Category Archives: Anti-Aging Medicine

We cant avoid aging. Every passing minute brings us one minute closer to the end. Not a pleasant thought. So, it is little wonder that the term anti-aging has been seized by marketers of various cosmetics, health supplements, exotic juices and dietary regimens. Anti-aging medicine is a growing field with numerous biotech companies working on drugs designed to combat the aging process.

The quest for immortality, of course, is not new. The ancient alchemists sought to turn base metals like lead into gold in order to find the secret of golds immortality. After all, the metal would not tarnish, it maintained its beautiful sheen and seemed to last forever. If they could find its magic, they could perhaps apply it to humans. But they never did find the secret. Lead is still lead and the alchemists are long dead.

This is not to say that there are not some intriguing possibilities that may help slow down the clock. As we age, an increasing number of our cells enter a stage of senescence in which they no longer divide and begin to release chemicals that cause inflammation resulting in damage to tissues. A buildup of senescent cells, sometimes called zombie cells, is a hallmark of aging. Can anything be done to prevent this buildup? Possibly. At least in mice. When researchers at the Mayo Clinic injected just a small number of senescent cells into young mice, their speed, endurance and strength eroded to that seen in a senior mouse in just a few weeks. When the mice were then treated with desatinib and quercetin, a combination of drugs known to destroy senescent cells, they recovered most of their lost physical capabilities within two weeks! Quite dramatic! But mice are not people, and while quercetin is a safe compound extracted from apple peel, desatinib is a very expensive leukemia drug with loads of side effects. Still, this experiment is a proof of principle, demonstrating that destroying senescent cells with senolytics is worthy of exploration.

However, slowing aging may not be a matter of what we do, but what we dont do. It may be that if we want to live longer, all we have to do is eat less. Calorie restriction has been the only sure-fire way that scientists have found to slow aging in animals from rodents to monkeys and now we are beginning to accumulate data that suggests this applies to humans, as well. The idea that less is more when it comes to eating is not new. Hippocrates noted that fat people were more likely to die suddenly than slender ones, and Avicenna, the famed Persian philosopher and physician, suggested that the elderly should eat less than when they were younger.

Venetian nobleman Luigi Cornaro may have been the first to put a restricted calorie diet to a test in the 17th century when he came to believe that his health was deteriorating due to excessive partaking of food, drink and sex. He then restricted himself to no more than 350 grams of food a day and 400 mL of wine and lived to the ripe old age of 98. He documented his regimen in his book Discourses On the Temperate Life and described how the changes he made in his lifestyle allowed him to remain in vigorous health well into old age.

Today, members of the Calorie Restriction Society that has the goal of increasing longevity are following in Cornaros footsteps and are acting as human guinea pigs. They consume no more than 2,000 calories per day, which is just over half of what an average North American wolfs down. They dont do this, though, by eating half servings of hamburger, fries or pizza. They do it by following a diet high in whole grains, fruits, vegetables, beans and fish. And according to a study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the austere regimen is paying off. Researchers examined the heart function of 25 members of the Calorie Restriction Society, and to their amazement found that the hearts functioned like those of people 15 years younger. But permanent hunger is not appealing.

What is appealing, however, is taking a deep dive into the science of aging. That is just what we will do this year at our annual Trottier Public Science Symposium, one of McGills largest annual public events. We have invited three expert speakers to address humans Longing for Longevity. On Tuesday, Oct. 22, Harvard Professor of Genetics David Sinclair, a world leader in aging research, will discuss how aging may be a treatable disease, and cosmetic chemist Kelly Dobos will scrutinize claims made by producers of anti-aging cosmetics. On Wednesday, Oct. 23, Ruth Westheimer, psychosexual therapist, author and pioneer of radio and television programs dealing with sexual issues will speak on Sex After 50. (Spoiler: there is.)

The symposium will take place at 7 p.m. both days at the Centre Mont Royal, 1000 Sherbrooke St. West. Admission is free. Arrive early.

joe.schwarcz@mcgill.ca

Joe Schwarcz is director of McGill Universitys Office for Science & Society (mcgill.ca/oss). He hosts The Dr. Joe Show on CJAD Radio 800 AM every Sunday from 3 to 4 p.m.

