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[kevin]

This article outlines the inevitable casting about for anti-aging treatments by a graying generation with a lot of cash.

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Sunday, July 13, 2003
By Alicia Acuna


DENVER — The generation once known for embracing granola and peace is now popping pills and shelling out big bucks to keep a youthful appearance.

Baby boomers (search) are aging -- but not without a fight.

American 40- and 50-year-olds are flocking to clinics and supplement stores, frantically trying to slow down the aging process.

Taking a daily vitamin supplement is child's play compared to some of the lengths people will go: injecting themselves with human growth hormone, rubbing testosterone on their bodies and taking a hormone supplement called DHEA (search).

"The baby boomers are becoming frantic," said Dr. Terry Grossman of the Frontier Medical Institute in Lakewood, Co., which offers an array of aggressive anti-aging (search) remedies and treatments, including human growth hormone injections that supposedly thicken the skin, and cell regeneration and supplementation.

The medical community continues to debate the effectiveness of these fountain-of-youth formulas, along with whether or not the aging process should be treated like a disease with a potential cure or a reality that’s inevitable.

"All treatments are double edged swords and there are both positive and negative potential effects to almost anything that you put in your body," said Dr. Robert Schwartz, head of geriatric medicine at the University of Colorado Health Services Center (search).

"And before we can suggest that any of these are things that people should actually go out and do we need to know enough about the positives and the negatives.”

At 76 million, the largest generation in American history is turning into a goldmine for the anti-aging industry. Grossman, author of The Baby Boomers Guide to Living Forever, said he pops 40 pills every day to turn back the hands of time.

Americans in their 40s begin noticing the cosmetic effects of aging such as wrinkles and age spots.

"In their 50s I think people get very serious about it … Almost everybody starts to take their health seriously because they start to notice things. Their energy changes, their sleep changes, their bodies begin to change," Grossman said.

But stopping Father Time's march isn't merely a cosmetic quick fix, and expectations should be kept in check, say some experts.

"Aging is a very complicated process," said Schwartz, adding that not enough is known about aging to recommend any so-called treatment, let alone prescribe substances like the controversial DHEA: a naturally occurring youth hormone that breaks down over time.

"We don't know what the side effects [are] of having thousands and thousands of people taking growth hormone, DHEA, or testosterone supplementation," he said.

In addition to other tests, anti-aging practitioners can determine a person's biological age versus chronological age -- whether the body is older or younger than the birth certificate.

Schwartz said there is only one proven way for boomers to increase their lifespan and improve their health: Put down that pizza.

"It's been shown that if you reduce caloric intake on a chronic basis by 25 to 33 percent that you can in fact retard the physiological aging process," he said.

While eating less food might not sound as cutting edge as hormone injections, it's certainly less expensive.

And as both doctors point out -- it's really up to you and your bank account.

[kevin]

The Boomer Bust

http://www.foxnews.c...3,93337,00.html

Thursday, July 31, 2003
By Radley Balko

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury.” -- Sir Alex Fraser Tytler (1742-1813), Scottish jurist and historian, professor of Universal History at Edinburgh University.

“Don’t trust anyone over thirty,” -- 1960s radical Jack Weinberg.

Message to my fellow Gen-Xers (search): Lace up your boots. Shave that God-awful dot-com goatee. And stop sulking about how you hung onto those stock options just a wee bit too long. It’s time for inter-generational war. We’re about to be blindsided, Pearl-Harbored, politically cold-cocked by our generational nemesis.

I’m talking about the baby boomers (search).

Don’t get me wrong, some of my best parents are baby boomers. But the most self-aware, self-congratulatory, and self-destructive generation in American history is aging. Boomers are catching faint glimpses of their own mortality. They’re beginning to see themselves in nursing homes, convalescent centers and retirement communities. And so the generation that introduced us to political identity groups (search) and the culture of victimization now sees itself as an identity group, and an aging generation of victims. And now they want entitlements.

Consequently, my fellow Gen-Xers, you and I will be footing the bill, for example, for an $800 billion prescription drug benefit egged on, voted on and signed into law by baby boomers. Soon we’ll be paying for the God-given right of our parents to, for example, get erections well into their seventies.

Funny how just 10 years ago, boomers roundly rejected Hillary Clinton’s (search) proposal for socialized medicine (search) -- senior citizens have a right to force taxpayers to buy their pills? Absurd. A decade later, as boomers themselves approach retirement, having someone else pay for their medicine doesn’t seem like such a bad idea.

And Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson (search) points out that as boomers age, it’s inevitable that they’ll discover more “rights” they’re entitled to as well. Perhaps taxpayers should foot more of the bill for nursing home care, for example. Look for boomers to move for targeted tax breaks they can exploit as they start cashing out their retirement accounts. Subsidies for the applesauce, muscle ointment and shuffleboard industries can’t be far behind.

