On September 22, 2002 this article was published in modified form in the Bellingham Herald.
What Can Anti-Aging Medicine Do for You?
Andrew Pauli, M.D., Medical Director & Health Coach
Élan Vital Longevity Institute, Bellingham
Anti-Aging Medicine is a new medical specialty with the specific focus on improving your wellness and vitality and increasing your individual lifespan. This differs from internal medicine and family medicine, which focus on treating disease. Anti-Aging Medicine strives to have individuals live up to their current genetic potential of about 120 years with the vitality and good health of a 35 year old. My website (www.ElanVital.MD/HGH) has a photo of two such individuals who look very vital for their 70 plus years.
Anti-Aging medicine uses many strategies, and these are increasing all the time. There is a definite science behind Anti-Aging Medicine, which you have likely seen appearing more and more in the media. However, what comes out on the TV and in the papers are sound bytes and bits of data. These fragments do not lead to comprehensive understanding and action. Anti-Aging Physicians such as myself have reviewed the literature and keep up with the avalanche of new information. More importantly, Anti-Aging Physicians are aware of evaluation and treatment techniques which can help prevent and even reverse the signs of aging. By implementing these techniques under the guidance of your Anti-Aging doctor, you can have the comprehensive approach needed to experience the benefits of increased vitality and longevity.
What are some of the ways in which Anti-Aging Medicine approaches improving your health?
Diet is the cornerstone of any health program. Almost everyone would agree, and most people believe they know what healthy eating involves, but that they are just not doing it. Most people are NOT correct in assuming they know what is healthy. Our main sources of health data do not provide up-to-date information on nutrition. Doctors receive almost zero training regarding nutrition in medical school and later training. The USDA food pyramid has been fatally flawed since its inception as it was based on no scientific data and food industry lobbying. Almost everyone could use coaching and educating to improve their diet. In addition, Anti-Aging Doctors who are also trained in Functional Medicine can help clients to use nutrition to treat and prevent diseases on a more fundamental level than pharmaceuticals, which most often only treat symptoms, not causes. Functional Medicine can most easily be described as Nutritional Biochemistry.
Exercise is important and its benefits cannot be provided by nutritional supplements. Yet eating healthily and exercising frequently together are nowhere near adequate as a true longevity program. Of course supplemental antioxidants provide some protection against aging from free radical damage. Other nutraceuticals, vitamins and minerals are important. For example, magnesium, a very important cofactor in many of the body's biochemical reactions, is deficient in a high proportion of the population when measured inside the cells. By measuring your intracellular levels of minerals and vitamins, the Anti-Aging Physician can direct you in appropriate, individualized supplementation.
HRT or Hormone Replacement Therapy has had some bad press recently, leaving both patients and their doctors confused. Nevertheless, Advanced Hormone Optimization as practiced by Anti-Aging Physicians is an extremely important technique to maintain youthfulness and vitality, and should not be confused with conventional, pharmaceutical HRT. In Anti-Aging Medicine, the risks of the use of hormones is generally less than the risks of not using hormones, since natural hormones are used and known risk factors are monitored. In addition, more hormones are monitored and supplemented than in conventional HRT, including human Growth Hormone.
Treating chronic diseases such as diabetes, arthritis, atherosclerosis, chronic fatigue and autoimmune diseases in a natural sustainable fashion is another part of Anti-Aging Medicine. Discovery and reversal of these diseases before they become fully manifest is an equally important goal. Anti-Aging Physicians have a different knowledge base than internists and family doctors. As a result, this is an area that some conventional doctors question, sometimes claiming that the studies of natural treatments aren't large enough to trust the conclusions. These doctors are used to the kind of clinical studies that can only be funded by pharmaceutical companies, those very expensive, multi-center studies involving thousands of subjects. Valid clinical studies of natural treatments do exist, but without patents and drug company money they inevitably are smaller. What is needed here is more funding through the National Institute of Aging, which currently tends to fund studies on how to get used to aging rather than how to reverse it! Improved education of open-minded physicians would also help.
Like it or not, we live in a “post-modern” world that is increasingly toxic. A 1986 Environmental Protection Agency study sampled fat tissue and found 100% of subjects had dozens of toxins in their fat, including styrene (from stryrofoam), dioxin (from herbicides) and Xylene (from gasoline and paints). Evaluation of toxicity and removal and treatment of toxic effects are important to have the body's biochemistry to work properly.
Brain health is key to enjoying life beyond 60. Anti-Aging Medicine also works to prevent the progression of neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease or dementia. There are techniques for preventing Age-Associated Memory Impairment (also known as “senior moments”), and “smart drugs” are available to improve cognitive functioning. Natural treatments for psychiatric disorders also exist.
Emotional and spiritual balance is associated with greater longevity, and it is wise to address these in any longevity and wellness program.
These are the current main areas of Anti-aging Medicine. If you would like to get a sense of the science of Anti-Aging Medicine, follow the links on my website.
How can you tell if you would benefit from Anti-Aging Medicine? If you have problems with these signs: loss of vitality, obesity, low muscle mass, sagging skin, hair loss, frequent illness, memory problems, or low libido. I encourage people to get an Anti-Aging evaluation when they are young and well. Given that many people and doctors are still very unfamiliar with Anti-Aging Medicine, it is perhaps more common for people to consider evaluation when they have a health challenge. The essence of prevention, of course, is action before a problem. I'm afraid many people will experience the emotions of George Burns, who is reputed to have said, “If I knew I would live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.”
Copyright 2002 Élan Vital Longevity Institute
