Mainstream docs join anti-aging bandwagon

But with M.D. endorsements, is the field more credible — or risky?
By Brian Alexander
MSNBC contributor
updated 9:56 a.m. ET April 21, 2008

For thousands of years, magicians, alchemists, even a few fringe medical practitioners have fueled an unbounded optimism that we can blunt the ravages of time, stay younger for longer, maybe even defeat death itself. Their pitches have usually hinged on some drug, food or device — everything from electricity to yogurt to surgically installing the gonads of animals into our own bodies — that will slow or reverse the aging process. Every decade or so, “anti-aging” promoters grasp onto news coming out of research labs and trumpet those developments as the answer we have all been awaiting.

Lately, the buzzwords are “nano,” which refers to the science of the ultra small (a nanometer is one millionth of a millimeter), and stem cells. One “nano” face cream, for example, promises to stave off wrinkles with "nano-encapsulated technology" into which the makers have "packed microscopic bundles of Prodew, a nourishing skin humectant." A dietary supplement advertised as "The World's FIRST Stem Cell Enhancer," promises to "Rebuild, Renew, Rejuvenate" — giving you more stem cells and keeping your organs healthy — if you take the blue-green algae capsules. The claims are based on wispy science and hype.

But while the cycle remains the same, something new is happening in the world of anti-aging. Mainstream doctors who once wanted nothing to do with the naturopaths, osteopaths and others who first populated modern anti-aging, and whom they often considered glorified carnival barkers, are buying in, signing up for “certification” as anti-aging practitioners and offering patients the promise of youth and rejuvenation through such treatments as human growth hormone, testosterone, special diet and exercise regimens, antioxidants and hundreds of other supplements.

“It is mushrooming,” says Dr. Elliot Snyder, an emergency room physician based in Northern California who follows the movement closely by frequently attending anti-aging meetings and talking to friends in the field. He also uses some of its techniques himself. Besides exercising five days a week and following a strict low-fat diet that includes lots of fruits, vegetables and wild salmon but no white flour or red meat, he takes supplements ranging from thiamin and biotin to DHEA, DMAE, colostrum, arginine, carnitine and omega-3 fatty acids — about 50 pills per day. He is 64 but looks a decade younger.

Back in 1994, the annual Las Vegas meeting of the fledgling American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M) was held in a small hotel off the Las Vegas strip. Everyone could fit into a temporary tent-like structure on the pool patio. Last December, at the 15th A4M confab, roughly 2,000 attendees, including business owners, anti-aging promoters and hundreds of doctors — among them obstetricians, ER docs, psychiatrists and internists — filled a cavernous meeting space inside the Venetian Hotel and Resort.

Today, claims Dr. Bob Goldman, A4M’s co-founder, there are about 20,000 A4M-certified doctors around the world. A4M’s tax returns confirm the boom. The income from fees charged to those seeking board certification from A4M more than doubled from $544,845 in 2005 to $1.2 million in 2006.

A rival organization, Age Management Medicine Group, is growing rapidly, too, says co-founder Rick Merner. He claims the group had more than 400 doctors at its last meeting, sponsored by the nation’s single largest “age-management” clinic, Cenegenics. The Cenegenics Foundation also certifies practitioners in age-management medicine (it shuns the term “anti-aging”) and claims to have experienced a 100 percent increase in the number of its physician “affiliates” to more than 800.

Mainstream business has recognized the potential. GE Healthcare, for example, sent a team to the recent A4M meeting to market body scanners that cost about $100,000 each and are often used by anti-aging doctors to look at fat deposits inside the body and convince patients of the need to do something about them. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal, which is a GE company.)

'A life-changing experience'
Patients all over the country are buying in. Rebecca Gooden, a 57-year-old Charleston, S.C., real estate agent, first saw an anti-aging doctor in December when she sought help for joint pain, insomnia and lack of energy. “I had felt something was going on but standard testing did not show any of it," she says. "I had been having symptoms but doctors kept telling me there was nothing wrong and I knew there was."

Frustrated, when she saw an article about Cenegenics in a magazine, she called for an appointment in hopes of solving her problems. Now, she spends about $1,000 a month on hormones and supplements to treat various hormonal deficiencies and has become an anti-aging convert. “I feel like a new person … it has been a life-changing experience for me.”

All this despite the fact that as far as the American Medical Association or the American Board of Medical Specialties is concerned, there is no such thing as an anti-aging specialty.