Then there’s Social Security (search), the massive ponzi scheme (search) that unless radically reformed, is certain to collapse by the time anyone under 30 reaches retirement age. But don’t count on any meaningful changes. The retirement age will stay put so long as we have free elections. And despite its pending collapse, Social Security won’t be going away until the last baby boomer goes away, too. What you can count on is the “FICA” (search) portion of your paycheck growing heavier and heavier to support a system slouching ever closer toward insolvency.

Sure, there’s talk of reform, of giving younger workers ownership of their Social Security taxes (and let’s call them what they are, they’re “taxes,” not “contributions”) to perhaps invest for better yields than the paltry returns we get from government.

But don’t count on it. Boomers run 75 million strong. They have more money than we do. They vote more than we do. And lest we forget, most of the people drafting, amending, passing and signing the laws are boomers, too. If there’s any -- any -- danger of Social Security privatization interfering with the hand-backs boomers feel they’re entitled too, it simply won’t happen.

And those are just the government programs that directly benefit boomers.

Boomers I think suffer from a natural inferiority complex. The generation just before them -- the World War II generation (search) -- saved the world, after all. And when your parents saved the world, what, really, can you do to better them?

So when boomers aren’t busy voting themselves entitlements to prolong their lives, they’re striving for immortality -- if not for “Greatest Generation” (search) status, which is taken, then at least for “The ‘Damn the Results, At Least We Tried’ Generation.”

So we can also thank well-meaning leftist boomers for the litany of social safety net programs that have resulted in, ahem, more people in need of government-funded safety net programs. We can thank boomer idealism for the wars on poverty (search) and drugs that gave us, ahem, more poverty and more drug use.

Our current boomer president wants to change the world, too. And like his leftist boomer cohorts, he too will be sending us the bill.

President Bush and his cadre of boomer advisors have committed to a “nation building” (search) project in Iraq that we’re told will cost us $1 billion per week, for a minimum of five to 10 years. And when the U.S. government says we’ll be present in a foreign country for a “minimum of five to 10 years,” you might look to Bosnia and Kosovo (search), where President Clinton promised the troops would be out “by Christmas” (Christmas when? In 2050?); to Kuwait, where we still have troops a decade after the war; to Korea, where we have troops 50 years after the war; or to Germany or Japan, where we have troops 60 years after the war.

And that’s assuming that the war on terror stops with Iraq. Who’s to say how many other $1 billion per week projects our boomer leaders will decide to take on after that?

If you’re not a boomer, you ought to be worried about all of this. Because you’re going to be paying for it. When the last boomer pops his last Viagra (search), or her last Valium, when the last Middle Eastern country flies the American flag, when the last child of the last World War II couple buys his ticket to that grand CSNY concert in the sky, it is us, Gen-Xers, who will be stuck with the bill.

And to that, I can only quote another boomer, the great Roger Daltry (search):

“I hope I die before I get old.”

Radley Balko is a writer living in Arlington, Va. He also maintains a Weblog at www.theagitator.com.

[kevin]

The article below is meant to illustrate the changing attitudes of boomer men. They are realizing that looking after yourself is preferable to holding the line of 'machismo' and traditional masculinity. The fact that men are eschewing the 'grit and bear it' method of approaching ageing is, I think, an indication of the beginnings of an admission that living longer and looking after yourself is actually "a good thing'. The man who is cognizant of, and takes advantage of techniques to keep himself looking and feeling better as he ages is going to live a longer and healthier life. Most women appreciate mates who value their health and appearance which explains why men are showing the unconcern for how their fellow males feel about the practice of visiting 'spas'. If we couple this emerging trend with the increasing popularity of 'longevity clinics', seen in the next post from the Wall Street Journal, which seek to slow down ageing, we can see that the public is already buying with their dollars into the possibility that ageing itself is a malleable and flexible thing. It is only a short step towards full out war on ageing from here.

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In 2003, it's OK to unleash your inner girly-man
http://www.phillybur...003-143310.html

It's unsettling to read that American males are increasingly interested in fashion, fragrances and facials - things that a few years ago would have marked them as girly-men.

Traditional masculinity - embodied by tough guys like John Wayne or Steve McQueen - is in the throes of a makeover.

Emerging is an effete dude eager to "beautify" himself with salon-highlighted hair, Axe body spray and facial moisturizer.

There's even a word to describe this new 21st century male: "metrosexual."

"Metrosexual" was coined by the British writer Mark Simpson to define men - gay, straight or other - who are in love with themselves and their urban lifestyle. They usually live near a metropolis "because that's where all the best shops, clubs, gyms and hairdressers are," Simpson writes on his Web site (www.marksimpson.com).

Among the best known metrosexuals, he says, is David Beckham, the British soccer star (married, with two kids) who wears pink nail polish and his wife's split-crotch panties (Ugh).

Metrosexuals are as interested in fashion as women and they see those eerily unnatural, half-dressed models displayed in the windows of Abercrombie & Fitch as the ideal stylish male.

