What Is the Anti-Aging Medicine Movement?
The anti-aging medicine movement aims to treat the “underlying causes” of aging by alleviating any age-related ailment. Its goal is to extend the healthy lifespan of humans, and it mixes traditional medicine and alternative therapies. The field is not currently recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties, the entity that certifies fields of medicine that most people are familiar with, like surgery, obstetrics, and pediatrics.
However, there are some board-certified physicians across specialties who espouse or claim to offer treatments directed at slowing the aging process, which may or may not be credible.
Who Practices It?
The scientists and practitioners who offer anti-aging medicine run the gamut. Some are highly respected practitioners who conduct credible, peer-reviewed research and want to have a legitimate scientific discussion about understanding the biology of aging. Others are “snake oil salesmen” who make dubious claims without data. When investigated, many who fall into the latter category have been subject to licensure revocation, lawsuits, and even federal fines as part of criminal penalties. Congress has even convened hearings to determine how to better protect the public from some practitioners of anti-aging medicine.
What Do Geriatricians and Anti-Aging Medicine Practitioners Think of Each Other?
By and large, geriatricians and practitioners of anti-aging medicine see each other acrimoniously.
Many practitioners of anti-aging medicine have huge issues with geriatric medicine. They contend that geriatricians treat aging as inevitable, whereas anti-aging practitioners disdain the “death culture” of geriatrics and are actively attempting to forestall or reverse aging through prevention or other techniques that they believe are proven.
Amongst geriatricians and gerontologists, there is widespread concern that older adults can be harmed, both physically and economically, by practitioners of anti-aging medicine or products sold under that banner. They also take issue with the thousands of dataless claims about “miraculous” reversals of aging.
Taking the Pragmatic View
We can increase lifespan, but aging is not a disease. Virtually every living thing on this planet has a lifespan that is finite, and the idea that aging is a reversible condition is highly problematic.
With that said, lengthening life beyond what science has already delivered to us is certainly possible. This will likely not result from “reversal of aging” as much as our ability to treat, slow, or prevent chronic conditions that become common as we age. Many of these interventions are already known to us in the form of diet, exercise, social integration, access to health care, and other interventions, as well as specific treatments for individual health problems you have developed or are at risk for.
Additionally, the growing field of geroscience is trying to understand the basic biological mechanisms of aging, and has even begun testing drugs to see if the aging process can be slowed. One exciting example is the TAME Trial, a large-scale randomized clinical trial of the diabetes medication metformin that is now underway, which studies if the drug can help slow things like cognitive decline, loss of muscular strength, and the onset of common chronic diseases seen in aging.
Beware of “Gurus” Bearing Gifts
In a television interview, one anti-aging impresario cited a conspiracy against him and likened his “cutting edge” approaches and radical views of aging to those of previous scientific giants who were ahead of their time. The sympathetic commentator agreed: In every scientific revolution, aren’t there geniuses who are mocked by the status quo and turn out to be right?
Of course. But there’s also a much, much longer list we rarely hear about: the ones who were wrong. For every Einstein, there were thousands of his contemporaries who proffered ideas and theories that were absolutely bizarre. A 20th century Dutch librarian named Bart Huges believed that brain function could be enhanced by drilling holes into the skull to make more room for blood flow. He performed the procedure, called trepanation, on himself; there are still strong proponents of the practice, including an international society.
How will science remember any particular anti-aging guru? Time will tell. But let history be that judge, not that guru in real time, especially if they are also selling something. Einstein got no commission for his theory of relativity.
The human impulse to seek a longer life is an understandable one, and scientifically valid techniques will no doubt add more quality years to the human lifespan over the next several decades. But each intervention proposed and developed should be evaluated on the basis of evidence to the greatest extent possible. Be wary of the anti-aging medicine movement writ large, and always seek data and do your own research.