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The Right Chemistry: Looking for the secrets to longevity - Montreal Gazette

Conscious Medicine has an Integrative Anti-Aging Center near Atlanta, Georgia, which is physically based in Gwinnett County. With the best solutions for anti-aging in the Atlanta area through a Functional medicine treatment center approach, Conscious Medicine offers the best in private consulting doctors. And we believe thats what makes Conscious Medicine the best anti-aging treatment center the Atlanta area has to offer.

We have been in existence for a long time in the field of Integrative and Functional Medicine practices, with a good patient satisfaction rate.

We have all of the health treatment packages needed for you to improve your health functionally and nutritionally, in restoring your bodys natural vitality and ability to heal itself. Functional medicine applies a systems-based approach in a therapeutic partnership between patient and practitioner to directly address the underlying causes of disease. Our treatments aim at the causes of disease, not symptoms.

We use Nutritional treatments in strengthening your body systems with nutrients to achieve optimal health and wellness, to prevent chronic diseases. Current medical literature reports that many conditions can be prevented by having adequate levels of certain nutrients in the body.

In Anti-Aging Medicine, stem cells are the building blocks from which all repair, regeneration, and healing of the body arise. Hormones are responsible for helping cells communicate with their specific organ functions and can directly influence mood, metabolism, energy, libido, and even sleep.

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anti-aging Medicine Center near atlanta | Conscious Medicine

The good news is that the DataBETA project has found a home. After several months of seeking a university partner, I am thrilled to be working with Moshe Szyfs lab at McGill School of Medicine. DataBETA is a broad survey of things people do to try to extend life expectancy, combined with evaluation of these strategies (and their interactions!) using the latest epigenetic clocks. Szyf was a true pioneer of epigenetic science, back in an era when epigenetics was not yet on any of our radar screens. No one has more experience extracting information from methylation data.

DataBETA is just the kind of study that is newly possible, now that methylation clocks have come of age. Studies of anti-aging interventions had been impractical in the past, because as long as the study depends on people dying of old age, it is going to take decades and cost $ tens of millions. Using methylation clocks to evaluate biological age shortcuts that process, potentially slashing the time by a factor of 10 and the cost by a factor of 100. But it depends critically on the assumption that the methylation clocks remain true predictors of disease and death when unnatural interventions are imposed. Is methylation an indicator, a passive marker of age? Or do changing methylation patterns cause aging?

Two types of methylation changes with age

Everyone agrees that methylation changes with age are the most accurate measure we have, by far, of a persons chronological ageand beyond this, the GrimAge clock and PhenoAge clock are actually better indications of a persons life expectancy and future morbidity than his chronological age.

Everyone agrees that methylation is a program under the bodys control. Epigenetic signals control gene expression, and gene expression is central to every aspect of the bodys metabolism, every stage of life history. Sure, there is a loss of focus in methylation patterns with age, sometimes called epigenetic drift. But there is also clearly directed change, and it is on the directed changes that methylation clocks are based.

But there are two interpretations of what this means. (1) There is the theory that aging is fundamentally an epigenetic program. Senescence and death proceed on an evolutionarily-determined time schedule, just as growth and development unfold via epigenetic programming at an earlier stage in life. Several prominent articles were written even before the first Horvath clock proposing this ideas [ref, ref], and I have been a proponent of this view from early on [ref]. If you think this way, then methylation changes are a root cause of aging, and restoring the body to a younger epigenetic state is likely to make the body younger.

(2) The other view, based on an evolutionary paradigm of purely individual selection, denies that programmed self-destruciton is a biological possibility. Since there is a program in late-life epigenetic changes, it must be a response and not a cause of aging. Aging is damage to the body at the molecular and cellular level. In response to this threat, the body is ramping up its repair and defense mechanisms, and this accounts for consistency of the methylation clock. In this view, setting back the methylation pattern to a younger state would be counter-productive. To do so is to shut off the bodys repair mechanisms and to shorten life expectancy.

So, if you believe (1) then setting back the bodys methylation clock leads to longer life, but if you believe (2) then setting back the bodys methylation clock leads to shorter life.