Writes Simpson: "[Abercrombie & Fitch] may be looked down upon as middlebrow and middle American by the most refined metrosexuals, but its alarming popularity with straight, beer-drinking frat boys is proof of how metrosexuality has gone mainstream - while its lusciously produced, semi pornographic quarterly catalogues deliver conclusive proof that male narcissism ... is only ever a post-workout shower away from homoeroticism."

Yikes!

It gets worse, though.

In June, Euro RSCG Worldwide, a huge advertising agency, released a startling survey which asked American men between ages 21 and 48 what "one wish" they wanted more than any other.

You might think a typical American guy would say "a couple million bucks," a date with a centerfold model, or the life of a big league sports stud.

Nope. Most men, according to the survey, want "love, family, and friendship."

Thirty-five percent of American men want "to grow old with a woman I love;" 22 percent want "happy, healthy kids;" and 10 percent want (BARF ALERT) "a close circle of friends who support me unconditionally and whose company I enjoy."

Where was this survey conducted? At a taping of the Oprah Winfrey Show?

I guess I could dismiss this stuff as mere media froth. I mean, is "metrosexuality" a phenomenon much beyond the pretty-boy enclaves of Manhattan and Hollywood?

Ha. Metrosexuality's soft, moisturized hand could never grip itself around Bucks County, where men drink Budweiser from bottles and change their own oil.

Right?

I called a couple of high-class spas to see if (chuckle) local men are getting manicures (snicker) pedicures and (chortle) facials.

Oh yes, said Karen Clift at the Freestyle Salon in Newtown, men are among their best clients.

"Manicures, those are very popular," she said. "I know a phys-ed teacher who gets manicures. We [women] wish more men would do it, especially the pedicure. It just looks better. Cleaner. Men's feet aren't nice."

At the L'Avantage Day Spa in New Hope, general manager Katherine Stahley said when the spa opened 17 years ago, it had no male clients.

But that changed about three years ago when men began coming in to beautify themselves.

Today about 40 percent of her clientele are men (mostly straight men) between 40 and 60.

"It's the baby boomers who are now focused on anti-aging. A lot of men call us who want an alternative to any type of [cosmetic] surgery."

Doctors, lawyers and business executives are shelling out $75 an hour for facials, she said.

"They fret about their looks much more so than women. They're a lot more skin conscious. Very, very focused on it," she said.

Good Lord.

Does a woman really want a guy like this? Gabby, in touch with his "feelings," and with a prettier glow?

Do women want boyfriends who say stuff like, "Baby, you look fabulous - but those shoes have got to go! They're two seasons out of fashion."

What's next for American men -inviting the guys over to watch Monday Night Football while they do each other's nails?

A lot of us laughed at those horn-rimmed, Vitalis-ized dads of the 1960s and '70s, who bristled when they saw their sons wearing long "girly" hair.

Now I know how they felt.

Stoic sensibility has roared off in one of those dainty Mini Coopers and has left me choking in a cloud of dust - or is it a cloud of Calvin Klein's unisex cK One body spray?

[kevin]

Resorts claim treatments can slow, reverse aging

Andrea Petersen
Wall Street Journal
Aug. 13, 2003 10:15 AM

http://www.azcentral...aging13-ON.html

During her vacation at the Canyon Ranch Health Resort in Tucson, this summer, Jean Adler got massages, went on morning hikes, had her blood tested for indicators of heart disease and was told to eat colorful food to help keep her cells from aging too fast.

While they can't deduct candles from your birthday cake, a number of spas, hotels and resorts are offering new vacation packages that they claim can help slow - and even reverse - some of the signs and symptoms of aging.

This isn't just about facials and Botox treatments. While spas always have been about making people look younger on the outside, the new offerings are more aggressive. With names like Optimal Aging (the program the 56-year-old Ms. Adler undertook) and Anti-Aging Bootcamp, some include sophisticated medical tests that claim to determine how fast someone is aging and often offer strict recommendations on diet, exercise and vitamin supplements that proponents say can help turn back the clock.

"My goal is to age with a good quality of life that I don't see others having," says Ms. Adler, a real-estate developer from Princeton, N.J.

The "antiaging" vacation is the latest offering in the highly competitive $10.7 billion spa industry. During the past few years, many spas have hired doctors and added medical facilities to entice people of all ages to get a check-up between massages: There currently are 225 medical spas in the U.S., up from 93 facilities in 1997, according to the International Spa Association.

The packages are one way spas are trying to wring more money out of these investments. The vacations are also an attempt to woo people who aren't attracted to the fuzzy-robe-and-a-manicure style of spas.

But while many programs do take advantage of new preventive tests and research on diet and exercise, some industry watchers say they're largely a repackaging of services and advice that spas have always offered - with a fancy new moniker supported by clever marketing.

