It’s been over a year since we started PMX Health.The clinical reflections after working with 700+ members took us in a direction we anticipated and in ways we did not. Only when we started testing actively we realised the degree of India’s future disease burden risk and hence our responsibility in reducing the same. 

Sharing one such revelation and something that helps you to be proactive and push the disease burden far!

BMI – Body Mass Index is calculated by dividing your weight in kilograms by your height in meters squared. Say for example, you are a male with height 5 ‘7 and you weigh 68 kgs then your BMI is 23.53 kg/meter square. 

My BMI is 20.7 which is normal, but my body composition is anything but optimal. I have low lean mass which I’m course correcting with weight training, bone support supplements and optimising protein intake. I have set a goal to increase 2 kgs of lean muscle mass

What Dr. Samatha Tulla, our Medical Director, Says About BMI being a metric to say if someone is healthy?

BMI collapses a multidimensional health problem into one number and the PMX dataset proves it. Even people with “normal BMI” ( 18.5 kg/m2 – 25 kg/m2)  are showing insulin resistance, high visceral fat, arterial stiffness, and elevated body-fat percentages. 

BMI fails because it cannot see distribution, quality, or metabolic behaviour of tissue. In modern longevity practice, BMI is not a diagnostic tool , it’s a distraction unless its grade 2 or 3 obesity 

We are clinically under diagnosing metabolic disease because we still depend on BMI. In short: the body may look normal, but the chemistry is already failing. When a person with BMI 22–24 is already carrying VAT above 500 g, showing HOMA-IR above 1, accumulating >30% body fat, or developing arterial stiffness, it means the metabolic machinery has shifted long before body weight changes.

This isn’t about weight anymore, it’s about dysfunctional fat storage, impaired insulin signalling, low muscle quality, and early vascular aging that BMI will never detect. If you rely on BMI, you’ll miss the earliest window where prevention is actually possible. And that is exactly the clinical gap we’re trying to close by detecting disease before the phenotype changes.

We should not let BMI to become a false reassurance tool

As Individual Members

• Get a DEXA scan to understand your true body composition. If not possible, use waist-to-height ratio and VAT estimation as a minimum baseline instead of BMI.
• Ensure your annual health checks include fasting insulin, HOMA-IR, ApoB, hsCRP, arterial stiffness markers, and VAT.
• Remove BMI as your primary screening metric, it is not a reliable indicator of metabolic health.

We produced a podcast where Dr. Samatha and Dr. Abishek discuss BMI and other metrics. Do watch it. 

Client Spotlight:

This story is for anyone who thought Longevity is only for peak performance or for athletes 

Raghava and Satyanarayana Kanuri are a couple aged 67 and 72 respectively. Their presenting problems were conservatively common for their age groups. Raghava Kanuri fasting blood sugar was around 102 and Satyanarayana at 113.

Both of them have knee pain, fatigue, poor sleep due to night time urination and energy crashes – all symptoms that are bringing their everyday quality of life down. 

They joined the PMX THRIVE program on 21st June and started the 1st phase of Longevity protocol on July 10th.  

During their recent tests and a review. Here are some highlights:

Blood Sugars: Raghava’s fasting blood sugars improved from 102 to 82Satyanarayana’s fasting blood sugars reduced from 113 to below 70, with postprandial levels around 110

Pain & Mobility: Significant reduction in knee and joint pain for both and smoother mobility.

Sleep: Raghava’s sleep quality improved noticeably

Satyanarayana’s muscle cramps and night-time urination resolved, allowing uninterrupted sleep

Digestive Health: Constipation improved significantly in both

Energy & Activity: Marked improvement in energy levels, physical activity, and overall stamina

Daily Well-being: Both report feeling lighter, happier, more active, and highly motivated to follow the recommended practices.

Their Son, Kalyan spoke to our Nutritionist Vasanthi “it has been incredible having you guide us through this program. Particularly appreciate your positive feedback and subtle hints to make my parents get into the routine and build habits. They are becoming more functionally independent by the day.

They always wanted to visit Arunachalam but couldn’t because of mobility issues. They were able to do it recently as you can see in the picture”

Longevity is not just for athletes, or just to live longer or just people in geriatric category. It’s for anyone who wants to age consciously targeting the aging pathways and lead a healthy life as long as they live. 

Code Longevity: Longevity Medicine in Action

Dr. Abishek Suresh, who drives the Code Longevity series at PMX Health, recently organized Edition 1 on November

25 practitioners who now understand that longevity medicine isn’t a futuristic concept, it is happening right now.

This movement exists because the fundamentals of clinical practice today are highly fragmented. The operating system required for a long, fulfilling, prevention-first life is far from conventional care. Code Longevity is a movement to bring this new standard of medicine to India.

Right now, the series is designed for practitioners. But we are also preparing to launch a parallel track for seekers – individuals who want to understand longevity, connect with like-minded people, and buy time for their future. This community helps you gain an edge over the rest of the population and improve the quality of your life for as long as you live.

We’re excited to announce Code Longevity – Edition 2 on January 9th and are now accepting expressions of interest through this form.

We started the newsletter this month marking one year of starting our operations. Do write back to me on bhavya@pmxhealth.com about what more inputs you need. What would you like to read more about?

This is an attempt to bring you the latest updates about Longevity, verified information and impact we are creating at PMX Health. We are glad if you are reading this amongst the heaps and heaps of information that’s on the internet