This panel from GRAZIA Aesthetics Live, moderated by GRAZIA deputy editor, Olivia Morris, explored the next frontier of beauty and wellness, where advanced diagnostics, gut optimisation, and peptide therapy converge to create real, lasting transformation. Dr Mahmoud Musa and Nadine Karadag, the experts from Valeo Health, alongside Charlie Christie and Chiara Seidenader discussed how personalised bloodwork reveals hidden imbalances, why gut health is the cornerstone of everything from skin clarity to mental wellbeing, and how cutting-edge peptide protocols are redefining energy, longevity, and performance.

OM: Aesthetics is just it’s not just about how we look, its about how we function from the inside out. Nadine, could you tell us a little bit about why you decided to start your own business?

NK: When I was 26 working in private equity I wasn’t feeling well. I went to a doctor, and I was prescribed medicine – Glucophage, 2000 milligrams, which is very high dose. And I was also prescribed arthritis medicine, too. That was their solution. Nobody asked me what I was eating, if I was stressed, or if I was sleeping well. I spoke to Jamie Richards, who is now our chief wellbeing officer, and he asked if I’d had my vitamins checked. When I did that I discovered by iron levels were very low, and as soon as we adjusted that I had energy again. With Valeo, we try and show that its not complicated to get a test done or take care of yourself. Unfortuantely, as humans we usually only start looking at a problem when something is wrong, so I wanted to launch Valeo and help people take control over their life.

OM: Dr Mahmoud, what have you noticed in the space of longevity and wellness that’s changed since Valeo started?

DM: People are more aware of what their data means. They want to know how they can improve their sleep, their strength. their health… Awareness, to me, is the best thing that happened through the first 15 years of my career. Peptides have also become huge. Peptides are amino acids, short chain amino acids that we already have in our body, and what they do is they just increase, amplify the signal to tell your body to do a specific thing at a specific time for a specific target. But there is a regulatory problem with peptides; there’s still a grey area. We do a lot of research at Valeo, and we advise that you look into things like peptides and GLP-1s under medical supervision.

OM: Chiara, you’ve been such a strong community online. What advice do you give to people who are looking into longevity?

CS: There’s an overload of information online, and that’s where peopl get lost. The four main pillars of longevity are nutrition, exercise, lifestyle (which includes sleep and supplements), and mindset. So we look at all of these. We ask am I eating whole foods? Am I not exposing myself too much to sugars? Am I eating healthy fats? What am I doing when it comes to exercise? Am I doing enough to move my body on a daily basis? Am I exposing myself to outdoor sunlight? This one is actually so important because there’s a lot of red light therapy now, and what that is mimicking is just natural sunrise and sunset. But if we would expose ourselves more at sunrise and sunset then not only would save so much money, but we would actually ground ourselves more, which is so important for the nervous system. And when it comes to lifestyle, what am I doing to create a healthy environment?  What are my daily habits? How is my my supplement intake? And the final aspect is mindset: what am I doing on a daily level to regulate my nervous system? So it’s not just mental health, but everything that has to do with having a routine that makes me feel good.

OM: Charlie, you approach wellness from a mindset perspective. How important is to reset out nervous system? Its a buzzword that we’re hearing a lot nowadays, but what does that actually encompass?

CC: So many things. The whole body is connected. Our physical body give us signs and tells us things all the time, but when we start to go deeper into the emotional body and the mental body and the spiritual body, you start to see how everything is all connected. Controversial but things like Aura Ring, Whoop and, Apple Watches are really lovely to have and a good way to measure what’s going on in our bodies, but I think sometimes it can actually cause a bit of disconnect, too. We should learn that we are the smartest, smart device that we will ever have – rather than reaching for our phones to tell us the answer.

OM: What works for one person, won’t work for another. Nadine, how do you address that at Valeo?

NK: People don’t realise that your mindset can impact you physically. So actually being stressed and having anxiety can physically show in your body. At Valeo we monitor everything through data, and through your blood tests. We watch some people’s blood work improve just because they’ve adjusted couple of things in their lifestyle and food and their mindset. We give you all your data for your own viewing and ownership on your own account – its  analyzed and explained, and we tell you how can you improve it with lifestyle changes and supplements. At Valeo, we try to do a lifestyle change before medicine. Of course we’ve launched GLP-1 and peptides, and I do think it’s the future – and what a beautiful future we have – but do it in a safe environment. Do it with the right doctor.

DM: Whatever works for you, as Nadine said, may not work for someone else. Whatever works for you, ethnicity-wise, maybe cannot work for me, ethnicity-wise, right? Because mushrooms that grew up in the UK are different than mushrooms that grew up in the Middle East, right? So our bodies adapt differently to these things. For us its really about knowing who the patient is, and who the person in front of you is – starting from their mindset. It starts from the patient history, medical history, family history, lifestyle, everything that is related to you as an individual. That’s also data that we can connect to your own blood work. Then when we create a personal, let’s say health plan, and one of the most important parts of this health plan is setting realistic goals. For example, we have people coming in saying ‘I want to use GHK-Cu copper peptide because I know it can remove all my wrinkles.’ Ok fine – it could, but there’s no evidence to support that. We could start by asking how’s your protein intake? Do you exercise? How’s your diet? Do you have other supplements? Have you ever done any surgeries before? These things will help us align and create a plan.

CC: Peptides do not solve the root of any deficiency – they are just amplifiers and an accessory for health. So if there is something that is missing from healthy nutrition, or lack of exercise, or something about mindset that is not in place, we need a proper solution. There is a dependency that comes from prolonged use of specific peptides, which means that once we go off them, our body might stop producing certain specific neurotransmitters or peptides themselves.

CS: I have so many patients that come from long uses of Manjaro, and they come to me and say ‘I’m not able to eat anything anymore, but as as soon as I eat something, either I go into fear, because I got so used to the suppressed appetite and now I’m afraid of eating anything, and also I just feel so weak. Or I have joint pain.’ If there is not proper care from a professional that follows you through the progress, these people just stop eating, and malnourish themselves. So, yes, they lose weight because, of course, GLP-1s are just simply canceling our hunger, but there’s a lot of weight loss and muscle mass loss as well. So it’s very important to understand, again, what are the complications, the concerns, before starting anything.

OM: If you were to give our audience one piece of advice, where would you say that reset starts from?

NK: I would say educate yourself. We talked a lot about peptides and GLP-1, and we are lucky to have these tools, but please be curious about them. . Find out about them, read about them, and personalize them to yourself. Do them correctly and safely.

DM: Go back to basics. Our bodies have the tools, but you just need to reprogram yourself.

See more from GRAZIA Aesthetic Live here.