WHAT IS ANTI-AGING MEDICINE?

A decade ago, anti-aging medicine was labeled by some as science fiction. Ten years later, many of the insights of anti-aging pioneering researchers and clinicians have become scientific fact. Today, scientists know much more about the deterioration and vulnerability to disease that typifies the aging process. Many of these discoveries can be attributed to the advent of anti-aging medicine. Anti-aging medicine is a medical specialty founded on the early detection, prevention, treatment, and reversal of age-related diseases. It is a healthcare model promoting innovative science and research to prolong the healthy lifespan in humans. As such, anti-aging medicine is based on principles of sound and responsible medical care that are consistent with those applied in other preventive health specialties. The goal of anti-aging medicine is not to merely prolong the total years of an individual's life, but to ensure that those years are enjoyed in a productive and vital fashion. Anti-aging medicine is:

• Scientific. Anti-aging diagnostic and treatment practices are supported by scientific evidence.
   
• Evidence-based. Anti-aging medicine is based on an orderly process for acquiring data in order to formulate a scientific and objective assessment upon which effective treatment is assigned.
   
• Holistic. Anti-aging medicine utilizes an organized framework for the head-to-toe diagnostic assessment, and subsequent design of a treatment regimen.
   
• Synergistic. Anti-aging medicine recognizes that a multi-modal, multi-therapeutic approach (including nutritional supplements) may deliver greater rejuvenative effects than single therapies alone.
   

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

Today, each American spends more on health care than anyone else in the world. And yet, we aren't much healthier as a people. Those "in the know," have known this and are applying the principles to themselves to live longer and more healthful lives:

A number of reputable scientists have been personally consuming antioxidants for years: at the US National Institutes of Health, Dr. Trey Sunderland, age 50, takes Vitamin E and anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen, while he conducts work as the Chief of Geriatric Psychiatry at the Institute of Mental Health into Alzheimer's prevention. At Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, OH USA), Dr. Craig Atwood takes Vitamin E and drinks blueberry shakes while conducting research commissioned by the Alzheimer's Association to find antioxidant compounds to decrease plaques in brain tissue. Such conduct begs the question: If such nutrients were of no preventive or therapeutic value, why would these experts on aging-related diseases continue to consume them?


Anti-Aging Therapy

The concept of aging has always been thought of as an inevitable part of life. Many people used to believe that our life expectancy is pre-destined and nothing can be done to change it; research shows us that this is simply not true anymore. Those of us who have dedicated our lives to anti-aging medicine believe that aging should be view more appropriately as a collection of chronic degenerative diseases such as arthritis, diabetes, and loss of memory. These can be deterred, reversed, or even cured. We now know that aging and life expectancy are approximately seventy percent determined by lifestyle and only thirty percent determined by genetic makeup. It is the advance of antibiotics and proper management of these lifestyle factors that is largely responsible for the increase in life expectancy from 43 to 76 in the past century.

The aging process starts in the early twenties and passes through a series of sub-clinical phases within which the human body does not feel anything "abnormal." Cancer, thinning skin, decreasing muscle strength, and slowing gastrointestinal mobility commonly associated with aging takes an average of twenty years or more to develop and become symptomatic. During this gradual and progressive deterioration, there are no outward warning signs. Most current laboratory tests are not sensitive enough to detect the cellular changes occurring within.

As long as you have passed your peak of physical health (around the age of twenty), the body will start to naturally and progressively deteriorate in the absence of any pro-active steps to arrest such disease state. What is considered normal by current laboratory testing should not be so considered from an anti-aging perspective. Many people considered "normal" by current testing standards are already well in the sub-clinical phase of many degenerative diseases, including hypertension, osteoarthritis, atherosclerosis, and diabetes. Just because current tests are not sensitive enough to detect the abnormality does not mean disease is absent.

People who are not pro-active in deterring the aging process inevitably find themselves stricken with degenerative disease in their middle age and then spend the rest of their life catching up. Ideally, deterring the aging process should start in the early twenties. Research has shown, however, that it is never too late. By treating aging as a disease that can be arrested or slowed, anti-aging physicians are able to create a treatment strategy that maximizes the life span of each cell in the human body. When the cell lives longer, the person will live longer.

The science of ortho-molecular medicine is dedicated to such a cause. In 1969, Nobel laureate Dr. Linus Pauling coined the word "orthomolecular" to denote the use of naturally occurring substances, particularly nutrients, in maintaining health and treating disease. Orthomolecular medicine is a nutritional therapy that advocates the use of a whole foods diet supplemented with food additives to produce a state of optimum health. Vitamins, minerals, and other food additives are recommended to prevent illness, extend longevity of life, and treat mental, emotional, and physical illness. Terms like free radical, anti-oxidants, oxidative damage, DNA, and mitochondria are unheard of just a generation back, yet today they are common words widely accepted and used by the medical and lay community alike.

Anti-aging medicine incorporates many of the principals of ortho-molecular medicine to retard aging and rejuvenate the body. The following therapeutic modalities falls into the realm of the anti-aging physician: hormone replacement therapy, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, essential fatty acids, fiber, enzymes, antibodies, antigens, cell therapy, chelation therapy, hydrotherapy, thermal therapy, acupuncture, exercise, biofeedback, psychotherapy and others.

One of the ways to begin a study into anti-aging medicine is to examine a series of common "time tested " axioms and question their validity based on current research.

Consider the following widely accepted axioms:

• Milk is good for you.
• Osteoporosis can be prevented with a high dose of calcium.
• High cholesterol foods, such as eggs, will increase your chances of heart attack.
• Medicine and reduced salt intake will lower blood pressure.

The foundations upon which many of the above statements are predicated upon have been scientifically proven wrong in recent years, yet the public is largely unaware. Milk is not good for your body, and eating eggs does not increase your chances of heart attack if you are in good health. Furthermore, magnesium is the key to prevent osteoporosis, not calcium. Sugar is worse than smoking, and the vast majority of the developed world is overfed with calories but chronically under nourished.

Consider the following facts:

Increase intakes of antioxidants could potentially prevent or postpone 50-70% of cataracts. Two studies conducted at Harvard University showed that taking 100 IU per day of vitamin E for more than two years reduced the risk of heart disease by 26 percent in a group of 45,000 men, and by 41 percent in a group of more than 85,000 women.

Research has shown that the average consumer who is knowledgeable about nutrition actually knows more than the average physician. This may be startling to you but the fact is that the average doctor receives less than 10 hours of nutritional training in four years of medical school curriculum. Few physicians are privileged to be in the forefront of an emerging and explosive field such as anti-aging medicine. Knowledge in anti-aging medicine is doubling every few years and the growth is exponential. Aging is defined as the collection of degenerative diseases that are largely influenced by lifestyle. Anti-aging medicine incorporates the latest medical advances to deter the aging process and curing of degenerative diseases at their roots, resulting in longer life expectancy.

Anti-aging Medicine is not about just living longer. It is about the opportunity to live a full and happy life. You are giving yourself the ultimate gift - the gift of time.