Welcome to the Special Information Center of The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M). We invite you to learn more about the A4M and our media and publishing endeavors that support the A4M's educational mission.
Definition & Key Concepts
Anti-aging medicine is a clinical specialty is founded on the application of advanced scientific and medical technologies for the early detection, prevention, treatment, and reversal of age-related dysfunction, disorders, and diseases. It is a healthcare model promoting innovative science and research to prolong the healthy lifespan in humans. As such, anti-aging medicine is based on principles of sound and responsible medical care that are consistent with those applied in other preventive health specialties. The phrase "anti-aging," as such, relates to the application of advanced biomedical technologies focused on the early detection, prevention, and treatment of aging-related disease.
Anti-aging medicine is the following:
It is scientific. Anti-aging diagnostic and treatment practices are supported by scientific evidence and therefore cannot be branded as anecdotal.
It is evidence-based. Anti-aging medicine is based on an orderly process for acquiring data in order to formulate a scientific and objective assessment upon which effective treatment is assigned.
Is well-documented by peer-reviewed journals. As of this writing, the National Library of Medicine hosts more than 3,000 peer-reviewed articles on the subject of anti-aging medicine. Scientific and academic journals that routinely publishing studies relating to life enhancement and/or life extension include:
Annals of Internal Medicine
BMJ (British Medical Journal)
Cancer Prevention Research
European Heart Journal
FASEB Journal (Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology)
JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association)
It is a seminal position of the anti-aging medical science, that aging is not inevitable, in that longevity is not finite. In a study conducted by demographer J. R. Wilmoth and colleagues, the researchers found that in Sweden, the maximum age at death has risen from 100 years during the 1860s to about 108 years during the 1990s. They also make note that the increase *in longevity has become expedited: before 1969, the increase in maximum age at death increased at 0.44 yr/decade; and since 1969, it has risen at the pace of 1.11 yr/decade. The team cites "an intensification of efforts … to prevent or even cure ailments such as coronary heart disease, stroke, and cancer" has profoundly contributed to "the more rapid rise in the maximum age since 1969."
[Wilmoth JR, Deegan LJ, Lundstrom H, Horiuchi S, "Increase in Maximum Life-Span in Sweden, 1861-1999," Science Sep 29 2000; 2366-2368.]
The goal of anti-aging medicine is not to merely prolong the total years of an individual's life, but to ensure that those years are enjoyed in a productive and vital fashion. With the founding of The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M), the field of anti-aging medicine was established as a direct extension of sports medicine. Just as sports medicine aims to keep the athlete's body functioning at its optimum level, anti-aging medicine seeks to keep the body functioning at its peak. In other words, the similar principle, of extending and maximizing the healthy human lifespan, is at the core of both anti-aging medicine and sports medicine.
Around the world, people are seeking medical guidance for ways to stay healthy, active, and vital well into their older years. The exponential growth in the popularity of anti-aging medicine is largely a result of the global demographics shift towards a swelling aging population. The United Nations observes that: "The world is in the midst of a unique and irreversible process of demographic transition that will result in older populations everywhere. As fertility rates decline, the proportion of persons aged 60 and over is expected to double between 2007 and 2050, and their actual number will more than triple, reaching 2 billion by 2050. In most countries, the number of those over 80 is likely to quadruple to nearly 400 million by then." [http://www.un.org/en/globalissues/ageing/index.shtml.]
As a patient-centric, wellness-oriented model of advanced clinical preventive medicine, the principles of the anti-aging medical model. are gaining rapid and widespread acceptance as a framework for lifelong habits for healthy living . This innovative medical specialty is achieving demonstrable and objective results that beneficially impact the degenerative diseases of aging.
The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, Inc. ("A4M") is a non-profit medical society dedicated to 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. A4M is also dedicated to educating physicians, scientists, and members of the public on biomedical sciences, breaking technologies, and anti-aging issues. A4M believes that the disabilities associated with normal aging are caused by physiological dysfunction which in many cases are ameliorable to medical treatment, such that the human lifespan can be increased, and the quality of one's life enhanced as one grows chronologically older. A4M seeks to disseminate information concerning innovative science and research as well as treatment modalities designed to prolong the human lifespan. Anti-Aging Medicine is based on the scientific principles of responsible medical care consistent with those of other healthcare specialties. Although A4M seeks to disseminate information on many types of medical treatments, it does not promote or endorse any specific treatment nor does it sell or endorse any commercial product.