Beat the race against time

Who does not want to drink the elixir of youth? The quest for a long and healthy life is universal. But with records of human life expectancy touching 100 and beyond, the focus is shifting more to health than just longevity.

An old man starts his day with Tai Chi in a park in Jiaxing of Zhejiang Province. Regular exercise is believed to slow the aging process. Zhang Yiqiang

China is a rapidly aging society. According to a white paper issued by the government, by the end of 2005, China had nearly 144 million people aged over 60, accounting for 11 percent of its population. The elderly population is growing by 3 percent every year.

According to the Ministry of Health, the chronic diseases incidence rate of people above 60 is 3.2 times that of the general population and the elderly spend 1.9 times more on healthcare than the general population.

Recently, the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M), the sole medical society in the world dedicated to longevity medicine, opened its office in Beijing.

Sharing the same preventive philosophy of traditional Chinese medicine, the new burgeoning medical specialty, anti-aging medicine, is aimed at controlling the effects of old age through the early detection, prevention, treatment, and reversal of age-related diseases.

When the A4M was founded in Chicago in 1992, it had only 12 physicians. It now has 11,500 physicians and scientists from 65 countries.

Aging is inevitable but can be slowed and this will help keep lifestyle related diseases such as diabetes and hypertension at bay. File photo

According to A4M, 90 percent of all adult illness is due to the degenerative processes of aging. The aging process can be viewed as a collection of lifestyle-related diseases such as arthritis, heart disease, most cancers, adult-onset diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, autoimmune disease, and Alzheimer's.

Slowing down the aging process can keep these diseases at bay.

According to Fan Zhiming, a well-known geriatrist in Beijing, aging is a fact of life. Slowing down aging will not make one live forever, but live one largely disease-free life.

The aging process can be judged only by analysing one's chronological, physiological and mental age, Fan said.

For example, a 30-year-old man who is gasping for breath when climbing stairs, is actually at the physiological and mental age of a 60-year-old. Such a person may experience senility fairly early.

Anti-aging medicine aims to reverse such a state by bringing in lifestyle changes, Fan said.

'Sub-health' group

Monitoring the signals of degenerative disease before they peak makes the practice of modern anti-aging medicine different from the common diseases-oriented one.

According to doctor Qiao Zhiheng, an expert with the China Rehabilitation Research Center, he often encounters patients who say they feel unwell though their medical check-ups do not show anything amiss.

"This group of people is commonly neglected in hospitals. But they are already well in the sub-clinical phase of many degenerative diseases characteristic of the aging process," he said.

This "sub-health" population, according to Qiao, comprises people in the 40 to 60 age group in mostly white collar vocations.

The average life span of this group is 10 to 20 years shorter than the average for the whole population, said Qiao. Sudden death and cardiovascular diseases are major killers.

Major indicators of this sub-health group are hypertension, high blood flat, high blood sugar, high blood viscosity, overweight, fatigue, and low immunity. He said the early detection of such conditions and appropriate health management can help slow the aging process.

Mutli-disciplinary practice

Modern anti-aging medicine is a multi-disciplinary practice. It includes not only advances in the fields of biochemistry, biology, and physiology, but also contributions from mind and body medicine, sports medicine, and molecular genetics.

"Anti-aging doctors make extensive evaluations of a person's health and 'biomarkers' before designing an individualized treatment. These tests help forecast the potential health risks," said Guo Yi, chairman of A4M China.

According to her, there are many specialized anti-aging clinics in the US. They put their clients through blood testing of metabolic profiles and cancer antigens, genetic tests, computer tomography (CT) scans, whole body screening and other tests of physiological markers such as the pulse, levels of testosterone, and elasticity of blood vessels.

As there is no single switch controlling the aging process, doctors also look at the mental health, nutrition, exercise and other lifestyle aspects to make a comprehensive assessment.

All the diagnostic techniques and treatment strategies are evidence-based and proven valid through independent evaluations, according to Guo.

Replacement therapy for human growth hormone (HGH) is one of the most important therapies that anti-aging medicine advocates. Produced in the pituitary gland, HGH is responsible for a wide range of youthful attributes, such as increased muscle and bone mass, decreased body fat, strengthening of the immune system and a greater sense of well-being and energy. For most people, HGH levels drop dramatically by the age of 30.

According to Guo, HGH therapy is effective in reversing the physical processes of aging and has been used clinically over the last 20 years. There is no published literature showing that HGH has any adverse side effects.

However, health experts are still not convinced about the safety of the drug and believe its clinical effects have not been adequately studied.

Besides the controversial HGH therapy, regular exercise, smart dietary choices and taking antioxidants such as Vitamin A, C, and E to combat the cell-damaging free radicals are other common anti-aging prescriptions.

Other methods can work as well, such as staying slim, deep sleep and positive social relationships.

(China Daily 01/31/2007 page19)