Chris Mirabile has been thinking about longevity longer than most people realize. As the Founder and CEO of NOVOS Labs and creator of Slow My Age, his work sits at the intersection of cutting edge aging science and real world practicality. But his interest in healthspan did not begin as a business idea. It began at sixteen, with a seizure, an emergency room, and the discovery of a brain tumor.
On this episode of The Healthspan Collective podcast, Mirabile shares how a life altering diagnosis reshaped his understanding of health, aging, and what it truly means to live well over time.
When Health Stops Being Superficial
Before his diagnosis, Mirabile’s relationship with health looked like that of most teenagers. “It was purely superficial,” he says. “I want to play sports, I wanna lift heavy weights, I wanna look attractive.” That lens shattered overnight. “They found a large mass above your left ear,” he recalls. “It was larger than a golf ball.”
The experience forced a deeper question. “Why Chris, he’s the healthy one,” he remembers others saying. For Mirabile, the question became personal and urgent. “I never want to be in this situation ever again,” he says. “What can I do to avoid it.”
Years later, genetic testing revealed a mutation that doubled his risk of brain tumors. “It didn’t fully explain it,” he says, “but it did bring me a little bit of peace of mind.” More importantly, it reinforced a belief that would shape his life’s work, that genetics load the gun, but lifestyle pulls the trigger.
Discovering Aging as a Root Cause
As Mirabile dug into scientific literature, he landed on a pivotal framework, the hallmarks of aging. “They identified the root causes, what actually leads to us aging in the first place,” he explains. This reframed everything. Aging itself, he learned, is the greatest risk factor for chronic disease. “Compared to cigarette smoke causing lung cancer, aging causes it threefold more.”
That realization shifted his focus from disease specific prevention to slowing the biological processes that drive decline. “If aging causes this,” he says, “is there anything I can do to counteract it.”
Building What Did Not Exist
In conversations with leading scientists, Mirabile noticed a gap. “Natural molecules can have a favorable effect on these causes of aging,” he explains, “and it’s a good idea to try to target all of them at once.” Yet no one was doing that.
“At first it was purely selfish,” he admits. “I wanted to create something for myself.” That curiosity became NOVOS Core, a formulation designed to target multiple hallmarks of aging simultaneously rather than focusing on a single pathway. “If you’re impacting all of them a little bit,” he says, “that compounded effect is significantly bigger.”
The Difference Between Feeling Younger and Aging Slower
Mirabile is quick to separate hype from reality. “Feeling younger doesn’t mean you’re slowing aging,” he explains. Substances like stimulants can create temporary vitality while accelerating long term decline. True longevity, he says, is quieter and more disciplined.
He applies this same nuance to trends like extreme restriction. “It’s about balance,” he says, referencing the eighty twenty principle. “You can be healthy 80 to 90 percent of the time and still enjoy your life.” A late night celebration or a glass of wine in Italy is not failure. Chronic excess is.
Protein, Growth, and the Longevity Trade Off
One of Mirabile’s most nuanced discussions centers on protein. “Protein is a growth signal,” he explains. Excessive intake can overstimulate mTOR, a pathway linked to accelerated aging. “You don’t want excess protein,” he says, particularly amino acids like methionine and isoleucine.
At the same time, muscle matters. “It needs to be in waves,” he explains. Growth followed by repair. His own intake reflects that balance. “I weigh 181 pounds,” he says, “and I get by with 120 to 130 grams of protein a day.”
Measuring Aging Without Obsession
While Mirabile values biological age testing, he cautions against blind trust. “I think of them as a north star metric,” he says, useful for tracking direction rather than defining worth. Different clocks measure different things, and accuracy varies widely.
What matters most is trajectory. “Seventy to eighty percent of aging is based on lifestyle,” he explains. That statistic alone reframes aging as something modifiable rather than inevitable.
Healthspan Before Lifespan
Despite working in longevity, Mirabile is clear about his priorities. “Increase healthspan and lifespan will follow,” he says. The goal is not extreme longevity at the expense of quality. “I don’t wanna live for even a year where I have zero quality of life.”
When he imagines his future, the vision is simple and powerful. “To continue doing the things I’m doing,” he says. Running, lifting, traveling, fully inhabiting life well into his later decades.
Closing Reflection
Chris Mirabile’s work reminds us that aging is not a fixed destiny, but a process shaped by daily choices. By prioritizing balance, evidence, and long term repair over extremes, he brings longevity back to its most human goal, living fully, clearly, and independently for as long as possible. This philosophy sits at the core of The Healthspan Collective, extending not just years to life, but life to years.
Watch the full episode HERE!
