Anti-aging movement

{{short description|Social movement devoted to eliminating or reversing aging, or reducing its effects}}

The anti-aging movement is a social movement devoted to eliminating or reversing aging, or reducing the effects of it.{{Cite journal|last=Mykytyn|first=Courtney Everts|date=February 2006|title=Anti-aging medicine: A patient/practitioner movement to redefine aging|journal=Social Science & Medicine|volume=62|issue=3|pages=643–653|doi=10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.06.021|issn=0277-9536|pmid=16040177}}{{cite book|last1=Vincent|first1=John|editor1-last=Schermer|editor1-first=Maartje|editor2-last=Pinxten|editor2-first=Wim|title=Ethics, Health Policy and (Anti-) Aging: Mixed Blessings|date=2013|publisher=Springer Netherlands|isbn=978-94-007-3870-6|page=30|chapter=The Anti-Aging Movement|quote=There have been a number of social movements associated with the reappraisal of age-based social categories in the last thirty years. Two such developments are the focus of this chapter. They are the Third Age movement and the Anti-aging movement. These movements present contrasting perspectives on the culturally devalued status of old age; the former seeks to celebrate old age, the latter to eliminate it.}} A substantial portion of the attention of the movement is on the possibilities for life extension, but there is also interest in techniques such as cosmetic surgery which ameliorate the effects of aging rather than delay or defeat it.{{cite news|last1=Landman|first1=Beth|title=The Future of Forever Young: 12 of the Latest Anti-Aging Treatments You Can Now Try|url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/future-forever-young-12-latest-anti-aging-treatments-you-can-try-952805|work=The Hollywood Reporter|access-date=27 December 2016|date=12 December 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161228033708/http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/future-forever-young-12-latest-anti-aging-treatments-you-can-try-952805|archive-date=28 December 2016}}

There are numerous scientists of this movement with different approaches. Two of the most popular proponents of the anti-aging movement include Ray Kurzweil, who says humanity can defeat aging through the advance of technology, allowing us to reach the longevity escape velocity,{{cite web |title=Chasing Immortality—The Technology of Eternal Life |first=Craig |last=Hamilton |url=http://www.enlightennext.org/magazine/j30/kurzweil.asp |work=EnlightenNext |access-date=May 26, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120606134650/http://www.enlightennext.org/magazine/j30/kurzweil.asp |archive-date=June 6, 2012 }} and Aubrey de Grey, who says that the human body is a very complicated machine and, thus, can be repaired indefinitely.{{cite web|title=Who is Aubrey de Grey?|url=http://www.singularitysymposium.com/aubrey-de-grey.html|website=Singularity Symposium|quote=Maybe it is because of his background in computer science that Dr. de Grey perceives the human body as a very complicated machine. Therefore, he argues that aging is primarily an engineering problem. Thus once we grasp all the finer details of our biological structure then the problem of aging becomes one of maintenance and just like today we are capable to maintain vintage cars or airplanes indefinitely he believes that eventually we'll be able to do so with our bodies.|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120502084514/http://www.singularitysymposium.com/aubrey-de-grey.html|archive-date=2012-05-02}} Other scientists and significant contributors to the movement include molecular biologists, geneticists, and biomedical gerontologists such as Gary Ruvkun, Cynthia Kenyon, and Arthur D. Levinson. However, figures in the gerontology community in 2003 tried to distance their research from the perceived pseudoscience of the movement.{{cite journal|last1=Binstock|first1=Robert|title=The War on "Anti-Aging Medicine"|journal=The Gerontologist|date=2003|volume=43|issue=1|pages=4–14|doi=10.1093/geront/43.1.4|quote=Leading members of the gerontological community have recently launched a war on anti-aging medicine, seeking to discredit what they judge to be fraudulent and harmful products and therapies, and to distinguish their research from what they regard as the pseudoscience of the anti-aging movement.|pmid=12604740|doi-access=free}}

Anti-aging medicine

Anti-aging medicine has become a budding and rapidly growing medical specialty as physicians who initially sought treatment for themselves have received training and certification in its practice by organizations such as the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M) co-founded by Dr Robert M. Goldman and Ronald Klatz.

