Ageless Health

As people are able to live longer on average, the goal has become to make the most of those extra years. Local longevity clinics and wellness spas are hoping to help to make that happen.

Wave Wellness is set to open in December in the former Lowe’s Foods grocery store space on Pine Grove Road, and among its wide-ranging slate of wellness offerings will be longevity focuses to “empower people to have longer, healthier lives,” says CEO ANDY KRICHMAN.

“Our goal is to help people increase their life span. We realized there does not have to be a big differential between life span and health span,” Krichman says.

While anti-aging and longevity health has started to receive more attention in recent years as a specific wellness focus, many of the offerings, from hormone replacement to personalized nutrition plans that change with age, have been widely accepted.

BETH PANOFF, founder of Arcadia Institute for Health and Longevity, brings years of experience in both conventional and functional medicine to her approach towards longevity, offering peptide therapy, bioidentical hormone therapy, nutrition, and supplement therapy at her 432 Eastwood Road location.

Panoff says she has a “passion for helping women in their second half of life.”

A family nurse practitioner since 2003, Panoff worked as a registered nurse for ten years prior to working in “conventional medicine” at Columbia University Irving Medical Center working in critical care. She loved it, but after seeing the trend of chronic diseases, she thought, “Why are we waiting so long for people to get sick?”

Panoff then began to work for an integrative medicine practice in Connecticut, and that, she says, “changed my view of medicine. A light bulb went off – this is the answer!”

“There is a different, bigger ‘toolbox’ that people can use for the job of living healthy and well,” she says. “Functional medicine opens up possibilities of how we look and treat patients. There are so many different ways to look at disease or prevention.”

Adding to her “toolbox,” Panoff completed peptide-focused training and certification from Seeds Scientific Research and Performance Institute (SSRP) and is also a SSRP Fellow in cellular medicine.

“My continuing education there has included peptide therapy, regenerative and cellular medicine, metabolic health, and longevity medicine. I am also currently nearing completion of my A4M longevity fellowship through the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine now also known as Redefining Medicine,” Panoff says.

At Arcadia, the testing that is done depends on the individual patient, but Panoff typically takes “a much deeper look than a routine annual lab panel.”

Labs often include glucose and metabolic health markers, inflammatory markers, advanced cardiovascular risk testing, comprehensive hormone and thyroid testing, and gastrointestinal testing. Panoff also offers TruAge/epigenic age testing and InBody body-composition analysis.

“My goal is not to order every test on every patient. It is to choose the testing that helps us understand what is happening physiologically, identify risk earlier, and then objectively track whether our interventions are actually improving health and function,” Panoff says.
Metrics also are key for the membership-based Wave Wellness, Krichman says.

Members will be assessed to test their flexibility and mobility. Inspired by wellness facilities around the world, Krichman says the goal of Wave Wellness is to get members “more in tune with their bodies and have a place in town, so they do not have to travel.”

“Anything we can measure we can track, and anything we can track we can improve,” he says.

The 46,000-square-foot facility at 805 Pine Grove Drive plans to provide members with programs that include fitness and nutrition, with access to a performance area that includes strength and cardio training and four yoga and Pilates studios as well as a 3,000-square-foot wet area with a sauna, steam room, cold plunges, light therapy, and hyperbaric chamber.

In addition, there will be an IV room with several options for immunity, wellness, and overall well-being, as well as a Recovery Room with six massage chairs, lymphatic rollers, and a stretching area.

“It will be a great space for the body to recover, recuperate, and rejuvenate,” Krichman says.

The Wilmington location will have a med-spa, event space, childcare center, café, and co-working space.

“It is a one-stop shop, where members can get a workout, take a shower, have a bite to eat, then get some work done in their co-work space,” Krichman says.

Full-body health is a common focus for longevity clinics and services.

At Arcadia, Panoff focuses on cardiovascular health, osteoporosis and brain health, insulin resistance, and overall metabolic health.

“It is about preventing diseases and figuring out how to be as well as we can for as long as we can,” Panoff said. “We want to improve quality of life, not just the quantity of it.”

To view more of photographer Aris Harding’s work, go to arisharding.com.

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