Therein lies the often bitter tension between the medical establishment and those physicians and organizations who say they can help us slow or even stop the aging process and the debilitation that comes with it. Goldman and his A4M co-founder, Dr. Ronald Klatz, have been accused by respected academics of being snake-oil salesmen. Cenegenics and A4M have both been labeled glorified hormone-pushers.

Anti-aging advocates, on the other hand, argue that they are a persecuted minority of enlightened medical professionals who have the patients’ best interests at heart and that the AMA, the mainstream media and the government, especially the Food and Drug Administration, have conspired to keep the truth from the public.

“Certain vested interests would not like to have anti-aging,” Klatz argues.

To the ears of Northwestern University bioethics professor Laurie Zoloth, this sounds like an old story. “Whenever one hears these things, that there is a conspiracy against patients, if you come to us we will tell you truth, then one has to ask, ‘Why are your statements credible?’”

Has anti-aging 'arrived'?
That is precisely the question many consumers are now being asked to answer for themselves. If their M.D. is signing onto anti-aging, does that mean the message is now credible? Does the certificate on his or her wall mean that real anti-aging has, at last, arrived? Or does it simply mean that every patient now has one more reason to live by the Latin phrase caveat emptor — buyer beware?

Dr. Thomas Perls, a Boston University researcher who studies centenarians (people who live at least 100 years), and a vociferous critic of the anti-aging industry, argues that while some anti-aging practitioners “may have their hearts in the right place … in my mind the whole anti-aging practice has so many problems of ethical and professional misconduct. These practices are selling medicines and substances at great profit with very little in the way of clinical studies to support what they are doing.”

The answers to the science questions can be complicated, but the motivations of some doctors to enter the anti-aging world are not. Dr. Arnold Relman, a former editor of The New England Journal of Medicine who is now a professor emeritus of medicine and social medicine at Harvard Medical School, believes “the interest in anti-aging practice is mainly based on economic considerations” by physicians who are looking to boost income.

“Get your piece of the $50 billion anti-aging marketplace!” trumpets a flyer distributed to doctors at A4M’s Las Vegas meeting. An article by Klatz and Goldman in "Medical Spas," a magazine that’s a member of A4M, encourages doctors to open their own medical spas and to have them certified under the World Council for Clinical Accreditation, another A4M organization, because “a single anti-aging patient is estimated to bring $4,000 to $20,000 in annual gross revenue.”

The business can be very good, indeed. Doctors can count on regular hours because the patients are not sick. Better yet, patients pay cash because visits and procedures are not generally covered by insurance, which also means there is no upper limit to fees. And since there is no need to deal with insurance companies or HMOs, practices do not require extra staff to handle all that paperwork.

Additionally, anti-aging doctors often sell lines of creams and supplements, such as vitamins, antioxidants and plant extracts, which claim to do everything from strengthening the immune system to boosting libido, directly out of their offices, sometimes with an enormous mark-up. They can also use their own in-office technology, like those GE body scanners, to charge for in-house testing.

Patients generally see anti-aging doctors much more often than regular physicians. That's because in addition to checking on measures like weight and body fat and how patients are feeling overall, the docs are constantly monitoring a large range of sometimes esoteric health indicators with a battery of medical tests, including urinalysis and blood work. They look for levels of everything from testosterone and estrogen to follicle stimulating hormone and dehydroepiandrosterone (a natural steroid known as DHEA). Based on all these results, the doctors may then recommend drugs, hormones, supplements and special diets and fitness regimens — and then set an appointment to see the patient again in several weeks or months for another cash-only check-up.

One doctor, two hats
Dr. Andrew Jurow, an ob-gyn in Burlingame, Calif., says he started an anti-aging practice alongside his ongoing traditional practice after becoming a devotee himself. “I am as mainstream as you can get. I am 59 years old, board certified in ob-gyn, as was my father. If you had come to me five, six years ago and talked about anti-aging, I would have said, ‘Hogwash!’”

But then Jurow, long an avid exerciser, attended an A4M meeting and came away impressed with what he heard. Five years ago he began visiting an anti-aging doctor himself. Now he sees his regular ob-gyn HMO patients through one door of his building and anti-aging patients through another.

Jurow says he is not getting rich off his anti-aging patients. Rather, his motivation is his own belief that it works. Still, he says, if he sees an anti-aging patient for an hour, he can charge $350, whereas HMOs might reimburse him as little as $50 for a traditional office visit. Article Source : www.msnbc.msn.com

New Idea For How Anti-aging Products Delay Ripening Of Fruit And Wilting Of Flowers

ScienceDaily (May 5, 2008) — When plants encounter ethylene, a gas they also produce naturally as a hormone, the result is softening and ripening in the case of fruit, and wilting and fading in the case of flowers -- all of which ethylene promotes.

