There’s probably only one thing people fear more than death, and that’s spending their “golden years” shuffling along with a walker, being kept artificially alive on a cocktail of medications or imprisoned by dementia.
Buoyed by tantalizing scientific evidence that most researchers regard as preliminary, thousands of Americans are trying to stave off aging with supplements from herbal elixirs to hormones such as DHEA, melatonin and growth hormone.While do-it-yourselfers are dosing themselves, scientists around the country are studying the effects of the body’s complex hormone system on the aging process. The end result someday may well be hormone-replacement regimens that could thwart diseases associated with aging and preserve vigor.
But some doctors and other health practitioners are not waiting for the slowly turning wheels of scientific research and government approval. Outside the medical mainstream, they have established what they call a new clinical specialty: anti-aging medicine.
It’s just in the nick of time as the vanguard of the Baby Boom, the group that can make or break a trend, is feeling the cold breath of mortality on the backs of their necks.
The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M) was established in 1993 in Chicago by 12 doctors. The group now has 10,000 members around the world and certifies specialists through its own education and examination process.
Many establishment physicians regard them as outlaws dispensing powerful hormones before their safety and effectiveness has been firmly established.
“I don’t think it’s a real specialty,” said Huber Warner, associate director of the biology of aging program at the federal National Institute on Aging.
“The term ‘anti-aging’ has a bad name in general because it is discolored by the type of people it attracts. It does tend to attract nuts.”
Ronald Klatz, president of A4M, an osteopath who also has a medical degree, said the criticism is “political,” adding, “All we’re saying in anti-aging medicine is let’s make the best choices we can to extend the quality as well as the quantity of the human life span.”
The event that seemed to galvanize both research scientists and the founders of A4M in 1990 was the publication of the results of a study led by the late Dr. Daniel Rudman at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.
It showed that elderly men who received weekly injections of genetically engineered growth hormone were remarkably rejuvenated. They lost flab and regained hard muscles, taut skin and increased energy. But when the hormone replacement was stopped, that vitality faded.
“Those men were deficient in growth hormone,” noted Dr. Edith Burns, a professor of medicine in geriatrics at the Medical College who “inherited” the last project Rudman was working on when he died.
“They were not normal, off-the-street, everyday people. And those are the people who are buying this stuff. [Some proponents] are pushing it for everyone. I don’t think there’s good evidence to support that at this point.”
Nevertheless, according to Klatz, replacement of hormones that decline with age is one of the keys to longevity.
“About a third of what happens to you is purely genetic, but two-thirds is [due to] environment and lifestyle, items that can be modifiable,” Klatz said. “And of the third that is genetic, at least half of that is modifiable.”
Klatz, 46, cites himself as an example.
” I have hypertriglyceridemia. I inherited it from my dad, who had his first heart attack at 42. OK? I have a high-speed CAT scan of my heart every year, and I have almost whistle-clean arteries.
“Now my sister had a triple bypass at age 50, very rare for a woman to have bypass surgery prior to menopause. According to my genetics, I should have had my first heart attack by now. I’ve modified my genetics through lipid-lowering drugs and through lifestyle modification and clean living.”
He said he also follows the hormone-replacement regimen he advocates.
The skeptical view
S. Jay Olshansky, a professor in public health at the University of Illinois-Chicago and a research associate at the Center for Aging at the University of Chicago, said the notion that we need to take responsibility for our own health is the positive aspect of anti-aging medicine’s message.
However, he said, its proponents also present “a series of claims that are either grossly exaggerated or just plain false.
“The most outrageous one is that you can actually stop or reverse the aging process,” said Olshansky, co-author of “The Quest for Immortality” (W.W. Norton).
“And the idea that you can be accredited in anti-aging medicine is, in my opinion, equivalent to being accredited in alchemy. The idea that mankind is capable of influencing the length of our lives by slowing down, stopping or reversing the aging process dates back at least as far as the 3rd Century, B.C.”
Dr. Geoffrey L. Jones remains undeterred by such opinions. A pathologist by training who was certified in anti-aging medicine by A4M, he recently opened the Hinsdale Center for Integrative Medicine.
He takes a measured approach, acknowledging that the term “anti-aging” medicine creates “a negative image, especially for Midwesterners. In Europe it’s called quality-of-life and longevity medicine.”
A search for well-being
Jones’ career alteration was the result of personal experience.
About eight years ago when he turned 40, he fell into ill health. He developed asthma, high blood pressure, “something that looked like gout but wasn’t,” a sleep disturbance and numerous allergies.
Even though he had easy access to many skilled doctors, none of them could come up with a firm diagnosis for what was happening.
He educated himself about nutritional medicine, reactivating an interest from his college days, in an effort to help himself through diet and supplements. A year and a half later, he no longer required blood-pressure medication. After four or five years he eliminated almost all of his asthma medication. “I kind of pulled myself up out of the grave,” he said. A year ago, he also began hormone-replacement therapy.
“Now,” he said, ” my biologic age is less than my chronological age.”
Jones believes that groups such as A4M are pioneers in building “an infrastructure within the medical care system” that goes beyond disease care to include “preventive and restorative medicine.”
“The Boomer generation and, from what I’ve seen so far, the Gen Xers have a much higher demand for long quality of life than my parents’ generation,” he said. “And wouldn’t you like a physician-level person to help you with that?
“Right now insurance companies aren’t geared toward preventive medicine. An awful lot of work that’s been done in the preventive and restorative medical field has been done for people with fairly good incomes because they are willing to pay out of pocket.”
Evaluating the options
Taking human growth hormone can cost as much as $1,300 a month, so it’s little wonder that California is an epicenter of the anti-aging revolution. Actors and directors who command huge salaries can afford treatments.
Hormone-replacement therapy is based on the neuro-endocrine theory of aging. It holds that hormones are vital for repairing bodily functions, but as hormone levels decline with age, degeneration associated with aging occurs.
Another approach against aging, and perhaps the more widely accepted and practiced, is based on the free-radicals theory. Free radicals are molecules lacking an electron. They become harmful when they steal an electron from another molecule, causing damage to cells and DNA. A common longevity strategy is to use antioxidant supplements such as vitamins A, C and E to combat damage from free radicals.
Even so, hormones remain in the spotlight, accompanied by the boldest claims.
Replacing deficient hormones, according to Klatz’s book “Ten Weeks to a Younger You” (Sports Tech Labs, Chicago), “helps reset the body’s hormonal clock and thus can reverse or delay the effects of aging.”
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Coming later in Health & Family: More about hormones.