I think there is good reason to support the first interpretation (1). Epigenetics is fundamentally about gene expression. If you drill down to specific changes in gene expression with age, you find that glutathione, CoQ10=ubiquinone, SOD and other antioxidant defenses are actually dialed down in late life when we need them more. You find that inflammatory cytokines like NFB are ramped up, worsening the chronic inflammation that is our prominent enemy with age. You find that protective hormones like pregnenolone are shut off, while damaging hormones like LH and FSH are sky high in women when, past menopause, they have no use for them. There is a method in this madness, and the method appears to be self-destruction.

Until this year, I have been very comfortable with this argument, and comfortable promoting the DataBETA study, which is founded in the premise that setting back the methylation clock is our best indicator of enhanced life expectancy. The thing that made me start to question was the story of Lu and Horvaths GrimAge clock, which I blogged about back in March.

The GrimAge clock is the best predictor of mortality and morbidity currently available, and it was built not directly on a purely statistical analysis of direct associations with m&m, but based on indirect associations with such things as inflammatory markers and smoking history. (This is a really interesting story, and I suggest you go back and read the March entry if you have not already. The story has been told in this way nowhere else.)

(Please be patient, Im getting to the point.) Years of smoking leave an imprint on the bodys methylation patterns, and this imprint (but not the smoking history itself) is part of the GrimAge clock. I asked myself, How does smoking shorten life expectancy? I have always assumed that smoking damages the lungs, damages the arteries, damages the bodys chemistry. Smoking shortens lifespan not through instructions imprinted in the epigenetic program, but quite directly through damaging the bodys tissues. Therefore, the epigenetic shadow of smoker-years that contributes to the GrimAge clock is not likely to be programmed aging of type (1), but rather programmed protection, type (2).

For me, this realization marked a crisis. I have begun to worry that setting back the methylation clock does not always contribute positively to life expectancy. The canonical example is that if we erased the bodys protective response to the damage incurred by smoking, we would not expect the smoker to live longer.

The bottom line

I now believe there are two types of methylation changes with age. I remain convinced that type (1) predominates, and that setting these markers to a younger state is a healthy thing to do, and that it offers genuine rejuvenation. But there are also some type (2) changes with agehow common they are, I do not knowand we want to be careful not to set these back to a younger, less protected state.

The methylation clocks promise a new era in medical research on aging, an era in which we can know what works without waiting decades to detect mortality differences between test and control groups. But it is only type (1) methylation changes that can be used in this way. So it is an urgent research priority to distinguish between these two types of directed changes.

This is a difficult problem, because the obvious research method would be to follow many people with many different methylation patterns for many decadesexactly the slow and costly process that the methylation clocks were going to help us avoid. My first hunch is that we might find a shortcut experimenting with cell cultures. Using CRISPR, we can induce methylation changes one-at-a-time in cell lines and then assess changes in the transcriptome, and with known metabolic chemistry, make an educated guess whether these changes are likely to be beneficial or the opposite. As stated, this probably will not work because methylation on CpGs tends to work not via individual sites but on islands that are typically ~1,000 base pairs in length. Perhaps changes in the transcriptome can be detected when we intervene to methylate or demethylate an entire CpG island.

Perhaps there is a better way. I invite suggestions from people who know more biology than I know for experimental ways to distinguish type (1) from type (2) methylation changes with age.

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Methylation Clocks and True Biological Age - ScienceBlog.com

In our on-going quest for perfect skin, Retinol has been considered a bit of a hero product. A derivative of vitamin A, Retinol helps boost collagen production and aids in cell turnover thus helping reduce everything from wrinkles and sunspots to acne and uneven skin, making it a favourite of everyone fromFrank Oceanto AOC.

However, Retinol can also often cause irritation and dryness, especially for those with sensitive skin, and those who suffer from rosacea, eczema, or psoriasis are advised to steer clear. Not to worry though, there is a new ingredient in town which boasts all of the benefits of Retinol without any of the irritants. Introducing: Bakuchiol.

Pronounced buh-koo-chee-ol, Bakuchiol is a plant-based derivative of the babchi plant (psoralea corylifolia). For years, the babchi plant has been widely used in Ayurvedic medicine (a thousands year old holistic healing system originating in India) to treat a variety of illnesses from indigestion to scorpion poisoning, and now new research has emerged that shows Bakuchiol mimics the effects of Vitamin A when used in skincare.

