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EP : 104 - What If Health Care Started With Love, Sleep, And Truth - Alejandro Bataller/Part 1

• Sophia Delavari • Season 1 • Episode 104

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A cancer diagnosis changed one family’s trajectory and sparked a relentless quest to redefine health care as health creation. We sit down with Alejandro, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at SHA to unpack how a “crazy idea” in a Spanish country house grew into an award-winning longevity program built on science, measurement, and human connection. This story isn’t about living forever. It’s about adding life to your years anchored in the foundations most people overlook.


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SPEAKER_01:

Welcome back to another episode of the Detach Podcast. Today I'm gonna have Alejandro on. He's the vice presence of Sha. Shah is an ultra luxurious longevity stay which has been existing for over two decades. Now, if you want to understand what cutting edge longevity is, listen to this full episode and I really hope you enjoy it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. We've been in the game for two decades already. We started uh with this great uh dream 22 years ago. My father recovered from a cancer thanks to changing his lifestyle, his nutrition. After being at a doctor who has a specialized on integrative medicine, I followed his path and I also changed my lifestyle. And I've recovered from very strong migraines that I've been suffering for a long time. And since then we became so passionate that we felt the necessity of sharing it with others. And we built our first property in what it used to be our country house, which is in a beautiful natural park in the region of Valencia in Spain, and now expanding the brand internationally.

SPEAKER_01:

That's incredible. I do believe that some of the most successful businesses have often been created out of a pain point because it gives you a bit more purpose to drive a business. And I know listening to you, you guys had quite a tricky time during COVID, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, you know we've always seen it more like a life mission than a business, and I think that's been key for its success. Now, when we started, longevity or wellness wasn't such a trendy topic. And we started really as a purpose of sharing, um, and that's what at the end of the day, why you do things it affects very much on how you do it, on the perseverance, the genuine care that you put into it, and that is being key for our success. Um the starting was challenging, as you can imagine. People were not aware of what we were doing. Is this a spa? It's a clinic. And then, of course, COVID we had to close for a few months. But the brand has been growing year by year. We've been able to help already over 100,000 people from around the world, mostly leaders from different industries, to unlock their optimal health and performance.

SPEAKER_01:

Incredible. So I want to kind of get a bit more of a picture of your lifestyle and like what kind of family did you grow up in? Because prior to your father's cancer situation that he had, how was the family lifestyle?

SPEAKER_00:

We've been for many years eating the opposite of what we eat now. Basically, we've born in Argentina, and in Argentina, red meat, wine, sugar, dulce de leche is part of the culture. You learn how to cook a barbecue since you're 10 or 11. And that was very connected of my dad having health issues, mainly related with the digestive system for many years. I remember when my father encouraged me to go visit this doctor that was able to save his health, and I say, No way, I'm not willing to give up the way I eat. Also, you know, our body gets used to what we give to our body. If you give wine and meat on a daily basis or sugar every couple of hours, that's what your body asks you for. But if you change that for clean eating, for exercise, for good sleeping, then your body gets used to that and uh vitality levels grow, inflammation decrease, and alarms, body alarms work better, and then it's difficult to go back after that because you know you have already experienced what it is to enjoy life with plenitude.

SPEAKER_01:

How did you find out about your father's cancer?

SPEAKER_00:

Um he first had different diagnoses like chronic disease, and he's been visiting clinics for years, and in 2002 basically we were coming back from family holidays, and he went for a medical checkup and he got this diagnosis of a colon cancer. Um, doctors were not very optimistic about it. Of course, it wasn't the same colon cancer now than 22 years ago. And a friend of ours told us about a doctor who has a specialized on integrative medicine, and when you have such a worrying diagnosis, you're more open to try new things. And my father went to visit this doctor, and he changed completely his nutrition, his lifestyle. And in the beginning, my brothers and myself were a bit skeptical. We were thinking that he was losing a precious time. It's true that he was super lucky that they got it on a super early stage, and he was able to revert it. And that that's really what motivated us. The vision was why this is not more well known, why the system is so focused on sick care instead of health care. So we started to read, to research more about it, and then you realize that today's medical system is being designed considering that a century ago life expectancy was 30 years old, 32 years old. So all the focus was on sick care. But now we've been able to increase to between 75 to 85 years old, depending on the country. And the problem is that we are spending one-third part of our life in pure health, but we still very focus on a sick care system. And the change, the evolution we've seen in society and how longevity is such a boom at the moment, it comes basically from that. And it comes more from society, I would say, than from the system itself. It's not a product of not even brands like Shah. It's coming from people looking for answers. Saying why, if science has advanced so much, why cancer is still growing, why heart diseases are still growing, why diabetes is still growing, no? And we relate it with our lifestyle.