"Part of it is just hype," says Judy Singer, president and co-owner of Health Fitness Dynamics Inc., a spa consulting firm in Pompano Beach, Fla. "Spas have always tried to get people to look and feel better. Now, instead of doing a facial, it is an antiaging facial."

Nevertheless, the new packages - also dubbed "age management," "healthy aging" or "longevity" programs - are an increasingly popular draw. Canyon Ranch offers its Optimal Aging package (price tag: $5,000) three times a year, always to sell-out demand. Guests listen to lectures with titles such as "Reinventing Yourself, Aging With Grace" and "Oh, My Aching Back!" and can pay extra for bone scans and genetic tests. At the Red Mountain Spa in Ivins, Utah, about 30 percent of guests are on an antiaging regimen. They can take a test to find out their "actual age" (compared with their chronological one).

The three-month-old program at the Wailea Marriott Resort's Maui Wellness Institute asks guests: "Want to Feel and Look Years Younger?" For $400, clients get blood tests and diet-and-exercise tips to help them boost their levels of human growth hormone, a substance that contributes to healthy body composition but also declines with age. A new spa, the Mountain of Youth, opened in February outside of Atlanta. Weeklong "boot camps" run $1,100 and include 12 hours of lectures on diet, nutrition and supplements as well as white-water rafting and horseback riding.

The new vacation movement is also an offshoot of an increasingly popular, yet controversial, field of medicine that approaches aging as a disease that can be treated. While most spas and resorts steer clear of the most hotly debated treatments offered at "antiaging" medical clinics - such as injections of human growth hormone - some primary-care doctors are concerned. They say the testing offered can be overkill, some procedures are unneeded, and some of the dietary supplements prescribed may be ineffective or even dangerous if combined with prescription drugs.

For their part, some medical centers criticize the spa programs, noting some don't have M.D.s on staff. At some spas, blood tests and other tests are overseen by nutritionists and chiropractors, not medical doctors.

On a recent afternoon at Red Mountain, Melissa Genaux takes time out from yoga and hikes through the stunning red rocks that hover over the resort to listen to a lecture entitled the "Seven Habits of Healthy Aging." It admonishes her to keep her insulin levels down by eating five small meals a day and to balance carbohydrates and fats, among other things.

"I've been feeling some decreased energy and possibly decreased mental acuity," says Ms. Genaux, a 47-year-old special-education consultant from Salt Lake City. "This will be a nice jumpstart to getting back to eating right and on an exercise regimen."

But once people return home to their SUVs and full refrigerators, don't they go back to their slothful ways?

Ms. Adler from Princeton says she has incorporated a number of the things she learned during her "Optimal Aging" vacation. She does breathing exercises while waiting at red lights (to reduce stress) and stands on one foot while brushing her teeth (to improve her balance) and cooks more with olive oil. "I've changed small things in my life," she says.

Still, a focus on aging can make other spa-goers a bit squeamish. Jason Laks, a 31-year-old lawyer from New York, ended up at the Red Mountain spa after canceling a camping trip to Montana because of forest fires. Mr. Laks, a first-time spa visitor who was attracted to the resort's popular outdoor program, didn't know that some guests were on "antiaging" vacations.

"It is going to be bad enough telling my friends I went to a spa," he says. "If I tell them it was an antiaging spa, I'll never hear the end of it."

[kevin]

The Power of the Baby Boomers

http://www.mrons.com/drno/news2290.htm

As America’s 78 million baby boomers become increasingly unsettled about looking and feeling old there is an opportunity for marketers to take advantage of a new anti-ageing market, according to a recently published research brief available from FIND/SVP.

The research brief, titled, ‘Opportunities in the $45 Billion Anti-Ageing Market: How to Win in the Fight to Stay Young,’ describes the scope of this growing demographic category and the opportunities that exist for the marketing of related products. FIND/SVP estimates that sales of anti-aging products and services in 2002 totaled more than $42.7 billion and could increase by as much as 50 percent over the next five years.

The potential for this anti-aging market is emphasized by the rapid growth in the number of baby boomers, ‘Between 1995 and 2010, the 45+ age bracket will have grown 38 percent, while the general population will have only grown 13 percent,’ according to Howard Waxman, FIND/SVP consumer products and services expert and author of the research brief.

The brief analyses the scope of the market for five anti-aging categories, including cosmetic treatments and surgery, exercise and therapy, food and beverages, vitamins, minerals and supplements, and cosmetics and cosmeceuticals. For example, cosmetic treatments such as botox, collagen injections, chemical peels, dental whitening and laser treatments, will account for the largest chunk of anti-aging spending by 2007 with a projected $11 billion in revenues. Other marketers are poised to take advantage of the anti-aging movement, including health clubs and exercise equipment manufacturers for which FIND/SVP projects revenue to reach as much as $13 billion by 2007.