In 2018, a study published by the British Journal of Dermatology reported that: Bakuchiol is comparable with retinol in its ability to improve photoageing and is better tolerated than retinol. Concluding that: Bakuchiol is promising as a more tolerable alternative to retinol.

Not only is Bakuchiol is anti-aging, anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory, with the potential to treat acne and hyper-pigmentation, critically, it also does without the less than ideal side effects of Retinol such as redness, burning, skin irritation and dryness.

With all those benefits plus a few additional ones Bakuchiol is suitable for vegans and safe for use during pregnancy, unlike Retinol this new hero ingredient is on its way to holy grail status. Here weve rounded up some of the best products on the market right now.

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Everything you need to know about Bakuchiol a smart alternative to Retinol - Dazed

Share on PinterestResearchers say people who walk more quickly tend to have better cognitive and overall health. Getty Images

When it comes to long-term health of the body and the brain, that old nudge Grandma used to give you may just have powerful implications: Put a little pep in your step.

A 40-year research study published in the journal JAMA Network Open finds that lifelong walking speed may have a direct link to overall health and cognitive function.

In the study, slower walkers were shown to have accelerated aging on a 19-measure scale devised by researchers.

In addition, their lungs, teeth, and immune systems tended to be in worse shape than the people who walked more quickly.

Cognitive function and deterioration was linked to slower walking as well.

The data is from a study of nearly 1,000 people who were born during a single year in Dunedin, New Zealand.

The research participants have been tested, quizzed, and measured their entire lives, mostly recently from April 2017 to April 2019 at age 45.

According to Line J.H. Rasmussen, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher in the Duke University Department of Psychology & Neuroscience and the Clinical Research Centre at Copenhagen University Hospital Amager and Hvidovre in Copenhagen, Denmark, and a lead researcher on the study, what fascinated the team most was that long-term cognitive outcomes seem to connect directly to gait speed in children as young as 3 years old.

Since childhood brain health already at the age of 3 years was associated with walking speed at midlife, it looks like the early life function of the brain could affect the long-term function of the body and thus the walking speed, Rasmussen told Healthline.

A most remarkable finding was that we could predict how fast they walked at midlife by a childhood assessment of their neurocognitive functions at age 3. There was a difference of 12 IQ points on average between children who grew up to be the slowest (mean gait speed 1.21 meters per second) and fastest (mean gait speed 1.75 meters per second) walkers 4 decades later. Gait speed is not only an indicator of aging, but also an indicator of lifelong brain health, she said.

What does this mean?

For the research community and those who study and treat both the aging population and all ages of neurological patients, its a little bit of we knew this and a lot of lets look at this more.

For Rasmussen and her co-researchers, the next step is to dig deeper, specifically looking at the chicken-or-the-egg aspect of all this.

Did a less healthy brain cause slower gait in life, or does having a slower gait lead to the decreased health?

[We want to] find out if poor cognitive function causes the slow walking speed and accelerated aging, she said.

They also want to link with other researchers to find ways to apply this knowledge to current practices.

We would like to see whether gait could be used as a simple way to test the effect of anti-aging treatments, she said.

Rasmussen notes there are randomized trials of preventive treatments for middle-aged people who are still well.

Those trials could use gait as a test to see if the experimental treatments are helping, she said.

So, whats a person to do with this information?

Its not a huge surprise that your lifelong habits influence your lifelong physical function, Michael J. Ormsbee, PhD, FACSM, FISSN, CSCS, associate professor in the department of nutrition, food, and exercise sciences and associate director of the Institute of Sports Sciences & Medicine at Florida State University, told Healthline.

The bottom line to me is one, be active; two, start early; and three, never stop. Lets work on using exercise as medicine and applying this to the early years, rather than later in life, he said.

Ormsbee sees a possible immediate actionable item from this study as well.

It is also interesting that perhaps gait speed could be used as a very easy (at-home even) test to do and gauge health, he said.

