Find wellness and longevity in LA – the treatments and places to know

It’s 9am on a Sunday morning on Sunset Boulevard and Next Health clinic is busy. A man sits in a hyperbaric chamber, still on his laptop, while pressurised oxygen is pumped into his body. He’s doing a 90-day challenge – one hyperbaric chamber a day for 90 days to track his mental and physical health. Nearby, two young men in track suits, jaded from the night before, fast-track detox shots into their veins in the IV Lounge. They are among the many ‘health tourists’ who come to LA for treatments and innovations they can’t find at home. Think on-the-spot diagnostics, such as brain, liver and heart scans, grip-strength checks, toxin screenings that look for microplastics, IV therapy, and genetic and blood testing.

Near the IV station, a red-light-therapy face mask, which resembles a Venetian carnival mask before it’s been decorated, sits next to a tray of brain-health booster shots and electrolytes. Also nearby are the infrared LED bed, infrared sauna, cryotherapy cabin, VISIA Skin Analysis, InBody Scan and – in its own private room – LA’s hottest treatment yet, the Ammortal Chamber. It may sound like Frankenstein’s favourite hangout, but this space-age boudoir offers red-light therapy and guided meditation alongside four other ‘modalities’ with the aim of improving heart rate variability and mental clarity. ‘It’s great for time-pressured individuals who want relief from an adrenaline-fuelled day,’ explains Next Health co-founder Dr Darshan Shah.

The tech-meets-wellness longevity boom

When Shah opened Next Health in West Hollywood a decade ago, he pioneered concepts such as ‘optimisation,’ ‘longevity’ and ‘biomarkers’ and this personalised and proactive approach to health is now mainstream. ‘A lot of people are doing self-experimentation with how treatments affect their biological age and it’s great to be doing N-of-1 [single-subject] experiments in a medical setting,' Shah adds.

As tech innovations accelerated, other concierge-led longevity clinics followed. Remedy Place opened on The Strip in 2019 offering cryotherapy chambers, ice baths and sauna alongside lymphatic drainage and a VO2 lounge and now has sister sites in New York and Boston. 10X, which opened in Beverly Hills in 2021, is in 46 countries including the UK and UAE, and signature treatments include genetic testing and a Superhuman Protocol – a 40-minute session involving electromagnetic pulses, red-light therapy and an oxygen mask (Kylie and Kendall Jenner have the beds in their homes). There’s no shortage of celebrities eager to endorse dream tickets to wellness, youth and vitality.

And what starts in LA has a ripple effect; in 1998 Barry’s Bootcamp was founded in West Hollywood and now operates in 15 countries. Celebrity facialist Ole Henriksen debuted his signature facial on Sunset and concierge-driven longevity clinics are all over the world. (In London, pioneers are spas such as Surrenne and Six Senses and walk-in clinics such as REVIV and Get a Drip. )

‘Most people (at the clinics) are dabbling with wearables like Whoop and Oura, and they also have devices like bioimpedance scales and continuous glucose monitors at home,' explains Shah. 'We live in an incredible age where we have great data about our bodies and what's going on inside. We should be doing all the right things at the right time.’

But isn’t doing all the right things at the right time a bit… stressful? Tracking and biohacking can be non-stop and exhausting, and often, they fuel health anxiety rather than alleviating it. 'Data anxiety is a real thing, but it's also similar to saying “knowing how much gas I have in the tank gives me anxiety, so I don't want to have a dashboard built in”,’ says Shah. ‘If we turn a blind eye to this data, we can go years, if not decades, suffering from chronic health issues and not even know it until it's too late. If the data gives you anxiety, you don't have to look at it yourself. You can have a medical professional look at it.’

Enter new health spaces, such as Unbound in London; part-café, part-clinic, it combines blood, strength, fitness and recovery testing with an analysis of physical and mental health alongside a buzzy cafe and strong community.

Desert wellness – escape the city

Integratron, Homestead Valley

Nowhere do physical and spiritual health have a better chance to flourish than under the vast skies of the Californian desert. Here, other-worldly landscapes offer an exceptional dose of nature – and some wild imaginings. In 1957, after a ‘visit from aliens from Venus’, late aeronautical engineer and desert dweller George Van Tassel created a dome-shaped ‘Integratron’ to facilitate longevity, time travel and communication with outer space. The 38ft-tall cupola is a masterstroke in acoustics, mathematics and engineering and a metaphysical destination offering sell-out sound baths.

Séc-he spa, Palm Springs

The Séc-he spa in Palm Springs is another unmissable stop on any SoCal desert wellness trip. Built on the site where, 12,000 years ago, the Agua Caliente band of Cahuilla Indians discovered mineral springs gushing out of the earth at 25 gallons per minute, the spa opened in 2023 and offers a special ‘Taking of the Waters’ ritual. Guests wallow solo in a hot tub for 15 minutes while the skin absorbs a healthy dose of sodium, sulphur, magnesium and more. High-tech add-ons such as electromagnetic blankets, salt rooms and cryotherapy chambers create a spa that is a mix of ancient and modern (Séc-he means ‘the sound of soft boiling water' in Cahuilla).

Spa City, Desert Hot Springs

It may not have the glamour of Palm Springs, but across the Coachella Valley, Desert Hot Springs has plentiful mineral waters too. These gush out of the earth at 132°F (56°C) from one well, and cold, fresh and drinkable from another – hence the area was dubbed Miracle Hill. The San Andreas Fault runs right through Desert Hot Springs, and the waters are rich in more than 30 minerals, among them bicarbonate, said to improve circulation to the extremities and relieve hypertension; chloride, which eases arthritis, rheumatic disorders and post-operative pain; magnesium for smoother skin and better sleep; sodium to diminish swelling, joint pain and aid lymphatic system; and potassium to improve skin health.

Midcentury architecture frames the scene at many of the waters, at Sagewater Desert Hot Springs Spa and Miracle Manor, which also features two Cube Rooms built by LA architect Michael Rotondi to designs by Albert Frey.

It’s all a far cry from 1941, when visitors to the Desert Hot Springs’ first bathhouse would have to sleep in their cars. In recent years the town has suffered an image problem, but two large spa developments have signed contracts on Miracle Hill, and with organisations such as Miracle Hill Spas Association hosting events, visitors are coming back. Look carefully and you can see the LA ripple effect, stirring on the waters.