‘As the nation's baby boomers aspire to live longer and healthier lives, marketers throughout the country are looking for the best methods to sell to this captive audience and boost profits,’ said Andy Garvin, Founder and President of FIND/SVP. ‘With baby boomers controlling 43 percent of the nation's disposable income last year, marketers with the right strategic approach to the marketplace are the ones most likely to succeed.’

The research brief offers opportunistic tips for marketers on how to more effectively attract the anti-aging market, such as:


Choose the appropriate niche - marketers of anti-aging products and services should target the specific needs of men and women, different ethnic groups, geographic regions, various income levels and specific body parts to be more successful than one-size fits all products and services.

Brand extension - marketers should consider offering a related offshoot of their current products or services in order to achieve broader brand recognition in larger market segments.

Market opportunity - baby boomers make up the majority of the anti-aging market, but there is an enticing potential to market to their offspring as parents get their kids started on anti-aging products.

[kevin]

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Link:	http://www.sfgate.co...MNGEV33KQD1.DTL' target='_blank'>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...MNGEV33KQD1.DTL
Date:	11-16-03
Author:	Sabin Russell -br- srussell@sfchronicle.com
Source:	http://www.sfgate.com
Title:	Aging Baby Boomers turn to hormone Some doctors concerned about growing 'off-label' use of drug

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Aging Baby Boomers turn to hormone Some doctors concerned about growing 'off-label' use of drug
Six times a week, before her morning workout and her hot cup of oatmeal, 56-year-old Hanneke Hops starts her day with a shot of recombinant human growth hormone, fresh from the refrigerator, injected into her thigh.

The tiny dose of genetically engineered protein, slipped just under the skin, causes no sensation of pleasure or pain. But after only two months on the drug, which costs about $23 a day, the Hayward woman said she is feeling stronger, healthier and happier.

"It makes me feel good,'' said Hops, who has lost 16 pounds since she started the regime of diet, exercise and human growth hormone. "I don't smoke and I seldom drink. The addictions I have in life are running, riding a horse and flying.''

Amid recent revelations that elite athletes may be abusing human growth hormone to build muscles and break records, a large and flourishing practice on the fringe of American medicine has also been promoting its use among aging and affluent Baby Boomers hoping to feel young again.

Human growth hormone has never been approved as a muscle-building agent or as an anti-aging tonic, in part because of the dearth of evidence that it is safe to use over a long period. Some research suggests that it might in fact be harmful in any number of ways.

Still, there is no shortage of doctors willing to prescribe human growth hormone for "off-label" use -- and no shortage of potential patients hoping to fend off the effects of advancing age. According to one estimate, one-third of the $695 million a year in U.S. sales is for unapproved uses. That amounts to what one longtime critic called an enormous, unregulated medical experiment.

Snake oil

"It's irresponsible,'' said Jay Olshansky, a University of Illinois at Chicago professor of epidemiology and author of "The Quest for Immortality," a history of anti-aging tonics over the last 5,000 years. "I can only hope it does not come back to bite them."

Olshansky warned that those who venture into the world of anti-aging medicine are entering a place that historically has been home to "quacks, snake oil salesmen and charlatans.''

"Those with a sense of history see the same old snake oil being sold again,'' he said.

The promotion of HGH as a youth elixir ranges from outright fraud to cautious experiments by legitimate doctors. Internet companies sell for $60 to $90 a bottle so-called HGH that hormone experts say is almost certainly fake. Then there are physicians who prescribe the real drug with some measure of caution, putting their patients on strict diets and closely monitoring them to avoid any of the harmful side effects.

In the tradition of medical self-experimentation, many of these doctors are taking growth hormone themselves.

"Nature is trying to kill us every year. This is a way to possibly change that process," said Dr. Ron Rothenberg, a professor of family medicine at UC San Diego. Through the independent California Healthspan Institute in Encinitas, he treats about 120 patients with growth hormone, one-third of them physicians. He has been taking it himself for five years.

Originally developed by Genentech Inc. of South San Francisco to treat dwarfism in children, human growth hormone was an instant success for the fledgling biotechnology industry. It is a powerful substance identical to the growth-promoting chemical secreted by the pituitary gland.

Created in the lab in 1979, it won Food and Drug Administration marketing approval for children in 1985. Competing versions were approved in 1996 to treat hormone-deficient adults and severe wasting in patients with AIDS.

Public interest in using human growth hormone as an anti-aging drug was ignited by a July 5, 1990, article in the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Daniel Rudman, a Medical College of Wisconsin researcher who has since died, tried it in 12 healthy old men whose medical tests indicated low levels of natural growth hormone.

After six months, the men who took growth hormone three days a week showed a 9 percent increase in muscles mass, a 14 percent decrease in fat, and a thickening of their skin -- improvements he famously linked as "equivalent in magnitude to the changes incurred during 10 to 20 years of aging.''

The phrase helped launch a small industry of anti-aging medical clinics. A Chicago-based group, the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, claims 11, 500 clinicians and scientists in 65 countries. The organization describes anti- aging medicine as "an extension of preventive health care,'' and "the next great model of health care for the new millennium.''

