Anti-Aging: A Fresh Approach to Health and Wellness

Sunday Sept 27, 2009 (foodconsumer.org) -- After finally getting used to the idea that 50 is really the new 40, I heard an advertisement on the radio other day that said, and I quote, "50 is really the new 35."  Without even thinking about it, we've all gained another 5 years.

I actually have no trouble believing that after I've downed a double espresso every morning; but there are days when, admittedly, I doubt that my ability to function is even commiserate with my true, chronological age, much less that of a woman a decade and a half younger.  But I digress.

In the middle of all of this health care debate, it's quite possible that we are becoming distracted from what's truly important to us, when it comes to health care.  Are we willing to merely settle for having the funds available to "fix what's broken" as we hobble toward old age?  I think not.

Medicine in the 20th Century

The 20th century brought with it light year leaps, when it comes to infectious disease.  Cholera, diphtheria, whooping cough, polio, smallpox - all became nationally eradicated.  At the beginning of the 20th century, life expectancy was the mid-40s, mostly because of the high infant mortality rate.   It was also not uncommon during the first half of the 20th century for women to die during childbirth.  Let's take a look at a real-life example of how far the quality of health care has come during the last century.

Dr. Asa Howell was a rural Texas physician who practiced during the early to mid-twentieth century. He was also my great-grandfather. Dr. Howell was very familiar with the stark actuality of the life women lead during his medical tenure. His own daughter died during childbirth in 1932.

One of the families he regularly treated lived on a remote farm in Central Texas. They struggled terribly through the twenties and thirties, and the wife bore children as frequently as the heifers bore calves on their land. Dr. Howell regularly shared with his wife the hardship of the Owens', as well as the lives of other families who had neither the education nor the resources to rise above their biological destinies.

After the birth of their 7th child, Dr. Howell went to talk to Mr. and Mrs. "Owens" about a new, crude (albeit fairly effective) new method of birth control. He told them that Mrs. Owen needed to rinse herself out after intercourse; the chemical wash was a strong spermicidal, and I suspect it was strong enough to eliminate an egg, post fertilization.

Mr. and Mrs. Owens were grateful for the information, and Dr. Howell was glad to have been able to offer them advice on how to alleviate some of their hardship. A few days later, Mr. Owens sent for Dr. Howell; his wife had turned seriously ill, and was having severe stomach pains and difficulty breathing. Dr. Howell hitched his horse and buggy (the Owens' home was inaccessible accept by horseback or buggy), and woke his wife so she could come care for the baby while he tended to Mrs. Owen. They rushed to the home, only to find that Mrs. Owens was gravely, gravely ill. She and Mr. Owens had misunderstood Dr. Howell's directives. Rather than rinsing with the chemical rinse, Mrs. Owens ingested it. She died a difficult death a few hours later. Mr. Owens was left with 6 children and a new infant to care for alone on the Texas prairie.

Dr. Howell never got over the profound sorrow he felt for being unaware that the Owens' truly had no clue about what he was talking about when he explained things to them. He often grimly remarked that people, especially women, had little control over something that at that time was still life-threatening. Dr. Howell had no illusions of the "good ole' days" before penicillin and other medical marvels.

The New Medical Frontier

Most of us, thankfully, cannot even imagine how difficult life was less than a century ago.  We are reaping the benefits of research that made our lives not only longer, but healthier.  Now we are a decade into the 21st century, and there is a new medical frontier to conquer:  that of regeneration and anti-aging.

As a matter of fact, "anti-aging" as a medical specialty is being recognized by the National Institute on Aging and AARP, according to Northwest Arkansas Anti-Aging Specialist Dr. Corwin Petty, director of Champions Family Clinic.

According to Dr. Petty's website (championsfamilyclinic.com), 90% of all medical costs come from ailments directly related to the aging process, such as diabetes, high cholesterol, and cardiac arrest disease.  Most who suffer from these illnesses go to their doctor expecting to be relieved of the symptoms.  But in merely treating the symptoms, we may be approaching optimal health from a backward point of view.

Let's look at a business analogy. Suppose I look at my financial statements for a particular quarter, and I notice that my net profit is steadily decreasing. I could legitimately surmise from this that my expenses are out of control. If I simply leave it at that, and decide that I'm going to "reign" in my budget more tightly, but I don't analyze "where" that needs to happen, I may or may not be successful in reducing outlay.

Suppose, though, that I decide to find out exactly where I'm spending too much, and I discover that it's because the interest rate on one of my loans has increased. The only way I can deal with that particular problem is to refinance the loan, thereby decreasing my interest payments. If I do so, then the problem is solved. If I merely go on about my merry way, my profits will continue to fall short of expectations, and I will continue to vaguely try to swat at the expense fly, missing it, more times than not.

Obviously, most of us would not run a business in such reactive fashion; neither should we take care of our health with such a haphazard approach. And we don't have to.   According to Dr. Petty, the newest, clinical specialty of anti-aging medicine is "the optimum of wellness and longevity, and employs extensive therapies and treatment in the preventative health care field far beyond just cholesterol testing and mammograms. A profound paradigm shift in the way the medical establishment views aging and age-related disease is now underway."

Over the course of the next few weeks, we'll take a look at some of the specific areas of research in this new field, as well as its fresh approach to prevention, health, and wellness.

By Rachel Howell Stockton  - rachels at foodconsumer dot org