There is a phrase I hear almost daily in medicine, and particularly in preventive care.

“Everything looks normal.”

I’ve been in preventive care for a long time – nearly 20 years, and I initially thought that it
was a phrase that reassured patients — and understandably so. Normal meant nothing was
obviously wrong. No urgent intervention was needed. Life could continue uninterrupted.

Yet over the years, both through building Elixir and through my own evolving understanding
of health, I have found myself growing increasingly uncomfortable with how easily we accept “normal” as the goal.

Because normal, as it turns out, often includes persistent fatigue that people learn to live with. And it also doesn’t account for how our normal will decline over time and age.

It includes hormonal fluctuations dismissed as “age appropriate.”

It includes recovery that quietly slows, mental sharpness that subtly dulls, sleep that becomes
lighter, energy that feels harder to access.

Individually, these shifts rarely trigger alarm. Collectively, they shape the quality of our lives.

What has become clear to me is this:
Absence of disease is not the same as presence of vitality or even the highest quality of
life.

And increasingly and understandably, many of the individuals walking through our doors are no longer satisfied with simply being told they are fine.

They want to feel strong.
Clear-headed.
Resilient.
Capable of meeting the demands of the lives they are actively building.

Perhaps this perspective has sharpened for me because I see reflections of it everywhere — in the patients we care for, in high-performing women balancing professional ambition with family life, and, if I am honest, even in my own expectations of what it means to be well.

Health, I have come to believe, should not be measured only by what is absent, but by what is fully available to us — energy, strength, clarity, longevity.

This requires a shift in how we partner with our bodies.
Less reaction.
More anticipation. And the utmost preparation.

Less acceptance of quiet decline.
More willingness to intervene earlier and intelligently.

Medicine is moving in this direction, whether slowly or swiftly, depending on where one looks. But what encourages me most is not just the evolution of science — it is the evolution of patient awareness.

More people are asking better questions.

Not “Am I sick?”
But “Am I functioning at my highest capacity?”

It is a higher standard. We are raising the floor.

One that I have become increasingly unwilling to compromise on — both for the individuals we serve, and for the future of healthcare as I believe it should be practiced.

Because ultimately, the goal is not merely to remain within range.

It is to live well above it.

Warmly,
Tanya Khubchandani
Founder and CEO, Elixir Wellness