• How is aging measured?
• What are in comprehensive tests before prescribing a treatment regimen. What do the tests involve?
• What is an average treatment regimen?
• What is involved in harmone replacement therapy?
• What are cognitive enhancers?
• Are the treatments covered by insurance?
• What is the History of anti-aging?

Medical tests called Biomarkers actually indicate signs of aging at different levels down to DNA. At the functional level, we test such things as visual accommodation, auditory response, and memory succession. We do a skin biopsy at the cellular level. We test biochemicals such as hormones and cholesterol, and DNA is checked for damage to hereditary matter.

... comprehensive tests before prescribing a treatment regimen. What do the tests involve? At the functional level, we test such things as visual accommodation, auditory response, and memory succession. We do a skin biopsy at the cellular level. We test biochemicals such as hormones and cholesterol, and DNA is checked for damage to hereditary matter.

... average treatment regimen? Specific treatment regimens are customized based on a person's specific goals. We start with counseling, diet, exercise, and nutritional supplements. More comprehensive testing and hormonal supplements may also be prescribed.

...replacement therapy? Hormones are chemical messengers that control bodily functions. Aging depletes the body's hormonal levels. We measure a patient's level of hormones and prescribe balanced hormone replacement to restore hormone levels to where they were in the patient's early 30s. In many cases, this can be done naturally with secretogogues, which release the hormones already made by the body.

Techniques to improve your mental acumen. Some involve natural herbs like ginko. Meditation is also an effective enhancer.

...covered by insurance? Insurers are geared more toward treatment of disease than preventive medicine. However, Physician consultation, and some of the labs may be covered by insurance.

...of Anti-Aging? The United States National Institute on Aging is funding studies to confirm earlier findings that human growth hormone (HGH) and other hormones, including DHEA (anadrenal hormone) and sex hormones, can slow, stop, and/or possibly reverse the changes associated with aging. The levels of a variety of hormones drop substantially with age. Hormones are protein messengers that tell the cells what to do (such as protein synthesis and cell replication and repair). One of the hormones that declines sharply is human growth hormone. Human growth hormone (HGH) is a hormone synthesized by the pituitary gland in the human brain. It is responsible for the physical growth in childhood and puberty periods. The circulating levels fall by more than 50 percent from the peak during puberty and reaches "older" levels by age 33 to 40!

Research in human growth hormone (HGH) in healthy human subjects prior to the 1980s was restricted due to scientists inability to synthesize the complex molecule, made up of 191 amino acids. However, scientific DNA recombinant technological breakthroughs in the early 1980s finally gave scientists the ability to synthesize the human growth hormone in large quantities. The human growth hormone molecule, so synthesized by the DNA-recombinant technique, is identical to the one produced by the pituitary gland in the human brain. This led the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to promptly approve growth hormone for human consumption and experimentation in healthy individuals in the late-1980s.

One of the scientists who jumped into human growth hormone research was Daniel Rudman, M. D. at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. For many years, Dr. Rudman had asked the world these questions: "Do hormone levels control the aging process? If they do, then does replacing the hormone levels to the youthful range in humans reverse the effects of aging?" Up until the 1980s, no scientist in the world could give him an answer, especially with human growth hormone (which drops the most drastically), because human growth hormone research could not be done on healthy individuals due to the lack of FDA approval in this country.

Once this hormone became FDA approved, Dr. Rudman and his colleagues promptly entered into a double blind study using twelve healthy elderly men, ages 61 to 81, from a nearby Veterans Administration Hospital. These volunteer subjects were given human growth hormone three times a week for six months to restore the circulatinginsulin growth factor (IGF) levels to the youthful range-above 350 ug/ml. IGF is a protein synthesized mostly by the liver, and its level is regulated by the levels of growth hormone secreted and in circulation. It represents, an indirect measurement of the circulating levels of growth hormone, since the secretion of growth hormone in the human brain is in a pulsatile fashion and is difficult to measure accurately during any period.

When compared with the controlled subjects who received the placebo, the growth hormone treated subjects showed changes that were "equivalent in magnitude to the changes incurred during 10 to 20 years of aging. He reported his discovery and was promptly published in the prestigious New England of Medicine, July 1990.

Following his landmark discovery, scientists from all over the world commenced research on replacing growth hormone in elderly persons. The results were astonishing. Additional beneficial findings were discovered - Growth hormone was shown to increase bone mass in osteoporosis, to reverse declining cardiac function, to reverse declining pulmonary function, to reverse the decline in immune function associated with aging, increase lean, muscle mass, decrease the percentage of body fat, increase capacity for exercise , hence, vitality, prevent illness, and reduce sleeping disorders. The Scandinavian scientists even eliminated the minor side effects seen in the Rudman Study-namely problems associated with the water retention effects of the growth hormone. By changing Rudman's three times weekly method of injecting growth hormone to twice daily injection of smaller doses of growth hormone, the water retention side effects from growth hormone (though reversible) were completely eliminated. Between the years of 1990 and 1992, hundreds of scientific studies were conducted on growth hormone's effect on age-associated changes in the human body. The findings concluded that growth hormone replacement therapy can be safe with proper doses and proper methods of administration. That is good news for advanced aged men and women with medical problems related to aging and growth deficiencies who want to reverse the effects of aging.

After examining the various studies that show growth hormones ability to reverse changes associated with aging, the Stanford University Medical Researchers concluded in 1992 that "It is possible that physiologic growth hormone replacement therapy might REVERSE or prevent some of the 'inevitable' sequelae of aging. (Psychoneuro-endocrinology, volume 17, NO. 4, pages 327-333, 1992)

Unfortunately, growth hormone has received many "bad raps" lately in many lay journals because of its abuse by athletes for its performance-enhancing effects. These athletes abused growth hormone in large doses which led to a condition called acromegaly-the overgrowth of many bodily parts. When one compares growth hormone to insulin hormone, the growth hormone is much more forgiving, as a-.1 overdose of insulin hormone can cause instant DEATH!

Medical research is often trapped in a paradox. For example, fetal tissue research for the treatment of Parkinson's disease, in vitro fertilization for infertile couples, and the use of growth hormone for reversing aging are all examples of science working to improve lives. But these scientific endeavors are often criticized by skeptics who believe we are treading into uncharted intellectual and moral areas where humankind is not intended to go - Still, it seems imprudent to limit growth hormone research and replacement therapy simply because a few skeptics disagree or because of abuse by a few athletes.