Beyond Longevity
Longevital - Our Story
An extraordinary journey from Romania through Germany to northern India.
Two life journeys that come together in a shared vision of healthy and fulfilling ageing.
The combination of gerontology, Rasayana, IKIGAI, Skin3 and Holistic Longevity.
The search for what makes people not just healthy, but truly alive.
The origins of LONGEVITAL – a new perspective on health, purpose and quality of life.
Good health prolongs life. Meaning gives it purpose.
From GEROVITAL to LONGEVITAL
How two life journeys came together to form a new vision of healthy and fulfilling ageing
LONGEVITAL’s roots go back to the 1970s in Sibiu, Romania – to a family of doctors for whom health, medicine and questions about ageing were part of everyday life.
Dr Mircea Dumitru, a friend of Corina’s father, was a close colleague of Prof. Ana Aslan and one of the leading figures in Romanian gerontology.
It was as a teenager that Corina Steuernagel first came across the concepts of healthy ageing, vitality and quality of life – decades before longevity became a global trend.
At that time, one term came to define this movement:
GEROVITAL – the idea of maintaining vitality in old age. The gerontologist Prof. Dr Dr Ana Aslan (1897–1988) is now regarded as one of the most important pioneers of modern longevity medicine.
Corina was fascinated by these thoughts. She was actually supposed to study medicine. In fact, her wish was to study under Dr Dumitru in Bucharest himself. But life took her down a different path.
She began to explore another question:
What is it that truly brings a person to life?
After moving to Germany, she devoted herself wholeheartedly to dermatological cosmetics and medical skin rejuvenation.
But she soon realised that vitality isn’t just a matter of skin.
People don’t just age biologically. They age in the way they present themselves. In their demeanour. In their clothing. In their relationships. In the spaces around them.
Over many years, she developed this into the Skin3 concept: our body is our first skin. Our second skin is the way we express ourselves through clothing and style. Our third skin is the environment in which we live.
At the same time, she immersed herself in Zen, Daoism, wabi-sabi and kintsugi – those Far Eastern philosophies that seek beauty not in perfection, but in maturation, authenticity and lived experience.
This led to a realisation: vitality is not just a biological concept. It also has aesthetic, emotional, social and cultural dimensions.
Whilst Corina was following this path, Ralph’s search led him to a different starting point.
As part of his training in naturopathy, psychology and health sciences, he travelled to northern India, to the Himalayas. There he discovered Ayurveda – arguably the oldest system of health and longevity in human history.
Besonders faszinierte ihn Rasayana:
Jener Bereich des Ayurveda, der sich seit Jahrtausenden mit Regeneration, Vitalität, Resilienz, geistiger Klarheit und gesundem Altern beschäftigt.
There he found something astonishing:
Many of the issues discussed today under the heading of longevity were already the subject of Ayurvedic research and practice centuries ago.
Wie beeinflussen Ernährung, Lebensstil, Beziehungen, Geisteshaltung und Umwelt die Qualität unseres Lebens? Wie erhalten Menschen nicht nur ihre Gesundheit, sondern auch ihre Lebensfreude, ihre Klarheit und innere Entwicklung?
Over many years, Ralph combined these insights with modern psychology, salutogenesis, behavioural medicine and the scientific principles underpinning research into healthy longevity.
And so two distinct paths developed independently of one another. One was shaped by European gerontology, Ana Aslan, Mircea Dumitru and the question of healthy ageing. The other was shaped by Ayurveda, Rasayana, psychology and the question of human development.
It was not until many years later that these two worlds came into contact. As this happened, it became increasingly clear that:
Health is more than just the absence of illness. Longevity is more than just living longer. And vitality is more than just physical fitness.
Ein langes Leben braucht einen Grund, gelebt zu werden. Die japanische IKIGAI-Lehre beschreibt, wofür wir morgens gerne aufstehen. Die moderne Psychologie spricht von Purpose. Die Salutogenese von Kohärenz. Der Ayurveda von Dharma.
People no longer live longer simply because they look after their bodies. They live fuller, healthier lives – and often live longer too – when they find a sense of purpose.
All these experiences eventually gave rise to a new idea. An idea that leaves the question of age behind.
Because the crucial question is not:
How old will we live to be?
But rather: how alive do we remain?
Perhaps that is precisely what has always been the underlying desire behind terms such as Gerovital, healthy ageing or longevity.
Doch Corina & Ralph wollten den Fokus verschieben.
Away from old age.
Towards vitality.
That is how LONGEVITAL came into being.
Not as an alternative to Longevity.
Rather, as an extension of it.
A combination of gerontology and Rasayana.
From science and wisdom.
From Health and Beauty.
From purpose and prevention.
From the body, mind, relationships and environment.
The focus is not on prolonging life, but on enriching it.
For years of life alone are not enough.
What matters is the quality of life over the years.
