize protocols — it reshapes the trajectory of aging itself.
Key Clinical Takeaways:
- Single-point labs miss nuance. CGMs, sleep trackers, and longitudinal biomarker panels reveal metabolic dysfunction often masked in conventional tests.
- N-of-1 data is actionable. Each patient becomes their own control, allowing for earlier detection of risk and more responsive treatment adjustments.
- AI supports scalable precision. Pattern recognition models enhance clinician insight by connecting micro-changes across domains like sleep, stress, and glucose response.
- Reversing biological aging is not hypothetical — it’s already happening in clinics using these tools today.
Dr. Comite’s stressed the fact that the tool are already here. The real differentiator comes from how, when, or if they are used.
Unlocking Female Longevity
Jennifer Pearlman, MD, CCFP, NCMP, FAARM, ABAARM
Dr. Jennifer Pearlman examined what she called the “longevity gender gap”—and how emerging models of female-focused care can begin to close it. Her presentation explored the genomic, hormonal, and mitochondrial drivers that shape women’s aging and disease risk while emphasizing a proactive, systems-based approach to optimizing healthspan.
Dr. Jennifer Pearlman addressed the persistent disparity in how men and women age—not in years lived, but in years lived well. Framing her session around the “longevity gender gap,” she made the case for a new model of care: one that’s not just personalized, but explicitly female-focused.
Her presentation connected the dots across genomics, hormones, mitochondria, and metabolism, showing how these systems interact to shape the female aging process. Rather than managing menopause as a standalone event, she advocated for a lifespan-wide view—where prevention begins early, hormone support is proactive, and care strategies reflect the complexity of female biology.
Key Clinical Takeaways:
- Women live longer than men but spend more years managing disease and disability—a gap that calls for gender-specific precision medicine.
- Hormones, mitochondria, and epigenetics play interdependent roles in driving female aging and resilience.
- Lifestyle remains foundational but must be tailored: nutrition, movement, sleep, and stress interventions need to reflect individual context and stage of life.
- Hormone optimization during perimenopause and beyond is essential for preserving cognitive, metabolic, and musculoskeletal function.
- The 4P model of care—predictive, preventive, personalized, participatory— offers a scalable path forward for improving outcomes across the female lifespan.
Dr. Pearlman urged practitioners to shift their focus from disease management to lifespan-specific strategies that match the biological realities of female aging in order to unlock the true potential of the FemSpan finally.
—
As our second-largest event of the year, Spring Congress serves as a defining marker of where the field is headed and how rapidly it’s evolving. This year’s record-breaking attendance was more than just a sign of enthusiasm; it underscored a growing community-wide demand for credible, comprehensive education that addresses the complexities of aging in today’s clinical environment.
A4M stands proudly at the forefront of that shift.
As the field of longevity medicine expands, so too does the need for education that’s both innovative and actionable. The unprecedented turnout at this year’s Spring Congress demonstrates that clinicians aren’t just eager to learn—they are actively demanding the tools and knowledge to lead the charge in longevity care.
Couldn’t attend in person? Catch up on all the breakthroughs with Spring Congress 2025 On-Demand Access – don’t miss your final chance to secure your recordings with synchronized lecture slides – available here
Longevity Looks Forward: LongevityFest 2025
And to keep the momentum going, join us at LongevityFest 2025 – A4M’s flagship event in Las Vegas this December. Learn more: a4m.com/longevity-fest-2025.html.
https://www.a4m.com/cart;cart,add_to_cart,2025_04_WPB_FL_SC_RECORDING,1.html
Recordings https://go.a4m.com/3F25uYu
‘