Consumers concerned about age-related changes in their physical appearance and performance can easily fall victim to shameless quackery. Antiaging product marketing preys on the insecurity and fear felt by aging persons and these emotions often cloud judgment. Aging is a part of life, and can be welcomed in a healthy and constructive manner.
Human Growth Hormone
Despite evidence that invalidates its claims as a revolutionary antiaging therapy, aggressive marketing of human growth hormone, or hGH, in recent years created a $2 billion dollar industry, says Dr. Thomas Perls, associate professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine. The risks of these hormones, says Perls, far outweigh their benefit. A study published in the "Journal of the American Medical Association," or "JAMA," demonstrated several harmful side effects of hGH supplementation in normally aging individuals, including insulin resistance and increased risk of cancer.
Caloric Restriction
A reduction in overall calories seems to retard the aging process, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine, University College, and the Andrus Gerontology Center at the University of Southern California. As an anti-aging tool, the caloric-restriction diet interests researchers since restricting calories not only extends test animals' lives, but these animals have fewer age-related issues such as cancer and cognitive impairment. A caloric-restriction diets calls for a 20 to 30 per cent reduction in overall caloric intake, says the Mayo Clinic, and while research has been promising, as a means to slow aging in humans, caloric restriction warrants further investigation.
Antioxidants
A study published in the "Genes & Development" journal in 2008 took a bold stance when it declared that oxidative stress, the theory that underpins most research into what causes aging, is "probably incorrect." Dr. David Gems, researcher at the Institute of Healthy Aging at University College London, found that oxidative cellular damage is not a major engine of the aging process. Chemical reactions involving sugars play a larger role. Dr Gems' study suggests antiaging products that promote the properties of anti-oxidants are essentially useless.
Exercise
The old standby -- exercise -- recently garnered new relevance in the anti aging discussion when researchers discovered proof that exercise does have an impact on cellular age. Researchers at the Saarland University Clinic in Germany compared two groups of runners: one young, one middle-aged. The middle-aged runners had remarkably youthful cells. There was only about a 10 per cent difference at the molecular level between the two groups, even though they were 30 years apart in chronological age.
Healthy Aging
Purdue University researchers discovered that subjective age -- how old you feel-- has more influence on aging that chronological age -- how old you are. The study, published in the "Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences," suggests that elders who feel younger than their years have greater confidence in their cognitive abilities, and as they age, this confidence seems to hold cognitive abilities in place, more so than elders who feel older than they are. This sense of youthful energy also seems to encourage aged persons to keep up with activities and learn new skills.
References
- The Journal of the American Medical Association: New Developments in the Illegal Provision of Growth Hormone for "Anti-Aging" and Bodybuilding
- Science Daily: Anti-Aging Hormones: Little or No Benefit and the Risks are High, According to Experts
- Science: Extending Healthy Life Span---From Yeast to Humans
- Mayo Clinic: Calorie-Restriction Diet for Anti-Aging
- Doonan, R. et al. Against the oxidative damage theory of aging: superoxide dismutases protect against oxidative stress but have little or no effect on life span in Caenorhabditis elegans. Genes and Development, Published online 30 Nov 2008
- New York Times Health: How Exercising Keeps Your Cells Young
