Deepinder Goyal’s Continue claims gravity may be a hidden driver of human ageing

Gravity reduces blood flow to the brain, and this reduced circulation may contribute to brain ageing. This is a new scientific hypothesis unveiled by Eternal CEO Deepinder Goyal's Continue, a human longevity-focused venture.

This hypothesis places Earth’s gravity at the centre of human ageing, claiming that gravity’s constant pull on blood circulation, especially blood flow to the brain, may be an overlooked factor that gradually triggers age-related decline.

The basic idea behind this is that because the brain sits above the heart, spending most of our lives upright means gravity constantly pulls blood away from it.

In this posture, gravity reduces cerebral blood flow (CBF) by as much as 17%. Continue argues that over decades, this reduced blood supply could gradually weaken two regions of the brain that regulate critical bodily functions: the hypothalamus, which manages hormones and metabolism, and the brainstem, which governs autonomic functions. Their decline, the researchers say, may set off multiple age-related processes.

CBF is already known to decline 20–40% between the ages of 20 and 80. But Continue claims this may not be a passive effect of age. Instead, the hypothesis proposes that gravity’s impact on circulation could be a root cause of this reduction—a link that has not been examined in existing scientific literature.

This is not the first time gravity has been linked to ageing. Previous studies on gravity and ageing have largely come from space research. NASA and other space science programmes have documented how microgravity, the near-weightless environment astronauts experience, affects the body. These studies show that microgravity leads to bone loss, muscle atrophy, cardiovascular changes and immune system shifts, many of which resemble accelerated ageing. However, these findings stop at the physiological effects of removing gravity.

Almost no research has examined how Earth’s own 1G gravity affects humans over a lifetime, particularly in terms of brain perfusion, Continue says.

"Studies so far have focused on microgravity and its effects on ageing. Almost nothing has examined how Earth’s own gravity affects humans over a lifetime. This is the first time a connection has been drawn between gravity, age-related reductions in brain blood flow, and systemic ageing," a spokesperson told CNBC-TV18.

The team also cites patterns in nature to support the hypothesis. Species that spend long periods inverted, such as bats, show unusually long lifespans relative to body size.

"Many other lifespan outliers, like sloths and flamingos, also spend long periods in positions where their brains lie below their hearts. Gravity may
be the unexplored variable behind these species-level longevity exceptions," the hypothesis notes.

In humans, yoga traditions have long promoted inverted postures, and population data indicate shorter individuals tend to live longer, which the company added may be linked to the reduced distance the heart must pump blood against gravity.

Sharing some excerpts from the note, Deepinder Goyal took to X, saying the hypothesis opens a world of questions and suggested that several long-standing health phenomena may need to be reconsidered through a vascular lens.

He asked whether the benefits of exercise could simply be due to temporarily improving the body’s “hydraulic system,” whether Alzheimer’s may involve a vascular component that unfolds too slowly to notice.

He also questioned if mood disorders might be linked to gravity-dependent blood flow to the midbrain and whether practices like meditation, breathwork and yoga derive many of their benefits from improved cerebral perfusion.

The

Gravity Aging Hypothesis opens a world of questions. Is the miracle of exercise just that it temporarily fixes our hydraulic system? Is Alzheimer's partly a vascular story we ignored because it unfolds too slowly for humans to perceive? In hypertension, what if the body… https://t.co/JwBjmBlU6y

— Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal) November 15, 2025

How Continue arrived at its findings

The organisation conducted preliminary studies using a new experimental device developed in-house. The device continuously measures total blood flow to the brain and was used to record the effects of different postures and activities.

The Continue spokesperson explained, “We developed an experimental device using advanced health sensors that estimate total blood flow to the brain. We used it to continuously measure brain flow across different interventions like inversions. The device took two years to build and has been benchmarked against gold-standard CBF measurements.”

Using this tool, Continue found that Yoga-based active inversions increased CBF by 13.3%, and passive inversions using commercial inversion tables increased CBF by 20.2%.

It also found that a simple legs-up-the-wall pose improved CBF slightly more than active inversions.

In a six-week study, daily passive inversion for 10 minutes led to a 7% increase in average daily brain blood flow, which the company equates to roughly 10 “younger” years of brain perfusion.

For context, active inversions involve holding the body upside down using muscular effort, while passive inversions use external support, like an inversion table, so the body hangs inverted without engaging the muscles.

The team emphasises that this work is early and does not claim gravity is the only cause of ageing. Rather, they argue it may be one of the most significant contributors that science has not yet explored.

WHAT’S NEXT

Continue Research says it is in the process of commissioning further scientific work to test and validate the hypothesis across labs worldwide.

The spokesperson told CNBC-TV18 that Continue Research is already working with scientists to test, refine, and even challenge the Gravity Ageing Hypothesis.

"We are using our $25 million fund to actively commission studies that generate empirical evidence for the hypothesis," the spokesperson added.

The organisation describes its work as open-source and has invited researchers globally to collaborate, test the hypothesis independently, or attempt to disprove it.

Continue maintains that while the hypothesis is new, it aims to expand the scientific understanding of how the human body ages and encourage more upstream research into cerebral blood flow, gravity, and long-term health.

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