Dr Alka Patel is a longevity physician, lifestyle medicine pioneer, and advocate for what she calls Younger Ageing—the science and strategy of living longer, younger, and stronger. But her journey to this work began with a deeply personal experience: her own burnout.
Burnout doesn’t happen overnight and looking back, Dr Alka recalls the earliest clues. “I wish I hadn’t normalised exhaustion,” she said. Falling asleep tired and waking up tired had become her norm. As a GP, mother of three, and business owner, she believed fatigue was simply the price of responsibility.
Her days were meticulously timetabled down to the minute. Sleep became expendable; meals were skipped. Micro-sleeps, a dangerously clear sign of exhaustion, were ignored. “I never said no, I never asked for help,” she admits. “I thought I had to do it all myself.”
The breaking point came when she ended up in the ER, then hospitalised for weeks. “I felt like I had no energy left to go onand my near death, out of body experience confirmed it. I saw the light, literally, running towards it, only to be stopped by and my children’s shadows telling me to come back.” It was her birthday and her children’s little hands on her face made her realise what she stood to lose. this moment catalysed a profound life change.
The hardest change: Boundaries
When asked what the hardest lifestyle change was for her, Dr Alka doesn’t mention diet, exercise, or sleep. “It was boundaries: learning to say no, not being ‘always available’ and allowing people to help without it making me feel as though I was incapable..”
As a doctor, caring is instinctive, but constantly being “on” is unsustainable. Boundaries, she discovered, don’t reduce your impact; they increase it. By intentionally saying yes, rather than by default, she found more energy and clarity in every aspect of life.
Dr Alka’s own experience shapes how she guides her children. “I don’t preach. I model my own habits,” she explains. And now my children inspire me. Conversations about doing what you love without burning out are normal in her household. Her key message: rest is not laziness; it’s active recovery.
She encourages her children, and anyone listening, to understand the brain’s default mode network, which activates when we’re not “doing.” Creativity and innovation flourish in those moments of being rather than constant hustle.
High-achievers, especially young professionals and students, often feel immense pressure, compounded in some South Asian families by cultural expectations to excel. Dr Alka urges a shift from hustle culture to what she calls aligned ambition.
“You can have both peace and prosperity. Health and success aren’t mutually exclusive,” she says. Aligning ambition with personal values and identity is essential. She uses a vivid metaphor: your body is the chariot, your senses are the horses, your mind the reins, and your intellect the driver. “If you let the horses run wild, your chariot crashes. But if you drive with intention and purpose, you stay on track.”
Her approach to productivity centres on simple yet powerful hacks such as building micro-breaks into the day with short, intentional pauses to reset, and reframing rest by seeing recovery as essential fuel for performance rather than a sign of diminished ambition.
For Dr Alka, great health starts with sleep. She reframes it as an active, not passive, function. “Sleep is where your body repairs, your memories consolidate, and your brain clears toxins. It’s your productivity engine.”
“We live in a world where daytime dominates and nighttime is sacrificed,” she says. “We need to flip that and protect those eight hours as sacred.”
A journey back to the roots
When Dr Alka Patel reflects on her journey, she begins with her parents’ remarkable migration story. Her father was born in Vadadla, Gujarat, and trained as an electronics engineer. Her mother spent her early years in Nyeri, Kenya, enjoying an outdoor childhood before political unrest in the 1960s forced the family to uproot. Her grandfather, then a headmaster, brought the family to the UK around 1968, part of a wider wave of migration. Her father followed a year later and began life in England with almost nothing.
The struggles were immense. Her father’s engineering qualifications weren’t recognised; instead, he worked in a cotton mill before eventually moving into entrepreneurship in the retail and residential care home sector. Her mother abandoned her dream of becoming a nurse. Her grandfather couldn’t continue as a school headmaster. “I have complete respect for anybody who immigrates, even now—let alone in the 60s and 70s when it was so hard,” Dr Alka says.
Growing up first-generation in the UK wasn’t without challenges. “There felt like a distance between me and my cultural roots,” she recalls. Yet, over time, she discovered that her heritage ran deep, influencing her values and the way she practises medicine today.
This defining chapter came after her experience of burnout. Feeling an unexplained pull towards India, she travelled solo to Kerala to volunteer in palliative care. There, she met a 106-year-old man, Motu, whose wisdom changed her life. Asked about his longevity, he replied: “I have been kind to my body; my body has been kind to me.”
For Dr Alka, this distilled what modern medicine often misses. “In medical school, we’re taught about sickness, not health. We’re not taught how to help people be kind to their bodies or minds.” It inspired her to integrate ancient practices like stillness, yoga fasting and breathwork with cutting edge testing and diagnostics for a more holistic approach to health. Her mission is to empower people to live a million hour life of longevity, impact, vitality and energy. that’s 114 years. and she believes this is possible, “if," she says, "we are kind to our bodies."
Dr Alka’s “biohacks” for stress & sleep
- 6-60 Breathing: Take 6 breaths per minute for 60 seconds to reset your nervous system.
- 7-70 Reset: Every 70 minutes, pause for at least 7 seconds of silence and inward focus.
- 1-10 Morning Rule: 1 minute of morning sunlight + 10 seconds to set your daily intention.
- 8-80 Sleep Rule: 8 hours of sleep + 80 minutes device-free wind-down before bed.