To delay these effects, growers spray plants with products available in the market today, such as EthylBlocTM for flowers and SmartFreshSM for fruits and vegetables, that contain a compound that blocks ethylene's action on plants.

But how this compound, 1-methylcyclopropane or 1-MCP, works at the molecular level remains uncertain despite several chemical pathways chemists have proposed in the scientific literature.

Now, in a research paper published in the April issue of Chemistry & Biology, a team led by Michael Pirrung, a professor of chemistry and the holder of the University of California Presidential Chair in Chemistry at UC Riverside, offers a novel pathway for how "anti-aging" products like EthylBloc and SmartFresh block ethylene in plants, delaying the plants' demise and allowing people to enjoy their beauty and products for longer than nature allows.

The authors propose that a chemical reaction occurs between 1-MCP and naturally-occurring copper in plant cells. This knowledge could guide researchers in their attempts to discover new ethylene-blocking chemicals for preserving the freshness of fruits, vegetables and flowers for longer than currently is possible.

Until now, researchers believed that a "complex" -- a chemical structure consisting of molecules that are weakly connected to one another -- formed between 1-MCP and copper.

"A complex is loose and can break apart easily -- something we don't see happening in the case of 1-MCP in plants," Pirrung explained. "A chemical reaction, which is far stronger than a complex, accounts for why 1-MCP is so effective."

How 1-MCP prevents ripening and wilting

Plant cells possess copper-containing ethylene binding sites called ethylene receptors. (An ethylene receptor is a protein that sits in the cell membrane and has a site for binding ethylene on the outside of the cell.) When ethylene comes into contact with the receptor, it binds chemically with the copper, which inactivates the receptor. The inactivation results in the cell breaking down, which, in turn, initiates aging and the death of plant tissues.

1-MCP works by beating ethylene to the receptors. By binding with a sufficient number of receptors chemically and permanently, it forever makes them insensitive to ethylene. The plants do not "perceive" ethylene thereafter, preventing ripening and wilting.

Furthermore, unlike ethylene, 1-MCP does not inactivate the receptors. As a result, the cells do not break down, which prolongs the freshness of flowers and fruit after harvest, extends their shelf life, reduces waste and, ultimately, benefits producers and consumers.

Administering 1-MCP

Because 1-MCP is an unstable gas, growers face a challenge in delivering it to fruits and flowers. Commercially, 1-MCP therefore is complexed with alpha-cyclodextrin, a ring-structured biocompatible molecule formed of six linked glucose units, to produce a stable, water-soluble powder.

When the powder is dissolved in water, 1-MCP is released as a vapor that travels through the air, making its way eventually to plants' ethylene receptors.

Novel pathway can lead to new products

In their paper, the researchers show that 1-MCP reacts with copper to give a highly reactive chemical intermediate. Called a carbene, the intermediate will react with essentially any other kind of chemical group in the area.

"Very few such intermediates are known, and it is mostly difficult to make them," Pirrung said. "Based on the reaction of 1-MCP with copper, we discovered a very easy process to make a carbene. When the carbene is generated by the copper in the ethylene receptor, it is the receptor that reacts, creating the permanent linkage that prevents the receptor from perceiving ethylene."

According to Pirrung, knowledge of a chemical reaction between 1-MCP and copper in ethylene receptors could help researchers design new compounds, such as non-gaseous compounds, that are capable of working as well as 1-MCP but are not as difficult to handle.

"Such compounds would enable much more widespread treatment of fruits, flowers and vegetables to prevent their spoiling," he said.

Next in their research, Pirrung and his colleagues will study in more detail the chemical reaction between 1-MCP and plants' copper-containing receptors.

Pirrung was joined in the study by Yunfan Zou of UCR; Anthony B. Bleecker and Brad M. Binder of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis.; Yoshihisa Inoue and Norimitsu Sugawara of Osaka University, Japan; Fernando I. Rodriguez of BD Biosciences, Puerto Rico; and Takehiko Wada of Tohoku University, Japan.

The American Floral Endowment provided funding for the study.

Adapted from materials provided by University of California - Riverside.

