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Hyperbaric oxygen, personal longevity consults and a practice built on the evidence: three years in, Expand Health in De Waterkant is making the case for healthspan over lifespan.
Ask a traveller what draws them to Cape Town and the answer usually involves the outdoors: a sunrise climb up Lion’s Head, a cold swim at Clifton, a long table with friends as the light goes. It is a sound instinct for living well, and the science is increasingly on its side.
The instinct now carries some urgency. According to Stats SA, deaths from heart disease, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory disease rose by almost 60% between 1997 and 2018, and the national conversation about ageing has shifted from how long we live to how well. The interest is global: worldwide search interest in longevity has more than tripled since mid-2025, according to Google Trends.
Expand Health opened in De Waterkant three years ago as Cape Town’s first longevity clinic. Science leads every decision: each recommendation begins with the individual and is weighed against the evidence before it becomes part of a plan. The aim is healthspan, more good years measured in strength, mobility, energy and independence.
Dr Daniel Blanckenberg, an integrative physician who consults independently at the clinic, puts it in Cape Town terms. “True longevity means surfing, hiking, dancing, laughing with friends right up until your final years,” he says. He has long argued that the fundamentals come first: sleep, movement, nutrition, stress resilience and metabolic health, most of which cost little or nothing. It can sound almost old-fashioned. It is also where the evidence is strongest.
The same evidence-first principle shapes the offering. IV therapy is given for specific clinical indications, iron or vitamin C for instance. Peptides have their place in medicine too. GLP-1 medications, supported by robust clinical evidence, are recommended when clinically indicated. A first visit begins with a conversation, and health history, goals, lifestyle and test results shape a personal plan that is tracked and adjusted over time. The clinic is candid about the limits: no blood panel will tell you how long you will live.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is the flagship. Clients breathe pure oxygen in a hard-shell chamber pressurised to up to two atmospheres, allowing far more oxygen to dissolve into the blood and reach tissues where circulation is limited. Long established in hospital medicine for wound healing, it is used here to support recovery, tissue repair and cellular energy, and every client is assessed for suitability first. Demand has since brought a second chamber to De Waterkant. Red light therapy, known clinically as photobiomodulation, rests on a substantial body of research, with controlled trials recording measurable gains in skin texture and collagen density. PEMF, an infrared sauna and a cold plunge complete the offering.
Registered dietitian Maryke Gallagher, who holds a Master’s in Nutrition from Stellenbosch University and consults independently, starts with the plate, favouring food you can enjoy over food you have to endure. On red light and the gut, where the research is younger, she is measured. “Early research, particularly in preclinical models, suggests it could support the integrity of the gut barrier and a healthier inflammatory environment,” she says, “but recommendations must remain grounded in the strength of the available evidence.”
Clients include founders and executives who want a clear plan, people in their fifties and beyond intent on staying strong and independent, and patients referred by surgeons for recovery. Over the holidays they are joined by travellers fitting a hyperbaric session between days on the beach and long lunches in the Winelands, part of a global wellness economy the Global Wellness Institute values at US$6.8 trillion.
Longevity clinics are a growing part of that economy, worth an estimated US$6 billion this year, according to The Business Research Company. In a young field, three years is a meaningful track record, and Expand Health’s method is clear: begin with the science and the fundamentals, personalise the plan, and measure success in the years most worth having.
Expand Health, Hudson Building, 30 Hudson Street, De Waterkant, Cape Town; expandhealth.co.za.