For decades, Bangkok’s international image has been closely associated with nightlife, excess, and sex tourism. ZDF came to Thailand to document a very different side of the country: its growing focus on wellness and longevity. Their Auslandsjournal documentary, “Forever Young in Thailand,” aired in August 2026, and I’m part of it.
The segment on me opens with something I do several times a week: full-body red light therapy. It’s one of the recovery and longevity tools I experiment with, usually for 10 to 15 minutes paired with breathing work.
I had spent a lot of time in Bangkok over the past 15 years, but I only moved here full-time a year before ZDF’s crew showed up, and burnout is what finally got me to stay. I had built a career on being constantly on the move and constantly online, exactly the kind of pace that eventually breaks you.
Years of ignoring sleep, food, and recovery while maintaining that pace eventually caught up with me. Friends in Bangkok told me about IV therapy. I was curious, and after extensive research, I booked an appointment at Healthi Life. That was the beginning of my longevity journey, which I’m now publicly documenting.
As Dr. Petch, my doctor at Healthi Life, explained in the documentary:
With longevity, it’s mainly about extending healthspan, not just lifespan. Lifespan is simply how long you live in total. If you live to be 100, but your healthspan, the years spent in good health, only covers 80 of those years, you’d spend 20 years in poor health. So our goal is to bring these two numbers as close together as possible.
Dr. Sarassawadee Suwanjinda, MD (Petch), Co-Founder & Chief Medical Strategy Officer, Healthi Life, Bangkok
Part of what they filmed was me going through my own results, a booklet breaking down the biological age of individual organ systems alongside inflammation markers across my body.
“Here’s an overview of the age of my liver, my lungs, my heart, and the inflammation markers in my body. It gives a pretty good picture of where I can still optimize, where I can still improve.”
It’s a strange thing to see in black and white, but it’s also exactly the kind of specific, actionable detail that turns “get healthier” from a vague goal into a clear list of what to actually work on next.
In a May 2026 feature, the Tourism Authority of Thailand described the country’s shift from a decade-long “Medical Hub” strategy toward a broader “Healing is the New Luxury” approach, backed by medical visas allowing stays of up to 90 days.
The country is increasingly combining medical expertise and diagnostics with the hospitality and wellness infrastructure it has already built around tourism. A comprehensive longevity assessment in Bangkok, the TAT piece notes, can cost roughly 60% less than a comparable workup in the US or Europe, a figure The Nation Thailand has also reported.
And this isn’t limited to Bangkok. From Global Institute of Aesthetics’ “Longevity 5.0” concept, which brings together AI, predictive analytics and regenerative medicine, to established wellness destinations such as Chiva-Som in Hua Hin and Kamalaya in Koh Samui, Thailand’s wellness industry is increasingly moving toward more personalized, data-driven approaches to health.
I wanted to know whether this is changing the market or only the language used to describe it, so I asked Dr. Jason Culp, Research & Development Director at Chiva-Som, what he is seeing in his guests.
We are certainly seeing a shift in how guests approach their health and well-being. […] [G]uests are increasingly taking a more proactive interest in their long-term health, with greater curiosity about preventive healthcare, personalized health assessments, and strategies to maintain their physical and cognitive abilities as they age. […] At Chiva-Som, one particularly noticeable trend is the growing interest in understanding personal health data and how it can inform meaningful lifestyle changes. Guests are becoming more familiar with diagnostic testing, biomarkers, and wearable technologies, but they are also looking for professional guidance to help translate this information into practical action.
Dr. Jason Culp, Research & Development Director, Chiva-Som International Health Resort, Hua Hin
But there is another side to Thailand’s longevity story that doesn’t involve technology at all. TAT also points to ideas around purpose, community, and Blue Zone principles, alongside ingredients such as turmeric, galangal, and lemongrass that have been part of Thai cuisine for generations.
When I asked what sets Thailand apart for longevity travelers, Dr. Culp pointed to that side first.
Longevity is not simply about measuring biological age or introducing the latest medical technologies. It is equally about how we live, manage stress, maintain meaningful relationships, and preserve our physical, mental, and emotional well-being. […] Ultimately, the goal of longevity should not be measured only by the number of years we live, but also by the quality and meaning we bring to those years.
Dr. Jason Culp, Research & Development Director, Chiva-Som International Health Resort, Hua Hin
Vincent Caradec, who runs Healthi Life, sees the same shift from the clinic side.
For 20 years, Thailand sold the world procedures: you flew in for a surgery or a check-up, and you flew home. I think the next 10 years will be about something harder to package, and that’s healthy years. Switzerland, Germany, Singapore and the US all practice excellent longevity medicine, but it usually comes either as a luxury retreat you do once or as a clinical appointment squeezed between meetings. What Thailand can offer is serious diagnostics with real warmth around it, at a price where coming back every 3 to 4 months is realistic. And in longevity, the second visit matters more than the first.
Vincent Caradec, CEO & Co-Founder, Healthi Life, Bangkok
What ZDF captured, and what the TAT article confirms from the government’s own side, is the same shift I’ve been writing about here for a while. Thailand is taking the wellness infrastructure it has built over decades and adding a new layer of diagnostics, medical expertise, and longevity technology.
For me, that shift is particularly interesting because I didn’t come to Bangkok looking for longevity. I came here because I needed to change the way I was living. Now I’m trying to figure out how to build a healthier version of that life without giving up the things I love about it.
Watch the full documentary on the ZDF Mediathek: “Forever Young in Thailand.”
Disclosure: I’m the Founding Ambassador for Healthi Life and have been documenting my own longevity program there since May 2026.
Tim Kroeger is a luxury wellness travel and longevity editor and creator of The Restorative Index. Drawing on 15+ years of travel across 112+ countries and 230+ nights assessed using his framework, he reviews hotels through one question: Did you leave feeling better than when you arrived?
A former Lufthansa flight attendant and endurance traveler, Tim documents his longevity journey as Founding Ambassador of Healthi Life Longevity House in Bangkok. He appeared in ZDF’s Forever Young in Thailand documentary.
Read how 15 years of full-time travel, burnout, and one afternoon in Fiji led Tim to rethink luxury and create the Restorative Index: Read Tim’s story →