SPEAKER_01:

How did SHA look at the beginning? What did it comprise of?

SPEAKER_00:

It looked like a completely crazy idea. You know, people in the region used to make bets how many months we were going to survive. On the first week, we had only one guest. We had over 100 staff members, and we have only one guest whose family name was Valiente, which means brave in Spanish, no? So yes, we were pioneers. My father was a visionaire, definitely, on this, but it was hard. We had to do a strong education, uh, educational work for people to understand. Many times people think, especially back on that time, is it for people who are obese? Is it for people who are obsessed about beauty? Uh and now people realize that it's for anyone who is well and want to remain well and want to be even better. No, at the end of the day, um when we go on holidays, we usually end up doing the opposite of what we need because we think on the endorgment and we think I've been working hard all year round. Now it's time for myself, and that time of for myself, I think it's about drinking more alcohol, eating more food, lying on the sun, exposing all day on the sun, and then we go back from holidays with beautiful memories, but we are even more exhausted than before leaving. And the goal from the beginning was how we can take advantage of that leisure time to make it really meaningful, to say, okay, how can I use that time for something that rejuvenates me physically, mentally, spiritually, so I can reset myself and achieve a turning point, no, and come back renew? No. That was the goal from the very beginning.

SPEAKER_01:

So, what is Sha currently doing to be able to have some measurable change on someone who actually stays there? Because I know lots of luxury wellness resorts are saying that they're longevity and wellness, but what are you actually doing to have a measurable outcome?

SPEAKER_00:

That's a great question. I think the space is super crowded, there is so much noise. Uh, what is happening with the world longevity is similar to what happened to the world wellness, you can find it nowadays on every corner. To me, longevity at the end of the day is not about living longer, it's about adding life to your years. No, it's the difference between life span to health span. And the formula for health span is pretty clear. The point is we are seeing outdoors a bit of overpromising from brands that may have partial solutions. So basically, the foundation is lifestyle, and lifestyle has four pillars. I would say the first one and the most important. You know what is sleep, the main no before sleep, even before sleep, you know what is the main factor for long living?

SPEAKER_01:

Nutrition.

SPEAKER_00:

Loving connections.

SPEAKER_01:

I you know it's funny, I put these into like categories as well myself, and love and connection actually always comes to the bottom of it because it's like the last one that we kind of think of. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

The first one is loving connections, the second one is purpose. What wake us every morning with passion to face life, just the third life will be the third one will be sleep, which is key. You know, you need to take a sleep as your job. Whoever thinks that it's okay sleeping six hours, science doesn't agree with that. The better you sleep, the better you will live. The next one is nutrition, where there has been so many misconceptions. We've been trained by marketing instead of science, and now more and more there is scientific evidence of what to avoid, what to moderate, and what to focus on. The next one would be training, strength training, key, especially in the second half of our life. From 30s, we are losing between 3 to 8% of our muscle mass per decade, and that amount doubles since the 60s. So it's not only about trying to increase, but about maintaining, and then of course, cardio training. B2 max is one of the biggest predictors of longevity, so to create interval between zone 2 training with high-intensity training, and then of course uh proactive diagnosis. Five, ten years ago, we didn't have the data. The data was depending on a doctor, and we thought that the responsibility on our health was on a doctor, and the relation was doctor-patient, doctor giving orders, patient receiving orders. Now that era is over, and the control is back to society, to the individuals. And nowadays, through health wearable devices, through proactive diagnosis, blood biomarkers, full body MRI, you can have all data on your health to act. The main challenge then is what to do with that data. People are putting it on Chat GPT or Groc, which is a great tool, but it can never substitute a doctor. Doctors won't be substituted by artificial intelligence. Doctors or health institutions that don't use artificial intelligence will be replaced by doctors and institutions who just use it. But the key is once you have that GPS information that is health data to implement an action plan. Where again, lifestyle optimization is the foundation, and then there are many science-back longevity protocols that you can apply. The problem is longevity is following or has similar risks than conventional medicine, which is focusing on the quick fixes. People want to achieve great results without doing sacrifices. So many of these great longevity advances make sense as a complement to lifestyle. But if you're not focusing first on the foundation, it's not sustainable. And then it needs to be personalized. So it's great that longevity is democratizing. It's great that you can see IB on a mall, or you can see biohacking centers, but it it can't be one side fits all, where you get an IB without having a proper test before, or that you take a nutritional supplement without seeing how are your biomarkers first, no? So it needs to be personalized.