Today, four major drug manufacturers market a version of recombinant human growth hormone.

University of Virginia endocrinologist Dr. Mary Lee Vance, who counseled caution in an editorial accompanying Rudman's report 13 years ago, recently estimated that one-third of the prescriptions for human growth hormone today are written for unapproved uses.

"Anti-aging therapy with growth hormone,'' she concluded in a New England Journal of Medicine retrospective, "has not yet been proved effective.''

But the drug is making inroads at the highest levels of professional and amateur athletic competition. Unlike known anabolic steroids, recombinant human growth hormone is still undetectable with current medical testing technology.

Containers with labels indicating they were human growth hormone were among the items seized during a Sept. 3 raid on a Burlingame nutritional supplement company that is the object of a San Francisco federal grand jury investigation, said a source familiar with the results of the search.

The company, Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, caters to a clientele of high-profile athletes, some of whom have been subpoenaed to testify as witnesses in the case.

Recent medical history is littered with purported wonder drugs that turned out to have serious drawbacks. The diet drug combination fen-phen was touted as a weight loss aid, until studies uncovered that it was damaging heart valves. Estrogen supplements were widely recommended for postmenopausal women, until studies last year revealed that women taking them ran a higher risk of breast cancer and heart disease.

The need for caution

Human growth hormone's known side effects include tissue swelling, headaches and carpal tunnel syndrome. It has been shown to cause a reversible form of diabetes in many who use it. It poses a theoretical risk of promoting the growth of cancers.

The case for caution in growth hormone use was bolstered one year ago, when National Institutes of Health researchers tested the drug, in combination with various steroid regimes, for six months in a group of 131 men and women over the age of 65.

The findings confirmed Rudman's results of increased muscle mass and reduced fat, but uncovered a disturbing increase in diabetes or prediabetic condition among men. Eighteen of the 74 men in the study developed diabetes or glucose intolerance, compared to 7 in a control group that did not get the growth hormone. Adverse side effects of one kind or another were reported by 40 percent of the group.

Dr. Marc Blackman, principal author of the report, concluded that human growth hormone was a fascinating drug to study, but that elderly Americans should not take it except in a carefully monitored clinical trial.

Dr. Alan Mintz, a Las Vegas radiologist who claims to have the largest clinic in the country providing human growth hormone, said that responsible physicians do monitor their patients closely, and used a different dosing regime than the Blackman study, which appeared in the Nov. 13, 2002 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"No one should consider any type of hormonal therapy without a comprehensive examination,'' said Mintz, who founded his Cenegenics Medical Institute six years ago.

The 65-year-old Mintz has been taking human growth hormone himself for 15 years. Hanneke Hops is one of his newest patients. She expects to pay Mintz's clinic between $10,000 and $15,000 a year for drugs, nutritional advice and medical monitoring. About half the cost is for the drug alone.

Hops believes the treatment is worth the cost, and the risk. Her own experience caring for a mother with Alzheimer's disease has steeled her resolve. "I don't mind dying,'' she said. "But I mind growing old and suffering. ... If we're not healthy, how can we accomplish our goals in life?''

To compensate for potential problems with diabetes, Mintz said patients are placed on a low-sugar diet, and are carefully watched throughout the year. The goal of his human growth hormone therapy, he said, is to bring levels of insulin-like growth factor -- a metabolite of growth hormone that can be readily detected -- to those typical of a 30-year-old. "We simply supplement what was fading away, back to the optimal level. Nothing beyond that,'' he said.

A talkative and affable entrepreneur, Mintz said the field of "age management,'' as he called it, has been hurt by widespread fraud. Web sites selling vitamin potions as human growth hormone are a case in point, he said.

He sees nothing wrong with athletes taking human growth hormone, and counts "world class" athletes among his clients. It becomes cheating, he said, when an athlete boosts hormone levels beyond levels of a "normal" 30-year-old. "You need to separate abuse from maintaining optimum levels,'' he said. When an aging athlete takes growth hormone, it creates "a level playing field.''

Critics contend there is a flaw in the logic of doctors who tell their patients they will bring hormone levels to the standard of a younger person. "They have no clue whether the hormone levels in their patients is any lower now than it might have been 30 years ago,'' Olshansky said.

The American Medical Association also takes issue with some of Mintz's claims. His Web site states that a Cenegenics course on age management medicine for physicians is "accredited by the American Medical Association.''

AMA spokesman Robert Mills said that the organization does not accredit any teaching programs, and that Cenegenics was "trading inappropriately in the AMA's name.''

Dr. Richard Hodes, director of the National Institute on Aging, said that because of "potentially dangerous and life-threatening side effects,'' individuals should not "take on their own private experiment'' with HGH.

Nevertheless, he said the goal of the federal research agency is to remain open minded. The potential of hormone therapy to improve the health of older Americans is strong enough to warrant serious, controlled studies.