Article Source : www.sciencedaily.com

Anti-aging Food Pyramid

This is the world's most advance Food Pyramid specifically designed for anti-aging. In addition to optimum nutrition for cellular fortification, it curtails sugar imbalance, control oxidative stress, aids in detoxification, and prolong lifespan. It is the best anti-aging diet available, and it has been proven clinically to work. My thanks to Dorine Tan, RD, MPH, ABAAHP , clinical dietitian for her collaboration in this work.

Here is a summary :

1. Start with 10-12 glasses of room temperature pure filtered water a day. Begin in the morning with 2 glasses of water to purify and hydrate your body from the overnight dehydration. Bring a water bottle around with you during the day, and drink water whenever you feel thirsty.

2. Your carbohydrates intake should comprise primarily of whole grain cereal, barley, and oats. These are low glycemic index food that converts into sugar once inside your body at a slow and steady pace. Reduce high glycemic carbohydrates intake such as rice, wheat, bread, pasta, and rice which converts into sugar quickly once taken in and cause a rise in blood sugar level. Sustained intake of high glycemic food leads to obesity and adult onset diabetes and is a leading cause of aging. You don't have to avoid all grains, as it is a good source of energy. The key is to take good grains and avoid bad grains.

3. 8-10 portions of vegetables should be taken. Choose above ground green leafy vegetables. Generally speaking, the more colorful the vegetable, the more anti-oxidant is inside and the better it is for you. Avoid vegetables that grow underground such as potato, yam, and carrots because they behave like high glycemic index type carbohydrates and leads to sugar imbalance.

4. Low glycemic index type fruits should be taken, such as apple or blueberry. Always take whole fruits and avoid fruit juices which are high in sugar and low in fiber.

5. Legumes , organic eggs, and nuts are excellent source of protein. One to two eggs a day can be taken in without significant rise in blood cholesterol if you are healthy.

6. At least 8 oz of cold water deep sea fish such as salmon or tuna should be taken per week. This will provide the body with the necessary omega 3 fatty acid as well as protein. Stay away from fresh water or costal water fish which can be contaminated. Free range chicken is a good source of protein also and can be taken twice a week.

7. Red meat such as beef should be restricted to once or twice a week , together with dessert such as ice cream and cakes. Try to take in beef that comes from cattle that are grass fed instead of grain fed in their diet.

8. Olive or Canola Oil should be used in preparation of food. It contains mono-unsaturated fat . Stay away from polyunsaturated fat that comes after processing, such as corn oil, safflower oil, and sunflower oil. The commercialization processes changes the structure of the fat and makes it harmful for the body. Avoid trans-fat that is found in margarine, cookies, and pastries as much as possible. It is the worse type of fat, much worse than the saturated fat you find in red meat. Article Source : www.drlam.com

ANTI-AGING AND A HEALTHY LIFE

I walked into the hospital room. She lay on her bed with tubes running from her arms and electrodes taped to her chest. Equipment at the side of the room recorded her heartbeat and blood pressure.

She looked up at me and said, “I know you.” I smiled. She studied my face for a few moments. Finally she said, “Yes, I know you. You’re my son Billy!”

That was my mother about a month before she died. She was 85 years old. She had had Alzheimer disease, the most common cause of dementia.

The chances of having dementia rise as you get older. By age 85, about 35 out of 100 people have it1. After watching my mother I hoped I could figure out how to fit into the sixty five percent who grow old with a strong, active brain.

The Brain’s Functions

The brain is your body’s control center. It controls the autonomic nervous system, those automatic activities such as respiration, digestion, and heartbeat. It controls the somatic nervous system which activates your sense organs and muscles. It also controls conscious activities such as reasoning, abstraction, decision making and thought. It defines your characteristics and personality. Your brain controls every activity in your body.

As you age, your brain begins to function at a slower pace. It also takes longer to rejuvenate. Your lifestyle, as well as other external factors, will affect your brain’s aging process. The good news is there are ways to enhance the power of your brain as time catches up with you. The following are four ways to help slow your brain’s aging process.

1. Live a Healthy Life

The second most common cause of dementia is atherosclerosis, or in simple terms, hardening of the arteries in the brain. This is known as vascular dementia, accounting for as many as 40% of cases. Vascular dementia has been linked to high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, heart disease, diabetes and related conditions. Most experts feel that treating these underlying conditions can decrease the odds of contracting vascular dementia or, if a person already has it, can slow its progress. These diseases are often accelerated by smoking, excessive drinking and both prescription and recreational drug use.

Smoking is bad for your health. It is also bad for your brain. A study conducted in the Netherlands followed 7,000 people age 55 and older for an average of seven years. During that time, 706 of the participants developed dementia. Smokers were found to be fifty percent more likely to develop dementia than people who had never smoked or had quit before participating in the study.

