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Resounding, Independent Support for Expansion of an
Innovative Medical Specialty
By: Ronald Klatz
Anti-Aging Medicine, Spring, 2002
The World Health Organization estimates that by the
year 2025, we will be a planet of 8 billion residents. At that time, the
number of people age 65 and older will reach 800 million one of every ten
persons. We will also enjoy, worldwide, an average life expectancy of 73
years. In order to avert the financially, socially, and medically
burdensome task of caring for the swelling aged population, rapid adoption
of safe and effective diagnostic and treatment processes that can improve
the quality of life in these extended years is a critical imperative to
maintain the well-being of society in the twenty second century..
In 1993,a dozen pioneering physicians and scientists
met to create the medical specialty of anti-aging medicine. To accomplish
a campaign of education and advocacy to advance the acceptance of
anti-aging medicine around the globe, we formed the American Academy of
Anti-Aging Medicine. As the academy founder, I present to you the
original, official definition of anti-aging medicine:
Anti-aging medicine is a medical specialty founded on
the application of advanced scientific and medical technologies for the
early detection, prevention, treatment, and reversal of age related
dysfunction, disorders, and 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.
 Anti-aging
medicine has matured into a prestigious medical field that has become
recognized by independent public policy organizations. In 2001,the World
Future Society -a nonprofit educational and scientific organization
founded in 1966 as a neutral clearinghouse exploring the impact of social
and technological developments on the future -heralded anti-aging medicine
as an effective solution to the growing aging population worldwide
(Wagner,2001).The World Future Society notes that "geriatrics may
...be suffering from competition arising in a new health-care
subspecialty: anti-aging. "Citing an "aging baby-boom generation
[that ]is bringing a potential medical crisis to the fore and a critical
lack of doctors who specialize in treating elderly patients," the
World Future Society refers to anti-aging medicine as a potential answer,
embracing "a realignment of priorities from the problems of the
elderly to the opportunities of longer lives "(Wagner,2001).The
society also notes that the number of members of the American Academy of
Anti-Aging Medicine and certified anti-aging physicians and health
practitioners is rising steadily, while the number of certified
geriatricians is on the decline.
Similarly, the highly respected Global Aging
Initiative of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (2001)
proclaimed its support of anti-aging medicine in its "Summary Report
of the Co-chairmen and Findings and Recommendations of the CSIS Commission
on Global Aging." Among the report 's conclusions were that
governments should "pursue an integrated strategy designed to raise
productivity by ... providing financial support, and creating a favor able
tax and regulatory environment for research and development in the new
services and health sectors, including disease prevention, anti-aging
medicine, and other innovative technology."
Indeed, the utilization of advanced medical
technologies is a cornerstone of anti-aging medicine. The American Academy
of Anti-Aging Medicine offers a hopeful and attainable model for medicine
in the new millennium founded on the dramatic advancements offered by the
biotech revolution. The model identifies a continued and expanding arena
of discovery and advancement in our understanding of ways to mitigate
age-related disability and disease and is based on what the academy calls
"techno demography." As conceived by the organization, techno
demography is the application of modern biotechnology to the issues of
diagnosis, prevention, and intervention in aging, such that one may
extrapolate future progress in human aging based on the application of
innovative medical interventions. The model incorporates the impact that
five key areas in biomedical technology can be expected to exert on gains
in
human longevity and assumes a doubling of the amount of medical technology
and knowledge in this area every three and one-half years after the year
2000.The five key areas are as follows:
Genetic engineering, including work
with stem cells. Advancements would allow scientists to alter genetic
make-up to eradicate disease and would permit development of a supply
source for human cells, tissues, and organs for use in acute emergency
care as well as treatment of chronic, debilitating disease.
Cloning. This technique holds
tremendous promise in producing consistent sources of organs, tissues, and
proteins for biomedical use and transplantation in humans.
"Nanotechnology. "This form
of technology would enable scientists to use tiny tools to manipulate
human biology at its most basic levels.
Artificial organs. Advancement in this
area Nerve impulse continuity (brain and spinal cord). Progress in this
area would allow nerve signal transmission to be maintained without
interruption, despite physical trauma.
Recently, ardent critics have actually begun to
gravitate toward adoption of anti-aging medicine first, by renaming it so
that the concept appears to be their original creation. Longevity
medicine, successful aging, healthy aging, optimal aging, and aging
gracefully, among other synonyms, are being substituted by conventional
gerontologists for the term anti-aging. The medical premise of these
alternative terms incorporating "all means that would extend healthy
life ...as well as advanced medical care and new discoveries ...and even
manipulating ...genetic factors "(International Longevity Center-USA,
2001)-is completely identical to the original model of anti-aging medicine
established nine years ago by the founders of anti-aging medicine, the
physicians, health professionals, and scientists of the American Academy
of Anti-Aging Medicine.
In its continued effort to absorb what it can not
deny, the gerontological establishment has expressed a number of
conclusions about anti-aging medicine that are presented below, along with
a response to each that represents the position of the American Academy of
Anti-Aging Medicine:
"Some people may prefer to trivialize
'anti-aging,' but it has been a very important part of
medical research....Many of today 's anti-aging therapies are the same
ones that physicians and scientists were developing in the 1920s and 1930s
" ((Butler,2000).
