From Belize to Dubai: How one Belizean woman is ‘biohacking’ her way to longevity

When Mansi Hukmani wakes up, she doesn’t scroll her phone. She reaches for bone broth. This is the first crucial step in her morning routine, one that Mansi has perfected through painstaking research. Next, she takes five milligrams of creatine, some Brazil nuts (for the selenium), and then pops some supplements.

The warm cup is her daily starting line. It’s meant to kick-start collagen production and, in her mind, the aging process itself. From there, the routine unfolds with near-clinical precision. Five milligrams of creatine. A couple of Brazil nuts for selenium. A lineup of supplements swallowed with practiced ease.

Breakfast is what she calls her “Morning Beauty Porridge”: Oats loaded with chia seeds, sunflower seeds, hemp seeds, and a heavy scatter of berries. Sometimes she pairs it with an organic drink like kefir. 

Then comes movement. Some days she lifts weights; other days she flows through yoga. She works, she walks, she keeps dinner light—often sushi or fish, always with vegetables. A few times a week, she allows herself chocolate, her one consistent indulgence.

Somewhere in between meetings and meals, she injects peptides. Recently, she’s been experimenting with a start-up’s so-called “Glow Stack,” a custom cocktail designed to optimize everything from skin to cellular health. She keeps tabs on her vitamin levels with routine bloodwork, adjusting as needed.

At night, she pops a magnesium glycinate supplement. Lights out.

This is a typical day for Mansi, if your definition of ordinary includes lab-tested supplements and injectable longevity aids. Every choice, from broth to bedtime minerals, is engineered with one goal in mind: to live longer, age better, and keep disease at arm’s length.

But her passion for health and wellness–as you can tell–transcends that of a typical gym rat. 

Hailing from Belize, Mansi has always been interested in health. She had attained a Master’s in Health and Medical Psychology from New York University, but it wasn’t until recently that her passion for health science really took off. 

She notes that at first, it started as a hobby. That enthusiasm transformed into sought-out passion when she started a Substack documenting her interest in the industry. At the time, she was working in tech in New York. Little did she know that her presence in the space would catapult her into an influencer with over 1,100 readers, eventually landing her in Dubai to host a panel on longevity with some of the top leaders in the industry. 

When I spoke to Mansi, she had just moved to London after a bout in tech in NYC. It was all very fast, she tells me, and the decision came after being tired of working for someone else.

“I realized that I was deriving no happiness out of my career [in tech],” she says. “So I decided to literally just start writing. I started a Substack and started putting my thoughts out there, and started connecting with cool people in the space.”

Mansi shares that she discovered that there was more to health than just from doctors and researchers. She realized that a myriad of perspectives exist, from pharmacists to trainers and even influencers. It was obvious that these different lifepaths often didn’t “talk to each other.” So, it became her goal to join all these different avenues together. She names it “building a community.” This, in turn, is what led her to Dubai’s longevity field.

I asked Mansi why Dubai was chosen as a conference location. After all, even Mansi agrees that the U.S. and China have leading longevity campaigns. However, she says that “All the rich people live [in Dubai], the sovereign wealth funds are there, so they have the capacity to invest in health.” She says she initially went as a guest, but ended up hosting her own event and even moderating it.

Mansi gushes about the event, saying that the panelists she got were researching “reversing the process of aging.” The two panelists included Sebastian A. Brunemeier from LongGame Ventures and Dr.Flutura H.H. from CLINIQUE LA PRAIRIE. When asked how much work was put into planning a panel, Mansi highlights the process of choosing the panelists.

“They need to be important enough in the space where the other people in the audience, want to meet them. So I’m trying to create a community of people that can benefit from each other,” she shares.

But the longevity industry is not without its discourse. The controversy over it promoting“disease-mongering” or being accused of a fad only accessible to the wealthy is not quiet. I asked Mansi what she thinks of these valid criticisms. She explains how she asked the panelists these same questions. At the end of the day, Mansi is trying to bring more awareness and transparency to the industry. 

“I am not a scientist, I’m not a doctor, I’m not even building in the spaces,” she says. “Yet, I am bringing community together who have different perspectives. So my perspective on all of this is that I don’t have a perspective,” she explains. “I’m a learner and an observer.” 

Another key element is making sure people understand the entire concept before casting any judgment.

The term “disease-mongering” was mentioned before, but it is important to understand its significance in this context. The National Institute of Health defined it as “widening the boundaries of treatable illness in order to expand markets for those who sell and deliver treatments.” 

In other words, people think longevity influencers are making up bodily issues as a way to sell consumers their products. On the other hand, some people believe longevity means trying to achieve something impossible, like immortality. However, Mansi refutes the idea.

“It’s not like you’re trying to age backwards and become immortal. You’re actually trying to go down to the root cause of disease and make sure it doesn’t happen,” she explains. 

No one is trying to stay 30 forever, but some people want to still be active even at 80. It’s not delaying the inevitable, but “want[ing] to be as healthy as possible for as long as you’re alive.” 

Mansi brings up a topic that keeps circulating in the news quite often: declining birth rates and a rising aging population. Both these statistics, paired together, paint a bleak outlook for the future. She shares a statistic from the World Health Organization reporting that, “By 2030, 1 in 6 people in the world will be aged 60 years or over.” 

A tough wake-up call, Mansi says. We should be aware that society is not yet ready to deal with that number. This is where longevity can prove helpful. 

“So one way to tackle this is by making people less diseased, not having people be sick when they’re in their 60s and 70s, so they’re still healthy and happy and moving around.”

A country where many aspiring young leaders usually leave, Belize is hard not to include when trying to make a difference in the world. It’s a double-edged sword, trying to benefit your country but having to leave it in the process. Mansi describes that Belize felt stifling in a way, and while leaving the country may have given her many more opportunities, it doesn’t mean the country is necessarily falling behind. 

“I think Belize is catching up to that now, and people are getting more creative…starting businesses there and doing all these things,” she says. “I think there’s a lot of power in the youth, and power in young people to be creative and make something out of themselves.”

While Belize may not have all the tools to reach biotech research like countries in the UAE, it doesn’t mean nothing can be done. Mansi says it can achieve “the most functional basic needs, which, at the end of the day, that’s all you need.”

As she said, simply opening up a conversation about it can prove to be beneficial. Sometimes all someone needs is to have a space to talk, especially when it comes to health. 

Mansi neatly wraps up her life journey with a bow, closing off by saying that one’s path can never be straightforward. She herself has undergone countless trials and tribulations, but “as long as you have agency to make something out of the opportunities that are coming your way, then, you’re unstoppable.” She also hints at a possible panel in Belize, so stay tuned, and the discussions might just start rolling in.