Kumaar Bagrodia interviewed by NDTV on the societal chase of youthful looks

Why is looking youthful so important to us - even if it harms us?

Kumaar Bagrodia was recently interviewed by NDTV and the journalist asked:

WHY is looking young so important today?

Not just how we chase it — but WHY we’re wired for this obsession of looking young at any cost and what it means for our physical & mental health. Neuroscience has some answers:

In the modern brain, youth equals currency. Not just beauty, but social capital.

Youthful faces trigger key reward circuits in the brain. The same circuits activated by money, attention, and social validation.

The Default Mode Network, responsible for how we see ourselves and compare ourselves to others is constantly processing social cues. In today’s world, visual markers of youth signal power, vitality, and relevance. They tell others and ourselves that we still belong.

In parallel, the Salience Network tunes our attention to what society rewards. When filtered beauty, Botox, and anti-aging hacks dominate media feeds, the brain adapts, prioritizing youth as a survival asset.

So this isn’t about vanity. It’s about staying seen, chosen, and competitive in a world where being youthful isn’t optional, it’s existential. Looking young isn’t just an aesthetic, it’s a neuro-status signal. And in today’s attention economy, youth wins the algorithm, the approval, and the influence.

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This relentless pursuit triggers chronic stress, which dysregulates the nervous system. Elevated cortisol impacts memory, focus and immune function — all while accelerating cellular aging. Ironically, the harder you fight to stay young, the faster your biology wears out.

Mentally, it breeds body image disorders, compulsive self-monitoring, and persistent self-comparison, especially when people model their lives after longevity influencers and doctors posting extreme routines.

What many don’t realize is that these protocols — cold plunges, peptides, extreme exercise are bio-individual, not universally safe. But the brain’s authority bias leads people to adopt them uncritically, simply because “a doctor said it.”

Physically, this can lead to hormonal chaos, nervous system fatigue, and inflammation, all under the guise of wellness. And emotionally, people become more anxious, less grounded, and often detached from their authentic self.

We are placing our trust in longevity doctors, influencers and viral anti-aging fads without scientific grounding or old wisdom and common sense.

So:

Are we chasing health, or hiding from irrelevance?

Can we stop confusing vitality with vanity?

Why cant we have a more brain-wise approach to ageing?