Arlene Weintraub - Selling the Fountain of Youth: How the Anti-Aging Industry Made a Disease Out of Getting Old--And Made Billions

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Table of Contents

I will follow that system of regimen which, according to my ability and judgment, I consider for the benefit of my patients, and abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous.

HIPPOCRATIC OATH

When we replace the missing hormones in older peoplereplace them to the level of younger peoplea very exciting thing happens. Cells start to respond and actually grow younger in terms of their physiology and in terms of their function.

DR. RONALD KLATZ, PRESIDENT, THE
AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ANTI-AGING
MEDICINE, AS QUOTED ON
WWW.THIRDAGE.COM

PREFACE

I first wandered into the odd world of anti-aging medicine while working as a science writer for BusinessWeek. It was 2005, and I was reporting a story on a new wave of drugs designed to help children who couldnt grow properly. The biotechnology innovation known as human growth hormone (HGH) was the most widely accepted treatment for these children, and parents were still clamoring for it. But as I called various doctors to report the story, some of them told me they were disturbed about an entirely different trend they were seeing: Aging adults wanted to take HGH, too.

I wondered, why would any fully grown adult need growth hormone? That single question opened my eyes to an emerging specialty called anti-aging medicine. The deeper I dug, the more fascinated I became with the bizarre and ever-growing medicine chest of drugs anti-aging doctors were prescribingand the hordes of patients who seemed to have no idea that these treatments could be seriously risky.

In 2006, I wrote a cover story for BusinessWeek called Forever Young: Selling the Promise of Youth, which questioned the claims anti-aging doctors were making about HGH and other substances they prescribed. That story attracted many more reader responses than anything else I have ever written. Some patients who had tried anti-aging regimens e-mailed me with horror stories about side effects they had suffered. Others defended their anti-aging habits. One man even called me to beg for the phone number of the anti-aging doctor who was the main character in my piece. (I refused.)

I knew I had much more to say about anti-aging medicine. Most of all, I wanted to set out my views about what seemed to be outrageous promises anti-aging doctors were making.

To research this book, I spent several months interviewing and shadowing the best-known doctors in the field of antiaging medicine, as well as some of their patients. I spent time with the entrepreneurs who started chains of anti-aging clinics, and I attended conferences put on by the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine and its rival, Age Management Medicine Group. I scoured literature on hormone replacement and interviewed scientists and doctors who were tryingmostly in vainto warn patients away from the most heavily touted regimens.

None of my reporting was done under cover; every person I interviewed knew that I was a journalist. Although I did submit myself to an anti-aging workup while reporting the BusinessWeek story, I never tried any of the drugs or supplements that were recommended to me. By the time you get to the end of the book, you should understand why.

Anti-aging doctors believe theyre acting in good faith and truly helping patients. I understand that. Yet most of what these physicians present to patients are rosy promises about hormone replacementpromises that are not always well supported by scientific evidence. This book is my chance to present the other side of the story. I have examined the facts and laid out my conclusions in these pages.

All quotations in this book were said to me or to my research assistant, unless otherwise noted. All quotations from books are accurate according to the editions I consulted. Most importantly, all patients and relatives of patients who appear here are real. I urge anyone who is tempted to try anti-aging remedies to read their stories and learn from them.

And remember this: Sometimes doctors are wrong.

CHAPTER 1

"Physician, Heal Thyself!"

You wake up on Monday, bound out of bed, head for the medicine cabinet, and grab a syringe filled with human growth hormone. With no hesitation, you stick the needle into a fold of skin on your thigh and press the plunger. Then you open a tube of estrogen cream that you bought from the neighborhood pharmacist and rub a dollop of it into your arm. Youre 56 years old, but your hot flashes are a distant nightmare, and you wake up with the energy of a 20-year-old. You attribute your newfound youth not only to the growth hormone and the estrogen but also to the sleep-promoting hormone melatonin, which you take every night. Youve heard that some hormones can cause cancer, but youre not too worried. Your doctor at the local anti-aging clinic told you the cancer fears are overblown. Youre just replacing the hormones your body made naturally when you were younger, he says. Theres nothing dangerous about that, right? If there were, surely all the 20-year-olds would have cancer!

Before you leave for work, you head for the kitchen, where you whip up a fruit smoothie and gulp it down with 35 supplement pills. You take a multivitamin that was made just for you by the pharmacist, plus dozens of herbal preparations that he told you would guarantee a long life. Youre getting your menstrual period again, because your anti-aging doctor told you to cycle your estrogen with progesteronechanging the dosage week by week to mimic what your body did when you were in your prime. It would do so much more than relieve your hot flashes, he promised. It would make you feel young again. The famous actress Suzanne Somers takes hormones like this, too, and she says she feels fantastic. She would never give out dumb advice, right?

The pharmacist said his hormone creams were completely natural, made from vegetables, and so much safer than those dangerous menopause drugs the pharmaceutical companies make. Neither his products nor his advertising claims are monitored by government agencies, but why should you care? Hes a pharmacisthe would never sell anything unhealthy, right? And at least he doesnt expect you to pore over any pesky product leaflets about side effects.

During your last checkup at the anti-aging clinic, you found out that your lab tests show abnormally high levels of the male hormone testosterone. Your doctor said it rubbed off on you when you were intimate with your husbandsomething youve been in the mood for a lot more often since you started your hormone treatments. Your husband was very impressed with the new you, so he made an appointment at the antiaging clinic, too. He told them that he felt a little tired and that his libido was sagging. They prescribed some testosterone gel to restore his virility. And boy, did that testosterone work wonders for your sex life.

As you pour your husband a smoothie, you wonder if it matters that his testosterone gel is rubbing off on you. Sure, most women dont have so much testosterone, and you did notice some hair growing in weird places. But lots of women use testosterone gel these days to restore the libidinous urges they had in their youth. Plus, its a natural hormone, just like whats found in our bodies normally. Its perfectly safe. Right?

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