"Our role is not to be naysayers, but to determine what kind of studies need to be carried out,'' he said.

Testosterone replacement

One year ago, Hodes and the National Cancer Institute sought guidance from the independent Institute of Medicine to determine how a large-scale study of testosterone replacement therapy can be conducted ethically and effectively.

The male hormone is often prescribed as part of the regimen given to both men and women who take human growth hormone as an anti-aging treatment. But citing several unknowns, including the risk of prostate cancer in men, the IOM counseled caution.

Their report, issued on Wednesday, called for only small-scale experiments to study the safety of testosterone replacement therapy, and warned that the replacement therapy was "inappropriate for wide-scale use to prevent possible future disease or to enhance strength or mood in otherwise healthy older men.''

[kevin]

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Link:	http://www.usatoday....ets-cover_x.htm
Date:	11-17-03
Author:	Fred Bayles
Source:	http://www.usatoday.com
Title:	Gadgets help baby boomers navigate old age

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Gadgets help baby boomers navigate old age
By Fred Bayles, USA TODAY
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Throughout their lives, baby boomers have dominated the marketplace. The generation of 78 million consumers born from 1946 to 1964 once made hula hoops a hit. As teens, boomers bought cheap stereos and compact cars. In middle age, they snapped up camcorders, computers and mutual funds.
Now, with a boomer turning 50 every seven seconds, researchers and marketers are developing everything from simple gadgets to complex computer systems to ease a generation into old age.

At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's AgeLab and dozens of other research centers around the country, scientists are working on inventions that seem destined to transport the Golden Girls into the world of Star Trek:

• A computer aid that would help older shoppers pick foods based on their medical history. Tiny radio transmitters in food packages would broadcast ingredients to the device, which would offer advice to the shopper.

• Shoes with battery-powered vibrating soles that stimulate nerves to improve balance. Researchers say the technology could cut the number of debilitating falls. One out of three people over age 65 suffer some sort of fall each year.

• Homes that would allow residents to open doors and control shades, windows and thermostats through a touch-screen by the beds. Other systems would call in orders for food and medicine when supplies ran low and would summon help when detectors sensed that the resident wasn't moving.

For those concerned about a rapidly aging population, such products and services can't come fast enough. Between now and 2030 — the year the last boomer will be 65 — the number of Americans 65 and older will double from 35.6 million to 71.5 million. This group will represent nearly 20% of the nation's population — up from 12% this year.
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"It's like a tsunami coming at you. You know the tidal wave is going to hit, and it's a question of whether we'll be ready," says Ed Schneider, dean of the University of Southern California's Davis School of Gerontology.

Another reason for the rush: money. The baby boomers will be the wealthiest group of elderly in history. Although only 20% of the population, they will control 40% of the nation's disposable income and 77% of private investments.

"It will be hard to ignore a population of this size and wealth," says Jack Guralnik, chief of epidemiology and demography at the National Institute on Aging. "They are used to being heard, and they are the ultimate consumers."

The boomers will need those resources. The incidence of disabilities among the elderly — everything from arthritis to Alzheimer's — doubles every five years after age 65. Walking, driving, climbing stairs become harder tasks.

Worse, traditional care for the elderly will not be there. Finances are forcing nursing homes to close. Baby boomers had smaller families; that means fewer children to care for them. And the age group that follows the boomers, the so-called baby bust generation born from 1964 to 1983, is much smaller. It will provide fewer nurses and workers to care for the elderly.

"We need answers today for what faces this generation because we are running out of time to prepare for what's coming," says AgeLab's director, Joseph Coughlin.

Such answers are being sought in labs and boardrooms across the country.

Compensating for disabilities

More products are being developed to compensate for the physical disabilities that come with age. Some solutions are already here. Retailers offer tools and kitchen accessories with thicker handles for arthritic hands. Manufacturers sell door levers instead of doorknobs and levered faucets instead of spigots for the same reason. Bathroom-fixture makers offer taller toilets to make it easier to sit down and stand up, and sell roll-in shower stalls to accommodate wheelchairs.

More ambitious products are in the works. Research by Boston University biomedical engineer Jim Collins found that older people have better balance if the nerves in their feet are stimulated by vibrations. That led to a design for vibrating shoes that can help wearers avoid falls. The product is under development by a Rhode Island firm that has caught the interest of Nike and other shoemakers.

"Somewhere between 10% and 15% of elderly falls result in serious injury or fracture," Collins says. "That means a lot of pain and suffering and health costs in the billions."

In a longer-term project, AgeLab is borrowing from spacesuit technology to create a lightweight undergarment to assist creaky joints in tasks such as lifting and climbing stairs. Researchers envision a suit with sensors and tiny motors at the elbows and knees. When its wearer moved those joints, the sensors would activate the motors to aid in the motion.

Transportation changes

Automakers and university researchers are testing and refining sensors, monitors and other devices to compensate for the coming decline in the reaction time and awareness of boomers.

