One of the best parts about Easton’s culture is how so many different types of people come together on the mat, the great equalizer. We have everyone from high school and college students to comedians, neurosurgeons and doctors sparring together.
One of these doctors is Vassily Eliopoulos, an Easton Black Belt and the Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer of Longevity Health, a cutting-edge longevity clinic for high performers seeking full health optimization. Longevity Health clients receive a dedicated doctor, personal trainer, nutritionist, medical concierge, and even a chef. Through exclusive retreats and memberships, Longevity Health ensures every aspect of their patients’ health is covered with precision and care.
If you’ve been with Easton for a while, you may know him as Doctor Vass. He joined Easton in 2014.
Vass got into grappling in High School where he won a wrestling State Championship in Connecticut. He continued to wrestle through College, but it was while he was in med school at Cornell and training with the New York Athletic Club wrestling team that he transitioned away from grappling – for a while.
Vass’s mentor at the time was a doctor with a Madison Ave practice. While coming into work the day after wrestling practice with a fat lip and a black eye didn’t seem that unusual for a wrestler, Vass’s mentor noted that it might not be the best look for a medical student in a clinic.
“He pulled me aside,” recounts Vass, “and said, ‘I know you’re a wrestler. I know – but the clientele thinks you’ve been in a bar fight. It’s your choice, but you need to be aware people are going to judge you when you show up like that.”
Coming full circle
Soon after that conversation, Vass stopped wrestling and picked up rock climbing, which eventually brought him out to Boulder, Colorado.
However, when having kids meant he could no longer chase adventure for days on multi-pitch climbs, Vass had to find something new. With the stress of work at the ER, he missed the physical aspect of grappling. Vass missed the intuitive connection and physical release training gave his body and mind.
When he discovered that Easton offered a wrestling class, he signed up and the instructor quickly noted Vass had wrestled before; he suggested Vass try Jiu Jitsu. Vass was instantly hooked.
Like wrestling, his body picked up BJJ easily. Balancing the mind’s noise with the body’s flow, moving through feelings, the sport helped Vass manage anxiety and not internalize stress from work.
Back in familiar territory, Vass fell right in and began competing, with wins starting at the White Belt level locally where he won Adult and Masters level tournaments – ultimately winning Fight2Win White Belt of the Year. He continued to win in IBJJF tournaments including the Masters World Championships at both the White Belt and Blue Belt levels.
Today, Doctor Vass holds a Black Belt in Jiu Jitsu. Along with winning the IBJJF Denver Open in Gi at Purple Belt, he also took the IBJJF Denver Open No Gi at Black Belt – all in Masters divisions.
“The mats – I do it because I love it,” says Vass. “I train hard. I like training hard – I enjoy the flow state that comes with that, the ability to relieve and release emotional and physical tension. I work as hard at my medical practice as I do on the mats. I’ve heard it said – ‘How you do one thing is how you do everything.’ I think that applies to me.”
Growing a practice
Of course, what we want to know is how Doctor Vass managed to do all of this training and competing while growing a family and a Longevity Medicine practice. Remember – when Vass began training with Easton, he was still working as an ER doctor.
Since he was a kid, Vass had always known he wanted to do something that helps people and something that could provide him with financial stability. Medicine always seemed like the answer to that overlap. It was the Easton community, however, that helped him believe in the drive to do medicine his way.
“I probably would’ve opened my own practice either way,” says Vass, “but Easton definitely helped play a role in giving me the confidence to just say, screw the system, I’m sick and tired of my job at the ER. I need to do something else.”
At the time, Vass felt angry and trapped in medicine. He’d gotten into it for the right reasons and had spent half his life getting educated to be there, but ended up feeling like a cog in a huge, dysfunctional system. He knew he needed to make it work, but he also knew the system was broken, and that many doctors – and patients – could feel it too.
One of the biggest proponents of following his dream was our own namesake, Amal Easton. Many people who immerse themselves in the Jiu Jitsu community preach about following your passion and believe in doing what you love – something that has meaning and purpose to you.
“They say, if you’re not doing something you love doing every day,” Vass says, “don’t do it. I thought – I hate going to work in the ER and it’s not because I don’t want to help people, but it’s everything around it that I hate.”
Vass tells us that the supportive, positive, and uplifting community at Easton encouraged him to live life his way – from the mats to everything else, it was all the same thing. They believed in him. Ultimately, some of Easton’s members became his first patients, trusting him to apply cutting-edge treatments to optimize their health and performance.
Despite the risks, the criticism of his colleagues in traditional medicine, the countless mistakes made and lessons learned along the way, Vass ultimately co-founded Longevity Health. Now, he can truly say he’s doing what he loves.
Leaving the world of conventional medicine behind, taking its best and adding to it along the way has enabled Vass to help people work proactively to optimize their health and longevity.
Vass tells us — you just have to leave the system. He’s traveled all over the world seeking out mentors and learning from them – in a time before you could find almost anything at a conference nearby.
Part of having members of our beloved mat family sweat, work, and learn together means sharing ideas beyond just technique. The struggle brings us all together, and no matter what we’re battling in life, time spent in the trenches makes us stronger, wiser, and more connected to each other. We can’t help but grow.
We value all of the knowledge that Dr. Vass, and our many other brilliant students bring to Easton’s mats. Our community is truly the heart and soul of the academy, and the way that each thread weaves itself into its fabric and ripples out continues to inspire and drive us!
Beating Monday: Relentless Forward Progress, ft. Jason Antin