Alcohol abuse has been linked to15 to 25 percent of all dementia cases2. Alcohol affects the brain directly as a neurotoxin and is the cause of serious long term negative effects on the central nervous system. Alcohol abuse can lead to malnutrition, vitamin deficiencies and can also cause liver damage. Studies show that these can lead to brain shrinkage and brain damage.

Illegal drugs can also cause dementia. Cocaine affects circulation and has been shown to cause small strokes. Heroin, if taken for long periods of time or in older people, can block the neurotransmitter acetylcholine which is involved with learning and memory.

2. Eat Healthy Foods.

As a general rule, good nutrition for the body is also good for the brain. Healthy eating has been shown to reduce the risk of many chronic diseases such as diabetes, osteoporosis, cancer and heart disease. It also increases your chances of living a fuller, longer life.

To function properly your brain needs top quality fuel. A diet that includes five servings of fruits and vegetables a day, carbohydrates such as whole grain breads, pasta and cereals, as well as fats and protein can provide this for you.

Sometimes called brain food, fish is a rich source of unsaturated fat and protein. A study published in the Archives of Neurology3 found that eating fish at least once a week slowed down the development of
dementia in elderly men and women. Overall mental function declined at a rate ten percent slower in these fish eaters when compared to peers who did not eat fish as often. Mental function in elderly men and women who ate fish two or more times a week declined at a rate thirteen percent slower than those who did not eat fish.

One final portion of a healthy diet that many people overlook is drinking plenty of fluids. A dehydrated brain doesn’t think clearly. Remember, plain old water is the healthiest fluid you can drink.

3. Exercise Your Body

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, consisting of 2257 Japanese-American men between 71 and 93 years old, reported that regular exercise can protect against the development of Alzheimer’s disease. The research from a number of organizations including the Department of Veteran Affairs and the Pacific Health Research Institute, also suggests that it is better to exercise throughout your life rather than trying to make up for an unhealthy lifestyle in your later years.

Exercise helps us feel better both physically and emotionally. It can help improve our self image. It also improves our strength and endurance. It decreases body fat, improves movement to joints and muscles and increases the body’s ability to process oxygen. Regular exercise helps reduce depression while reducing the risks of cardiovascular disease.

What kind of exercise program should you engage in? It depends on your particular likes and your body’s physical condition. If you are over forty five and haven’t exercised in a while, you should check with your doctor before beginning any type of exercise program.

Your exercise program should include both cardiovascular and strength building exercises. Cardiovascular exercises are good for your heart. These include walking, swimming, and bicycling and for best results should be done for at least thirty minutes a day, every day. Strength building exercises build your muscles while helping keep your bones dense, reducing the chance of osteoporosis. This can be anything from calisthenics to weight training.

A favorite exercise of mine is Tai Chi, a combination of slow, circular movements. A study by the Harvard Medical School showed that older women who practice Tai Chi regularly experienced a better fitness boost than walking briskly for three hours per week. The study pointed out that this was due to better oxygen utilization.

Tai Chi can help people suffering from arthritis and even osteoporosis. There is some evidence that indicates that the enhanced mind and body connection resulting from the practice of Tai chi can help protect against dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

Whether it’s Tai Chi or any other type of exercise the most important
thing is to just do it.

4. Reduce Stress

Stress increases your heart rate and blood pressure and can lead to stroke. There are two categories of stress. The first type, acute stress, is also known as the flight or fight reaction where the brain produces
chemicals that tell the body to speed up, making it perform more effectively. This is the type of stress you’ll experience when another car pulls out in front of you causing you to hit your brakes suddenly. This type of stress is normal and short-lived.

The second type of stress is known as chronic or long-term stress. This stress is abnormal and long lasting. There is strong evidence that this type of stress actually damages the brain. It occurs when we don't let go of stress. Chronic stress increases the release of stress hormones. Studies have shown that these stress hormones can actually kill nerve cells in animals and can probably do the same in humans.

One method of reducing chronic stress is through exercise. Stress can also be reduced through meditation. Another proven method is through hypnosis. Using the visualization process hypnosis can help a person learn to remain calm and relaxed even while experiencing an event that had been stressful to them in the past.

Whatever method of stress reduction you choose, it’s important to remember that taking steps to reduce chronic stress will improve your overall health. It will also help you sustain your mental abilities. Article Source : www.inform4free.com