It is said that we begin the process of dying at the moment of birth; that, from that miraculous moment onward, we are breathing a finite number of breaths, beating a finite number of heartbeats.
But this is an oversimplification of the truth. From the moment of birth, we begin a process of growth and development that continues into the years of reproduction. These are times, for most of us, of freedom and health, as we experience cognitive and sensory clarity, muscular development, and fluid strength. It is only after these years, during which Nature dictates that we ourselves create new life, that we begin to see our selves and the processes of our bodies decline; that we begin to gain weight and lose muscle tone, sensory acuity, and the graceful motions of youth.
Modern medicine and technology, however, now give lie to the accepted truth that life is finite, that decline is inevitable. Modern medicine now offers not only the possibility, but also the option of maintaining our youth far past the chronological year by which, in ages past, an elderly decline had taken hold.
Thus, we have called this book Stopping the Clock. And that simple idea is the heart of our message: that the clock does not have to keep ticking. That we do not have to fear the finality of the heartbeat.
But, to fully understand this concept, we must first understand some terms and their changing meanings.
MODERN DEFINITIONS
What Is Aging?
We live in a technological age. The computer that fifty years ago took a large, dust-free room to contain now sits smartly on our desktops. And that computer has changed out lives in return. It has given us the opportunity to write books, to run small businesses, and to create works of art, from graphics to videos, all from our homes. And, perhaps more important, through the creation of the World Wide Web, it has given us the opportunity to communicate with and learn from other people all over the world from the comfort of our own homes.
Modern technology has freed us to live our lives more creatively, more intelligently. And this technology has had a profound impact on our culture.
We need to look no further than our own changing language to see the farreaching effects technology has had.
Not only have personal computers created a new set of jargon&emdash;who among us had heard of a byte or a modem twenty years ago&emdash;but our evolving technology has also brought about an evolution in the meanings of some very basic terms.
Take “aging” for example. Webster’s New World Dictionary defines “aging” as “the process of growing old or showing signs of growing old.” While this definition may have sufficed for the nineteenth century in which Mr. Webster was still alive, new medical discoveries and biotechnological advancements have made the Webster definition of “aging” totally outmoded.
Indeed, aging may be divided into two very different concepts: chronological age and biological age. In celebrating a birthday (which is a celebration of chronological age), it is often true that the performance of an individual’s body systems&emdash;from mental function to sexual performance to physical strength&emdash;are better or worse than would be expected when compared with same-aged colleagues (this being an example of biological age).
Most of us know at least one individual whose driver’s license states that he or she is seventy, but we can observe that person carrying on in their daily life with the vibrancy expected of someone twenty to thirty years younger. Conversely, you may know someone with the chronological age of forty who fails to go about life with the energy expected for that age, who seems far older than his or her years.
Today, in 2002, scientists know much more about the deterioration and vulnerability to disease that typifies the aging process. As such, “aging” gains a new definition. Aging is not inevitable. A modern approach submits that the disabilities associated with normal aging are caused by physiological dysfunctions that, in many cases, are ameliorable to medical treatment. By systematically revitalizing the biological processes involved in aging, the human life span can be increased while the quality of life is maintained or improved.
What Is Longevity?
Webster’s defines “longevity” as “long life; the great duration of individual life,” and, “research in longevity.” It is this last phrase that is the very heart of this book. In a profound way, this book is not at all about aging, although we must take a look at the way in which most of us age, and the biological processes that begin to decline in middle age with the ticking of the clock, in order to truly understand this. Rather, this is a book about longevity. It is about the research into the process of aging that is now offering millions of people the world over the option of living a longer, healthier life.
Thus, as you look through the table of contents, you will see that the word “longevity” begins the title of the majority of the sections into which this book is divided. The first section alone begins with the word “aging.” That section gives the reader not only a general understanding of the aging process, but also an up-to-the-minute gathering of modern medicine’s theories of aging and mortality.
From here, this book is divided into three sections on the topic of longevity. Each explores an area of human life that has a profound impact on the length and quality of life for each of us. Thus, these sections explore longevity and nutrition, longevity and exercise&emdash;diet and nutrition being key factors in living long and living healthy&emdash;and a special section on human hormones and how they affect maximum peak performance and longevity. This section explores the endocrine system of ductless glands, the hormones secreted by each, and the impact of these hormones on the length and quality of human life.
What Is Anti-Aging Medicine?
Every day, consumers flock to their doctors’ offices in search of ways to erase life’s little signs of age: an expanding waistline, a receding hairline, a G-rated sex life, forgetting whether the stove was turned off after making a midnight snack, and the list goes on.
About 77 percent of all Americans now living were born after 1939&emdash;and many of these folks are noticing these signs of aging in their mirrors, on their scales, and in the job market. Anti-aging medicine&emdash;the application of any therapy or modality that delivers very early detection, prevention, treatment, or reversal of aging-related dysfunction and disease, thus enhancing the quality, and extending the quantity, of the human life span&emdash;is the most important new model for health care for this new millennium.
Aging and Longevity
All diseases fall into four categories; the first three &emdash;inherited genetic disease, infectious disease, and trauma&emdash;account for only 10 percent of the cost for treating all disease in America. Ninety percent of all health-care dollars are spent on extraordinary care in the last two to three years of life.
Indeed, the leading causes of death have undergone a profound shift: due to improvements in sanitation and infection control since the turn of the twentieth century, Americans are now losing their health and lives to heart disease (31.4 percent), cancer (23.3 percent), and stroke (6.9 percent). These three diseases, known collectively as the degenerative diseases of aging, swallow fifty percent of the US health-care budget. One hundred million Americans are currently being treated for one or another degenerative disease at a health care cost of more than $700 billion per year.
If we really want to make an impact on health care in this country and throughout the world, we must focus on preventing the degenerative diseases of aging. If we can slow the physiologic processes of aging, we can alleviate more than 50 percent of all disease overnight. We can alter this dreadful course by preventing, delaying, or reversing the diseases associated with aging.
The ultimate accomplishment for the science of anti-aging medicine will be the achievement of practical immortality, in which we live vital life spans of 120 years or more. Practical immortality is based on the notion that the exponential expansion of medical knowledge, doubling every 3.5 years or less, will yield biotechnological discoveries that will permit scientists to alter the course and concept of aging. Undoubtedly, by the year 2029, advancements in stem cell research, therapeutic cloning, and nanotechnology (science and technology of building miniscule devices for manipulating single atoms and molecules) will be harnessed into applications that improve and extend the human life span. In this manner, anti-aging medicine is anticipated to have a profound and permanent impact on the future of preventive healthcare.