Some luxury cars already sell options to make driving easier for the elderly. Cadillac and Lincoln offer night-vision options that project an infrared image of the road on the windshield. Other upscale cars have motion sensors that warn drivers of objects to the side and rear of their cars.

This summer, Toyota previewed an option on its Prius hybrid that parallel-parks automatically. The $2,100 system uses television images and a computer program to determine the size of the parking space and how to maneuver the car into the spot. It then takes over the controls.

The AgeLab has a specially equipped Volkswagen Beetle named Miss Daisy that's used to measure driving skills. The lab is recruiting volunteers of all ages to wheel Miss Daisy, a driving simulator, through a virtual urban landscape. The goal: to see how automated systems will work for drivers of all ages.

One solution still to be tested is a "smart" intersection that would use sensors and radio transmitters to broadcast warnings to the driver of stop signs, red lights or pedestrians in a crosswalk. The car would pick up the broadcast, and an automated voice would warn the driver.

Monitoring health at home

Researchers also are tackling health care for the elderly. The leading idea: systems that monitor a person's health from home.

In Japan, where the percentage of seniors in the population is rising even faster than in the USA, several manufacturers sell toilets that weigh the person, take the person's temperature and test urine for blood sugar and stool for cholesterol levels. The results are sent automatically to the doctor's office.

EDS, a Texas-based data processing firm, is working with the AgeLab and other research centers to develop new ways of organizing, sending and interpreting medical information. The goal is to make it easier for the elderly to supervise their own health care.

One idea: a computer chip on a card that would contain and update its owner's medical data. Any doctor, pharmacist or other health care provider would have instant access to critical health information.

"We're working to take all those data points and integrate them so you can get care wherever you go," says Vicki Shepard, EDS vice president for global government solutions.

AgeLab is developing another use for the health card: a device called a "Personal Advisor" that would ride in a supermarket shopping cart and scan product bar codes, or communicate with tiny radio tags in food packaging. It would use the information to determine whether the calories, vitamins and other nutrients were right for the shopper.

The technology for the system already exists. Supermarkets are testing bar code readers for consumers. Wal-Mart and Gillette are at the vanguard of other retailers and manufacturers who are replacing bar codes with the radio tags, which are known as RFIDs, for radio frequency identification.

Researchers also are working on ways to use technology to help the elderly remember to take their medicine.

One prototype robot tracks its owners to give them their pills. At LifeWise Home, a test home in Bowie, Md., developed by the National Center for Seniors' Housing Research, a monitor calls out from the bedroom to nag occupants in an automated voice if they fail to take their medication.

AgeLab is considering another option: a variation on Tamagotchi "virtual pets." The handheld toys were a marketing rage a few years ago. Owners feed and care for the Tamagotchi by clicking buttons on the toy. In the AgeLab version, seniors must use the buttons to report they have taken their medicine. If they don't, the pet gets sick and dies. "Guilt is a great motivator," AgeLab director Coughlin says.

Home safety

The home is the biggest area of research and product development. Homes have been built to test new technologies at the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Rochester and elsewhere.

At the University of Florida's Gator Tech Home in Gainesville, sensors embedded in the wall and floor track the movements and habits of residents. If someone falls or fails to keep to his or her regular schedule, the system asks whether he or she is all right. If there is a problem, a message is sent to family and caregivers.

Working with companies such as Motorola and Honeywell Bull, the university is developing a smart phone that will allow residents to give commands to the house. The phone includes a small video screen that can show who is outside and open the door. The resident can control temperature, shades and windows simply by speaking into the phone.

In the kitchen, refrigerators and microwaves are being developed to communicate with the RFIDs in food packaging. The information from the radio chips would allow the appliances to keep inventory, track expiration dates and automatically cook the products.

Bill Mann, who heads the university's Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center for Technology and Aging, says he remains awed by the possibilities.

"The underlying technology has come forward so fast that we're doing things we didn't dream of 25 years ago," he says.

Not all home improvements for the elderly come in high-tech packages. Surveys by the National Association of Home Builders show that more than half of people building or renovating homes are looking to the future by incorporating design features such as ramps, wider doorways for wheelchairs and grab bars in the bedroom and bathroom.

None of the home improvements comes cheap. Simple monitoring systems already on the market cost up to $1,000 to install and have an average $50 monthly service fee. Even reconfiguring a house with ramps and bars can cost thousands.

But the upfront costs can eventually turn into savings. Mann did a study that shows the long-term benefit. For one group of elderly, he spent $2,500 per person on simple tools to enable them to be independent, such as grab bars, scooters and stair glides that carried people up and down stairs.

The test group's bill for hospitalization and nursing home visits averaged $5,600 per person over 18 months. The average bill for a control group that received no home improvements was $22,000 each.

"The numbers are staggering if you look at what it is going to cost to provide for the older population," Mann says. "The goal is to do it less expensively and more humanely."