=Human growth hormone=

Central to anti-aging medicine is administration of human growth hormone.Ronald Klatz, Grow Young with HGH: The Amazing Medically Proven Plan to Reverse Aging Harper Paperbacks (May 8, 1998), trade paperback, 400 pages {{ISBN|0-06-098434-1}} {{ISBN|978-0060984342}} Clinical studies have shown that low-dose growth hormone (GH) treatment for adults with GH deficiency changes the body composition by increasing muscle mass, decreasing fat mass, and increasing bone density and muscle strength. It also improves cardiovascular parameters (i.e. decrease of LDL cholesterol) and affects the quality of life without significant side effects.{{cite journal |vauthors=Alexopoulou O, Abs R, Maiter D |title=Treatment of adult growth hormone deficiency: who, why and how? A review |journal=Acta Clinica Belgica |volume=65 |issue=1 |pages=13–22 |year=2010 |pmid=20373593 |doi=10.1179/acb.2010.002|s2cid=24874132 }}{{cite journal |vauthors=Ahmad AM, Hopkins MT, Thomas J, Ibrahim H, Fraser WD, Vora JP |title=Body composition and quality of life in adults with growth hormone deficiency; effects of low-dose growth hormone replacement |journal=Clinical Endocrinology |volume=54 |issue=6 |pages=709–17 |date=June 2001 |pmid=11422104 |doi=10.1046/j.1365-2265.2001.01275.x|s2cid=12681649 |doi-access=free }}{{cite journal |vauthors=Savine R, Sönksen P |title=Growth hormone - hormone replacement for the somatopause? |journal=Hormone Research |volume=53 |issue=Suppl 3 |pages=37–41 |year=2000 |pmid=10971102 |doi=10.1159/000023531|s2cid=30263334 }} However, it is also said to have potentially dangerous side effects when used in injectable form if proper protocols are not followed. It is not approved for use in healthy aging patients, though the restriction is occasionally sidestepped by means of a diagnosis of some injury, organic condition, or adult-growth-hormone deficiency[http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_12/b3976001.htm "Selling The Promise Of Youth"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100104094003/http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_12/b3976001.htm |date=January 4, 2010 }} cover story Business Week March 20, 2006 which may have resulted in reduced secretion of the hormone.{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/15/business/yourmoney/15aging.html |title=Aging: Disease or Business Opportunity? |author-link=Duff Wilson |last=Wilson |first=Duff |work=The New York Times |date=April 15, 2007 |access-date=December 13, 2022}}

=Menopausal hormone drugs=

Administration of estrogen and other hormones such as progestin were popularized by the 1966 book Feminine Forever by Robert A. Wilson.Robert A. Wilson, Feminine Forever, M. Evans and Company, Inc. (June 15, 1968), hardcover, {{ISBN|0-87131-049-X}} {{ISBN|978-0871310491}} However, the increase of the use of estrogen was shown to be associated with an increased risk of cancer.{{cite journal|author1=H Jick|author2=A M Walker|author3=K J Rothman|title=The epidemic of endometrial cancer: a commentary|journal=American Journal of Public Health|date=March 1980|volume=70|issue=3|pages=264–267|doi=10.2105/AJPH.70.3.264|pmid=7356090|pmc=1619376}} Later, in 2002, research into the long-term effects of estrogen on post-menopausal women, the Women's Health Initiative, produced evidence that there were serious side effects.{{cite web|title=Findings from the WHI Postmenopausal Hormone Therapy Trials|url=http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/whi/|website=Women's Health Initiative|publisher=National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160617000903/http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/whi/|archive-date=2016-06-17|access-date=2009-12-13}} Physicians who prescribe the hormones now prescribe low doses of the drugs. Research into the long-term effects of hormone replacement therapy is continuing, with a 2017 Cochrane systematic review concluding that long-term use may decrease the risk of bone fractures or postmenopausal osteoporosis, but increase the risk of stroke, heart attacks, endometrial cancer, and breast cancer.{{Cite journal|last1=Marjoribanks|first1=Jane|last2=Farquhar|first2=Cindy|last3=Roberts|first3=Helen|last4=Lethaby|first4=Anne|last5=Lee|first5=Jasmine|date=2017|title=Long-term hormone therapy for perimenopausal and postmenopausal women|journal=The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews|volume=1|issue=1 |pages=CD004143|doi=10.1002/14651858.CD004143.pub5|issn=1469-493X|pmid=28093732|pmc=6465148}} Hormone therapy is generally only recommended for postmenopausal women who are at a high risk of osteoporosis when non-hormonal treatments are not suitable. Hormone therapy is not suitable or advised for treating cardiovascular disease, dementia, or for preventing cognitive decline in postmenopausal women. The risks of long-term hormonal therapy for women under 50 years of age have not been determined.