SPEAKER_01:

What's your thoughts on the biohacking space? Because now it kind of reminds me of the time when protein became a thing where everyone would just brand everything with protein written on it, and it was from a marketing perspective, it seemed like it was deemed as something healthy, like cereal bars that are sugary had protein on it, so people thought they were just healthy. Do you believe that biohacking is having a very similar approach when it comes to products? Um, any kind of AI integrations into wellness centers? Do you believe that biohacking is a bit of a buzzword?

SPEAKER_00:

You know, personally, I don't love the word biohacking. I think it's kind of a marketing word. Uh I love functional precision medicine. I love science-backed longevity protocols. I see biohacking therapies as the cherry on the top when you are already implementing the foundation that it's lifestyle, the proactive diagnosis, the science-back longevity protocols. For me, biohacking techniques, we are talking about contrast therapy, which it does have some scientific evidence. We are talking about hyperbaric chamber, which depending on what you are looking for, it can be useful, but one session won't change your life. You need, depending on what you're looking for, a protocol of different sessions. We are talking about red light therapy, we are talking about blocking blue light therapy. So it depends very much on what you're looking for, but it doesn't make sense that you go to a nice bath four times a week if you're not exercising, if you're not eating healthy, if you're not sleeping well. So at the end of the day, I see longevity as a pyramid where you need to have very clear what is the foundation, what is the next level, and what is the top level. So I would suggest anyone to start with the basics, with the foundations. I think that the known blue zones are a great example of that. That citizens, that people don't have access to any biohacking center, and they're living longer and probably happier than the rest of the world because they're ticking the boxes in terms of lifestyle. The problem is modern lifestyle has amazing benefits, and Dubai is a great example of that, but also it has some inconveniences. So if you think, do you need to take nutritional supplementation? Do you need to implement stem cells therapy? Do you need to implement exosomes? I will say a person that has a perfect lifestyle may not need any of this. The problem is who has a perfect lifestyle? No, we are living under stress, we are not sleeping enough, we are traveling constantly, jet lag, we are eating more than what we need. So at the end of the day, we want to be high performers, we want to stay on the top of the game, we want to look good, but at the same time, we are not following the ideal lifestyle. And that's where some of these protocols help us to keep optimal levels, even if we are not living the way we should be living.

SPEAKER_01:

I really like that answer because I think people are starting to get carried away with all the different biohacking tools that are out there, and they're actually getting so far torn away from the basics, and it's really important to focus on the basics first, and then to have that peppered in on top. So, with that being said, you just mentioned that love, connection, and purpose are some of the key pillars that you focus on at Shah. How do you achieve that within Shah?

SPEAKER_00:

That's a great point. You know, I will say first is creating a community, and it's a community of like-minded individuals. Around 50% of the guests that come to SHA, they come alone. And some of them, especially if it's their first stay, they come kind of scared that I'm gonna be the only one alone and everyone is gonna be lofty and joining, and then you arrive there. And first, you feel this professional but superhuman, warm uh touch and treatment from our staff. And second, you find other like-minded individuals that are happy to connect, looking to grow together, perfect, create that perfect uh scenario for personal uh and health growth. No, many great connections have done there, and then we have from mindfulness, yoga, coaching, we do purpose of purpose alignment, we do sessions of purpose alignment, uh coaching, goal setting. So it's really helping people, you know. Many times behind health imbalances you find psychological reasons. So it's key, and in all our health programs, we include psychotherapy, we include uh mindfulness, coaching. And sometimes people is like, why is this in my program? No, even sometimes we need to uh kind of uh work on the naming and we put it under different names depending on the program, so you don't feel that you're going to a psychotherapy, so yeah, it can sometimes be seen as a taboo subject.

SPEAKER_01:

Anything that comes around mental health, especially depends on the different cultures as well. They analyze uh, you know, psychologists as something like, oh no, it means that I'm like there's there's something wrong. But it should be, it can you can look at it as a preventative, right, for your mental health and how it circles around to other protocols that enhance your life. With that being said, how much has your programs changed over the years in order to really have some success success in your business? Because I feel like obviously the wellness industry, I know you don't really like the word wellness, but um, it has changed so much over the years. So, have you seen much growth in the programs that you've offered?