Response. This statement indicates the important presence of the
anti-aging specialty in the healthcare spectrum. In the past, the
gerontological establishment has gone to great lengths to misrepresent the
scientific validity of hormone replacement therapy, which has been used in
one approach r another for the past seventy years. In actuality, hormone
replacement therapy, performed judiciously and admin istered in
appropriate doses by qualified anti-aging physicians, has been found to
improve health by thousands of peer-reviewed research
studies.
"Anti-aging 'medicine could be simply defined as
any intervention that delays the development of age-dependent pathology
and other adverse age-related changes that are not officially listed as
diseases "(International Longevity Center-USA,2001).
Response. This variant definition f anti-aging medicine is
consistent with the original, official definition stated above. We are
pleased that the gerontological establishment has at last grasped this
concept.
"Further extension [of human life expectancy
]will almost certainly require biomedical intervention to delay
age-related pathology and disease....Clearly, modern technology has made
great strides toward improving human health and enabling greater numbers
of people to survive into old age "(International Longevity
Center-usa,2001).
Response. A statement by the Board of Editors of Scientific
American (2001) makes the point well: "Thanks to modern technology
and medicine, people have taken much more control over their differential
survival. Ills are not the barriers they once were. Our technology may
exert the greatest influence."
All diseases fall into three categories. The first
two -inherited genetic disease and infectious disease -account for only 10
percent of the cost for treating all disease in America. Ninety per cent
of all healthcare dollars are spent n extra-ordinary care in the last two
t three years of life. Indeed, the leading causes of death have undergone
a profound shift. Because of improvements in sanitation and infection
control since the turn of the twentieth century, Americans are now losing
their health and lives to heart disease (31.4 percent),cancer (23.3
percent),and stroke (6.9 percent)(U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services,2000).These three diseases, known collectively as the
degenerative diseases of aging, swallow 50 percent of the U.S. health care
budget (Health Care Finance Administration,1996).One hundred million
Americans are currently being treated for one or another degenerative
disease at a healthcare cost of more than $700 billion per year. If we
really want to make an impact on healthcare in this country and in the
world, we must focus on the degenerative diseases of aging. If we can slow
aging, we can eliminate more than 50 percent of all diseases overnight. We
can alter this dreadful course by preventing, delaying, or reversing the
diseases associated with aging.
Anti-aging medicine the application of any therapy or
modality that delivers very early detection, prevention, treatment, or
reversal of aging related dysfunction and disease, thus enhancing the
quality and extending the length of the human lifespan -is the most
important new model for healthcare for this new millennium. Anti-aging
medicine is the following:
It is scientific. Anti-aging diagnostic and
treatment practices are supported by scientific evidence and therefore
cannot be branded as anecdotal.
It is 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
Is well-documented by peer-reviewed journals
such as Aging, American Journal of Cardiology, Journal of the American
Geriatrics Society , and Journal of the American Medical Association ,
among many others.
The benefits of anti-aging medicine are resounding
and clear. As a global population, we are experiencing leaps in life
expectancy, decreases in death rates from the leading causes of death
(heart disease, cancer, and stroke),and, in the United States, we are
seeing a decrease in the use of nursing home care. Most important,
accessibility to quality medical care is improving (U.S. Federal
Interagency Forum on Aging Related Statistics,2000).Clearly, anti-
aging medicine has made a distinct impression on evolving healthcare to
the betterment of the public at large.
As the German physicist and Nobel Laureate Max Planck
(1959)once remarked," An important scientific innovation rarely makes
its way by gradually winning over and converting its opponents....Its
opponents gradually die out and the growing generation is familiar with
the idea from the beginning."
It is gratifying that, in the ninth year since its
formal beginnings, anti-aging medicine is gaining recognition from the
gerontological establishment. For 2002,the proponents of anti-aging
medicine -physicians, health professionals, scientists, and academics -are
hopeful that we will continue to close the philosophical gap between us
and our gerontology colleagues. Our goal is to create widespread adoption
of an innovative model of healthcare that demonstrates near term potential
to elevate the quality of life, and extend the length of life, for all.
.
REFERENCES
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Board of Editors.March 2001.“The Future of
Human Evolution,” Scientific American 284(3):15.
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Butler,R.N.(moderator)et l.2000.“Anti-Aging
Medicine:What Makes It Different fromGeriatrics?” Geriatrics
55((6):36 –43.
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Fifty Facts from the World Health Report
1998,www.who.int/whr/1998.factse.htm. Accessed Jan.2,2000.
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Health Care Financing Administration,1996.The
Nation ’s Health Dollar —Where It Came From/Where It
Went.Washington,D.C.
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International Longevity Center.2001.Workshop
Report:“Is There an ‘Anti-aging ’Medicine?” New
York::International Longevity Center-USA.
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Global Aging Initiative,Center for Strategic
and International Studies.2001.“Summary Report of the Co-Chairmen
and Findings and Recommendations of the csis Commission on Global
Aging.” Washington,,D.C.
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Planck,M.1959.The Philosophy of Physics.New
York:Meridian Books.
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U.S.Federal Interagency Forum on Aging Related
Statistics,2000.Older Americans 2000:Key Indicators. Hyattsville,Md.
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U.S.Department of Health and Human
Services.2000.Healthy People 2010.Washington,D.C
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Wagner,C.2001.“Aging versus Anti-Aging:Geriatrics
Is in Trouble While Anti-Aging Medicine Takes Off,” Futurist
35((5):8 –9.
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