=Senolytics=

Scientific approaches

Biogerontology is a scientific discipline which has the same area of interest but, as a branch of gerontology, takes a more conservative approach.{{cite journal | doi = 10.1016/j.jaging.2008.05.010 | volume=22 | title=Anti-aging science: The emergence, maintenance, and enhancement of a discipline | year=2008 | journal=Journal of Aging Studies | pages=295–303 | last1 = Fishman | first1 = Jennifer R.| issue=4 | pmid=23264719 | pmc=3528075 }} Caloric restriction is a phenomenon introduced in anti-aging techniques which focuses on depletion of calories and taking the right amount of nutrients necessary for growth.{{Cite journal|last1=Everitt|first1=Arthur V.|last2=Couteur|first2=DAVID G. Le|date=2007|title=Life Extension by Calorie Restriction in Humans|journal=Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences|language=en|volume=1114|issue=1|pages=428–433|doi=10.1196/annals.1396.005|pmid=17717102|bibcode=2007NYASA1114..428E|s2cid=30275713|issn=1749-6632}}

= Calorie restriction =

Calorie restriction (CR) refers to a dietary restriction that focuses on less calorie intake to increase longevity and reduce age-related disease in humans. Calorie restriction maintains a low calorie intake that helps to regulate the rate of aging and increases the youthfulness of an individual or animal.{{Cite journal|last1=Sohal|first1=Rajindar S.|last2=Forster|first2=Michael J.|date=2014-08-01|title=Caloric restriction and the aging process: a critique|url= |journal=Free Radical Biology and Medicine|language=en|volume=73|pages=366–382|doi=10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2014.05.015|pmid=24941891|pmc=4111977|issn=0891-5849|doi-access=free}} Low calorie intake has directly been correlated to negative energy balance which promotes low body mass index (BMI) and comparatively high plasma dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) for improved life expectancy.{{Cite journal|title=Caloric Restriction, the Traditional Okinawan Diet, and Healthy Aging: The Diet of the World's Longest-Lived People and Its Potential Impact on Morbidity and Life Span|last1=Bj|first1=Willcox|last2=Dc|first2=Willcox|date=October 2007|language=en|pmid=17986602|last3=H|first3=Todoriki|last4=A|first4=Fujiyoshi|last5=K|first5=Yano|last6=Q|first6=He|last7=Jd|first7=Curb|last8=M|first8=Suzuki|journal = Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences|volume = 1114|issue = 1|pages = 434–455|doi = 10.1196/annals.1396.037|bibcode = 2007NYASA1114..434W|s2cid=8145691}} Calorie restriction has widely been practiced by pregnant women and people with pre-existing medical conditions such as diabetes. The right amount of calorie restriction help pregnant women to achieve positive weight gain whereas a significant drop in calorie intake can lead to hypothalamic alterations leading to long-term effects in the offspring.{{Cite journal|last1=Ramírez-López|first1=María Teresa|last2=Vázquez|first2=Mariam|last3=Bindila|first3=Laura|last4=Lomazzo|first4=Ermelinda|last5=Hofmann|first5=Clementine|last6=Blanco|first6=Rosarío Noemí|last7=Alén|first7=Francisco|last8=Antón|first8=María|last9=Decara|first9=Juan|last10=Arco|first10=Rocío|last11=Ouro|first11=Daniel|date=2016-11-01|title=Maternal Caloric Restriction Implemented during the Preconceptional and Pregnancy Period Alters Hypothalamic and Hippocampal Endocannabinoid Levels at Birth and Induces Overweight and Increased Adiposity at Adulthood in Male Rat Offspring|journal=Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience|volume=10|page=208|doi=10.3389/fnbeh.2016.00208|issn=1662-5153|pmc=5088205|pmid=27847471|doi-access=free}} Moderate CR in diabetic patients increases insulin sensitivity and reduces the amount of hepatic fat in obese individual and type 2 diabetes.{{Cite journal|last1=Larson-Meyer|first1=D. Enette|last2=Heilbronn|first2=Leonie K.|last3=Redman|first3=Leanne M.|last4=Newcomer|first4=Bradley R.|last5=Frisard|first5=Madlyn I.|last6=Anton|first6=Steve|last7=Smith|first7=Steven R.|last8=Alfonso|first8=Anthony|last9=Ravussin|first9=Eric|date=2006-06-01|title=Effect of Calorie Restriction With or Without Exercise on Insulin Sensitivity, β-Cell Function, Fat Cell Size, and Ectopic Lipid in Overweight Subjects|journal=Diabetes Care|language=en|volume=29|issue=6|pages=1337–1344|doi=10.2337/dc05-2565|issn=0149-5992|pmid=16732018|doi-access=free|pmc=2677812}} Long term CR in older animals results in stem cell function similar to that of the younger groups. The active stem cell function helps in enhanced recovery of the damaged skeletal muscle tissue, which is slower in older individuals compared to younger individuals.{{Cite journal|last1=Cerletti|first1=Massimiliano|last2=Jang|first2=Young C.|author3-link=Lydia W. S. Finley|last3=Finley|first3=Lydia W.S.|last4=Haigis|first4=Marcia C.|last5=Wagers|first5=Amy J.|date=2012-05-04|title=Short-term calorie restriction enhances skeletal muscle stem cell function|journal=Cell Stem Cell|volume=10|issue=5|pages=515–519|doi=10.1016/j.stem.2012.04.002|issn=1934-5909|pmc=3561899|pmid=22560075}} CR in the United States has shown a prolonged life span in women compared to men as women tend to consume 25% fewer calories than men in their lifetime.{{Cite journal|last1=Everitt|first1=Arthur V.|last2=Le Couteur|first2=David G.|date=October 2007|title=Life extension by calorie restriction in humans|journal=Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences|volume=1114|issue=1|pages=428–433|doi=10.1196/annals.1396.005|issn=0077-8923|pmid=17717102|bibcode=2007NYASA1114..428E|s2cid=30275713}} The statistical analysis of CR available for anti-aging movement in humans is insufficient to prove the prolonged lifespan associated with CR.