SPEAKER_00:

Hmm. Also, we're in a moment of uh kind of an identity crisis on the industry. You know, and we are seeing uh properties that are focusing on traditional wellness, which is great and it's needed. Properties that are going more in a direction that is much more complex and challenging, which is science back, longevity, constant innovation, where you require obviously to be always cutting edge, always innovating where shy is. And then you're seeing a lot of uh marketing. You're seeing a lot of properties that are looking uh either to improve their seasonality or either to whatever, increase their occupation, uh taking advantage of wellness. But the point is consumers are every time more educated and they know exactly what they want. And wellness is not anymore about a physical area, it's not anymore about a treatment menu, no. This is about a lifestyle. And you find now there's consumers that have a similar level of expertise that you can have having been in the industry so many years. Also, thanks to artificial intelligence. People go to a health consultation and say, Well, you're telling me this, but ChatGPT is telling me this, so what should I do? So nowadays I would say creating a catalog, creating a website is easy, delivering is the difficult part. No, so this is a super challenging, complex industry. On the other side, it's extremely satisfying because you are impacting people's lives for better. Regarding our health program, what we do is every single year we do a tremendous work of updating, renovating, evolving our health programs. So we have created a scientific innovation committee that we are meeting every couple of weeks, and the responsibles of each health area has the responsibility of bringing constantly innovation to the table. We assist to every single relevant longevity or proactive health uh conference around the world, sometimes as speakers, sometimes as attendants. We are very involved in research with different institutions. So every year we have the responsibility of saying, okay, for our longevity program or for our leaders' performance program, what can we add? What is more effective than what we have? What should we keep? So we look at guest feedback, we look at effectivity, we measure biomarkers, we measure results, we looked at credible innovations on the field to make sure that we always have the best programs. And this year we had uh the great recognizement that our longevity program was awarded as the best longevity program in the world, 2025. And I think it's definitely thanks to that constant innovation.

SPEAKER_01:

That's incredible. What are the best practices now for the listener to exceed and have optimal performance in their longevity programs?

SPEAKER_00:

Are you talking about science back protocols? Are you talking about lifestyle?

SPEAKER_01:

A bit of both. What what would you advise the listener?

SPEAKER_00:

I would say the silent killers are pure sleep. So take a sleep as your job. Basically, the rule is very easy. Everything that includes your um resting respiratory rate doesn't help you to sleep. Everything that decreases, it helps you to sleep. So avoiding late meals, avoiding cafe in afternoon, avoiding training after 4 p.m. Um taking care of your environment, nutrition, as I say is super key for longevity, exercise, you know, there isn't any longevity drug that is as effective as training for longevity. So make it part of your life, enjoy it, and you need to increase to have at least two days of strength training, at least two days of cardio training per week. And then if you are looking about tricks, I would say you need to test yourself and experiment. Ideally, to test every four or six months your biomarkers and see what you are missing, and implement some supplement nutritional supplementations, some of the basics NMM, Q10, TA65, vitamin D, vitamin C, uh magnesium thrown at the but again it needs to be adapted to what you need. So we do it in Shah Mexico. Europe is very regulated. Here I believe it's also very regulated. The ideal is androgenic or mesenchymal stem cells, which are ten times more powerful than autologous stem cells that are from our body. Exosomes, which is basically the communications between our stem cells, and it's something that personally I've been using for a couple of years seeing great results. Personalized peptides, I see it as a way to boost determinate aspects on a temporary basis. And then we are seeing some promising drugs, as it is rampapicine, which uh it has great evidence on mouses and still having some evidence on human beings. Many people who are crazy on longevity are experimenting with themselves. I will say to wait until we see more uh human-based evidence.

SPEAKER_01:

I think that's great advice. With that being said, I'm gonna ask you one last question. This is called the Detached Podcast. So, what would you detach yourself? That's what would you detach yourself away from that's limiting you today?

SPEAKER_00:

That's a great question. Um I always have a joke: if you want to live longer, don't create a longevity company. No, uh, I'm super, super passionate about my business. This is what I love in life, but of course, as any entrepreneur, it means hard work, it means stress, it means traveling. Probably I will detach micromanagement, uh being able to create more structure so I can focus on what I enjoy and love the most.

SPEAKER_01:

Sounds like you need to do a bit of surrendering. Yes. Thank you so much for being on the podcast today. It's been an absolute pleasure.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for inviting me. It's been a truly pleasure.