American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine

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The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M) is a United States registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization which promotes what it calls "anti-aging medicine," a field not recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties.

Scientists studying aging reject the claims of A4M as unjustified and unscientific, and accuse the group of using misleading marketing to sell expensive and untested products. The A4M's founders and merchants who promote products through the organization have been involved in several legal and professional disputes.

Contents

[edit] History

The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine was founded in 1993 by several doctors with the goal of "never growing old".[1] It claims to have over 20,000 members from 100 nations, including physicians, scientists, researchers, health practitioners and others.[2]

[edit] Legal and professional disputes

The A4M's founders include two men with 1998 medical degrees from Central American Health Sciences University in Belize, despite never actually studying there. "Dr. Klatz and Dr. Goldman say through their lawyer that they earned their medical degrees with transfer credit from previous academic work and a year in clinical rotations in Mexican hospitals. Licensing authorities in Illinois did not recognize the Belize degrees, and in 2000 fined the doctors $5,000 each for adding M.D. after their names."[3]

Many exhibitors at A4M trade shows (promoting products claimed to slow or alter the aging process) have been indicted in federal and state investigations into illegal trafficking of human growth hormone and anabolic steroids.[3] The A4M's "American Board of Anti-Aging Medicine" (ABAAM) claims to offer anti-aging medicine as a specialty and to give educational credits to those who attended A4M conferences, but the American Board of Medical Specialties does not recognize this body as having professional standing.[1] The organization's scientific foundations and the safety of the products it promotes have been questioned in publications including the New York Times.[1]

[edit] Awards and criticism

The A4M received the third annual "Silver Fleece Award" in 2004 for "the most outrageous or exaggerated claims about slowing or reversing human aging". The award was announced by aging expert H. Jay Olshansky during the workshop on "Anti-Aging Medicine: The Hype and Reality" at the International Conference on Longevity in Sydney, Australia. According to Olshansky, A4M used misleading marketing to sell anti-aging products through an affiliate, with a short-term supply costing $560. The "Silver Fleece" prize was a bottle of cooking oil re-labeled, "Snake Oil".[4] A4M responded by suing Olshansky and others, but dropped the case after Olshansky countersued.[5]

According to Bruce Carnes of the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, commenting on the A4M's International Journal of Anti-Aging Medicine,

This alleged "journal" is particularly misleading because it gives the false impression that it is a genuine scientific journal and that what is published in it is peer-reviewed. It is little more than an advertising vehicle for every conceivable anti-aging product.

Aging expert Leonard Hayflick of the University of California, San Francisco, writes, "The International Journal of Anti-Aging Medicine is not a recognized scientific journal. What I find reprehensible about this 'journal' is that advertisers who publish in it can then claim there is scientific evidence to support their outrageous assertions by pointing to the publication in an alleged scientific journal." Hayflick is the former editor of Experimental Gerontology.

In 2002, Olshansky, Hayflick, and Carnes published a position paper, endorsed by 51 scientists in the field of aging, stating "no currently marketed intervention has yet been proved to slow, stop or reverse human aging...The entrepreneurs, physicians and other health care practitioners who make these claims are taking advantage of consumers who cannot easily distinguish between the hype and reality of interventions designed to influence the aging process and age-related diseases," said Olshansky.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Kuczynski, Alex (12 April, 1998). "Anti-Aging Potion or Poison?". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/12/style/anti-aging-potion-or-poison.html. 
  2. ^ Membership of A4M
  3. ^ a b Wilson, Duff (15 April, 2007). "Aging: Disease or Business Opportunity?". New York Times. 
  4. ^ University of Illinois news article
  5. ^ CNN - 'Age management' is a controversial new medical focus, May 9, 2007

[edit] External links

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