American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine - Beliefs

Beliefs

The Academy's website states that the goal of the A4M is the "advancement of technology to detect, prevent, and treat aging related disease and to promote research into methods to retard and optimize the human aging process." The website also argues that the "disabilities associated with normal aging are caused by physiological dysfunction which in many cases are ameliorable to medical treatment" and states that such treatments could extend the normal human lifespan. More simply, according to The New York Times, their co-founder and president Ronald Klatz stated that "We're not about growing old gracefully. We're about never growing old." With Klatz being quoted in 2004 as stating that:

We the leaders of the Anti-Aging movement will help to usher in a new modern age for humanity: The Ageless Society. There is a remedy for this apocalypse of aging, and this remedy comes just in time to save America. This remedy is the new science of Anti-Aging Medicine represented by the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine.

The A4M believe that an "anti-aging transformation" can be produced by a combination of interventions, which include hormones, antioxidants, lifestyle modifications and exercise. A 2002 presentation produced by Klatz highlights many widely recommended interventions to maintain health in old age, such as staying slim, avoiding smoking, regular exercise, maintaining an active social and sex life, continued mental stimulation, avoiding stress, a healthy diet, and moderate alcohol consumption. The presentation also recommends consuming antioxidant supplements, and avoiding tap water, which it describes as "dangerous" due to it being contaminated with toxic chemicals. The A4M argues that the application of this set of interventions can produce "practical immortality", which are human lifespans in excess of 150 years, and predict future lifespans ranging up to 200 years old before the year 3000. Writing in 2006, Klatz predicted that such dramatic increases in lifespan will be produced by emerging technologies such as nanotechnology or stem cell therapy, which he states "shows ubiquitous promise for everything from stroke to spinal cord injury." With the discovery of such future technologies, Klatz believes that "Humankind will evolve toward an Ageless Society, in which we all experience boundless physical and mental vitality."

Writing in the 2001 issue of the journal Generations, historian Carole Haber of the University of Delaware, states that Klatz' aspirations and the rhetoric of the A4M "reflect well-worn ideas and the often-enunciated hopes of the past", drawing parallels with the ideas of the 19th century physiologists Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard, Serge Voronoff and Eugen Steinach. Haber states that the current resurgence of these ideas may be due to their appeal to the aging Baby Boom Generation, in a culture that is focused on the ideal of youth. Haber has also discussed the strong continuities within the philosophy of the anti-aging movement, writing that "For Steinach and Voronoff, as for the members of the A4M, old age was a "grotesque" disease that could be scientifically eradicated through the correct combination of hormones, diet, and surgery."