Mass movement

A substantial fraction of older people, taking their cue from alternative medicine, purchase and use herbal supplements and other products which promise relief from the incidents and dangers of aging. However, many such products are unregulated, and can instead pose serious health risks.[http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d011129.pdf 'Health Products for Seniors:] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100106233742/http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d011129.pdf |date=2010-01-06 }} "Anti-Aging" Products Pose Danger for Physical and Economic Harm' report by the GAO September, 2001

Reception

There are at least two opposite views on the prospects of anti-aging research and development. One group states that there is a great deal of over-heated rhetoric in use with respect to life extension with over-optimistic projections by its advocates. They also claim that there is little evidence that any significant breakthrough has been made, or is on the horizon.{{cite journal | last1 = Turner | first1 = Leigh | author-link = Leigh Turner | year = 2004 | title = Biotechnology, bioethics and anti-aging interventions | journal = Trends in Biotechnology | volume = 22 | issue = 5| pages = 219–221 | doi = 10.1016/j.tibtech.2004.03.008 | pmid = 15109806 }} Some state that this is largely due to a current lack of funding or interest in the issue.{{cite web|first=Dick |last=Pelletier |title=Advances in medical technologies predicted for this decade|url=http://positivefuturist.com/archive/368.html |work=Positive Futurist |access-date=May 26, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130318122344/http://positivefuturist.com/archive/368.html |archive-date=March 18, 2013 }} A study of the commonly-used supplements and hormone treatments published in 2006 in the Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine showed that none of them are effective for extending life.

{{Cite journal

| issn = 0891-1150

| volume = 73

| issue = 12

| pages = 1049–1056, 1058

| last = Kamel

| first = Nabil S

|author2=Julie Gammack |author3=Oscar Cepeda |author4=Joseph H Flaherty

| title = Antioxidants and hormones as antiaging therapies: high hopes, disappointing results

| journal = Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine

| year = 2006

| doi = 10.3949/ccjm.73.12.1049

| pmid = 17190308

}}

Another group notices that recent scientific successes in rejuvenation and extending the lifespan of model animals{{cite web|title=Scientists' Open Letter on Aging Research |url=http://www.imminst.org/cureaging/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150429170735/http://www.imminst.org/cureaging/ |work=CureAging.org: Independent Open Letter in Support of Aging Research |archive-date=2015-04-29 }}{{Failed verification|date=July 2015}} and discovery of a variety of species (including humans of advanced ages) having negligible senescence give hope to achieve negligible senescence (cancel aging) for younger humans, reverse ageing, or at least significantly delay it.

Though some scientists think curing aging is impossible, there are some criticisms of both the time frame life extensionists envision (the first, perhaps somewhat crude, treatments within the next several decades, or at least before the beginning of the 22nd century) and of whether curing aging is even desirable. Common criticisms of the idea of life extension are fears it will cause the world to be more overpopulated; however, de Grey counters that by saying that since menopause would also be delayed, women could wait longer to have children and, thus, the rate of growth would actually decline as a result. Also, the slowly growing population would buy centuries of time to figure out new places to live, such as space colonies.{{cite journal |last1=Gavrilov |first1=Leonid A. |last2=Gavrilova |first2=Natalia S. |title=Demographic Consequences of Defeating Aging |journal=Rejuvenation Research |date=April 2010 |volume=13 |issue=2–3 |pages=329–334 |doi=10.1089/rej.2009.0977 |pmid=20426616 |pmc=3192186}}