Walking speed has long been used as a measure of health and aging in older patients, but whats new in this study is the relative youth of these study participants and the ability to see how walking speed matches up with health measures the study has collected during their lives.

Applying this to testing, both in home and medical offices, could help pinpoint possible issues and bring in intervention sooner.

Predicting future health would be huge for overall health and economic burden, Ormsbee said.

While the study authors work to dig deeper and look at things such as socioeconomic background, lifestyle habits, and other issues, the general public can take easy action, Ormsbee says.

He says its never a bad idea to move more, and move more quickly, at any age.

Its never too late (or too soon) to move more, he said.

But he also adds that people should still remember to stop and smell the roses.

In other words, move at a healthy pace but remember to savor this life as well.

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Pick Up the Pace: Walking More Quickly May Improve Your Health - Healthline

Dr. Zalzala hopes to serve the growing market of people interested in anti-aging treatments.

One of the many wild medical pursuits in Silicon Valley is the effort to slow down the aging process. Sajad Zalzala is trying to make it a reality.

Zalzala, a 38-year-old family medicine doctor based in the Detroit area, has just opened an online clinic called Qalytude, dedicated to anti-aging. As a physician licensed to practice in all 50 states, Zalzala can treat patients anywhere in the country by phone or online, in addition to those who visit his physical clinic.

Initially, Zalzala will be targeting the small but growing segment of Americans who take medicines like Metformin, a type 2 diabetes drug, but for the unintended purpose of staving off aging. Researchers are now finding evidence of reduced cancer risk in the drug, and studies in mice have shown potential for an improved life span, but scientists warn that it might not produce the same result in humans.

"There's this movement around Metformin that I could see having a snowball effect," Zalzala told CNBC.

He's jumping into a market for anti-aging services, products and technologies that's expected to reach $271 billion by 2024, according to Market Research Engine. Venture capital funds are dabbling in the space as are billionaires like Jeff Bezos and biohackers, who experiment with drugs and supplements for health and longevity purposes.

Zalzala said that only a few clinicians are trained in this field, and they're highly costly to see and often backed up with patients. Many primary care physicians won't prescribe Metformin to people who don't have diabetes until they better understand whether it's safe.

Zalzala's goal is to make it easier for people interested in drugs like Metformin to talk to a physician. He plans to hire a team of doctors to conduct research into Metformin and other drugs both their safety and efficacy and prescribe them virtually to patients while monitoring them for side effects.

Having previously worked for a handful of virtual medical companies, including Hims and Pill Club, Zalzala is familiar with the model. Hims and Roman are among companies that have sprung up in recent years to help people get medications for erectile dysfunction and hair loss, the types of things that patients are often embarrassed to discuss with a family doctor. Other companies are prescribing medication virtually for birth control, sexual health and prevention, anxiety and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Some of these companies require that patients talk to their doctor via video, while others request only that the user fill out a survey. The laws that govern how engaged a physician must be in the process vary by state.

For an area like anti-aging, a medical expert needs to be highly involved in the process.

These drugs "always must be prescribed by a doctor," said Lisa Suennen, managing director of digital and technology at the law firm Manatt, Phelps and Phillips. "Any drug can be dangerous if it is mixed with something contraindicated," and it's especially important to be cautious when they're being used "for claims that aren't fully vetted."

The side effects for Metformin include diarrhea, low blood sugar and abdominal pain, as well as a condition called lactic acidosis that involves excessive acid building up in the body. It also still isn't well understood whether the drug will provide benefits to healthy people, particularly those who exercise regularly.

Another medicine Zalzala is exploring is rapamycin, which has an immunosuppressant function and is useful in helping patients avoid rejected transplanted kidneys. He's also looking into so-called NAD booster patches. Both interventions are starting to get tested in the Silicon Valley tech community for their anti-aging effects, even though there are health risks.

Zalzala said he intends to be especially conservative with these untested therapies, but he didn't rule out the possibility of prescribing them. He said that he will recommend lifestyle and dietary changes and not just pills.

"Most of us don't have the perfect lifestyle," he said. "So I'm hoping to add an extra layer of protection."

WATCH: Tech, health care will continue to lead the market

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Doctor launches the first online clinic dedicated to using common drugs for a different purpose: to slow aging - CNBC