Chapter 1. Your Introduction to Age Management

The new science of anti-aging medicine is generating a whole new model of health care.  This concept is changing the way many doctors and scientists are looking at the aging process as well as the design of modern medicine.  Science is giving us a whole new reality of the human race, a different look into a life absent of disease, and the conception of an existence free from “old age.”

Keeping the body young is a combination of four different, yet related concepts; nutritional supplements, hormone regulation, anti-oxidants, and physical exercise.  We need to change our thinking and to understand that our age is irrelevant.  What the calendar says is of no bearing to your physical and mental health.

Age management medicine is a relatively new field that has recently come into vogue because of the aging baby boomer population.  They are getting older, they have plenty of disposable income, and can afford to look their best and feel their best for that matter.

As this segment of the population began to age, they were asking more and more questions about wrinkles, feeling old, not having the energy that they once had, and general age related issues.  They wanted some answers to questions like,  “why does this happen?”  So, scientists began looking into these issues and they have discovered many different aspects of aging, how it happens, how we can slow it down, how to look our best and feel much better than the previous generation did at their particular age.

Age management medicine does not treat age as a disease, it is not a disease.  Age is something that cannot be stopped.  It’s like taxes, it is not going to stop no matter what you do.  What we are trying to do is slow the process.  If you put an ice cube out in the hot sun it is going to melt, there is nothing you can do about it.  But there are many things you can do to slow the melting process.  That is what we are trying to do here, slow the process.  We do this using a combination of nutrition, exercise, stress management, and hormone optimization.

The goal of age management is to increase the quality of life.  Quality does not necessarily mean longevity, but by practicing the teachings of an age management physician, your lifespan will increase.  By quality, we are talking about mental focus, enough physical energy to keep up with others, a positive attitude, and your hormones are at a younger person’s level so libido is still present.  It is a better quality of life.

This age management medicine is different in the way that we look at the body and treat the body.  Traditional medicine will see you when you are sick, hurt, not feeling well, or when there is something wrong.  You go to the doctor, maybe get a diagnosis, almost always get a prescription, and you are on your way.  The system is based on disease and not health, there is no money when people are healthy.

Age management is all about being proactive.  Think of it as changing the oil in your car before the engine blows up.  Waiting for the engine to completely break down could be compared to traditional medicine, whereas changing your oil is more the age management route.  So, we take people who are generally healthy and give them the tools they need to slow the aging process and have their body work at its optimal levels.

What’s the difference in medicine?

Age management differs from traditional medicine in a couple ways.  First off, when you go to get a blood test for certain markers in your blood, there is a range of normal for the general population.  In general, if you are within this normal range, a traditional doctor will say that you are fine, there is no problem.  Age management medicine looks more at the person and less at the numbers.  So, yes, you may be in the normal range, but if your blood level is on the low end of normal, how does the doctor know if you are supposed to be on the high end of normal and that is why you are not feeling well.  And vice versa, you could be on the high end on a lab test but you, because you are you, are supposed to be on the lower end of the scale.  And who’s to say that you are normal when your levels are outside the normal range?  The so-called normal range covers about 95% of the population.  God only knows exactly where your individual levels are supposed to be to make you feel good.

Another fact to consider is how the normal range is determined.  Who are the people who are going and getting their blood tested?  It is the sick people who do not feel well.  It is these people that the normal levels are based upon.  Healthy people who are in good health, feel good, and have lots of energy don’t go to the doctor and have blood levels checked.  There is no reason, they feel good.

Many of us in the age management field are even going away from the normal range.  You can have normal lab levels but these levels may not be optimal.  If you are 60 years old, your hormone levels are going to be low for you to feel optimal for your age, but they will probably be in the normal range based on your age.  You’re normal, but not optimal.

Ten out of ten people will leave this world

 The most common reasons that people die have to do with chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. All of these are directly related to lifestyle choices.  If there were a way to change people’s lifestyle, we can have a huge impact on health.

This is one of the factors of age management medicine.  We try to educate people and tell them why they get heart disease, why they have diabetes, why their cholesterol is high and attempt to change the way they live their life.  Just by changing a few things, you will dramatically increase you longevity.

There are some people that are just going to pass on early in their life.  God chose these people for a reason and no matter what they do or what they did, it was bound to happen.  On the other hand, you’ll find a person who smokes, drinks alcohol, eats horribly, doesn’t exercise and is enjoying life at 100 years old.  Those two scenarios are rare and are few and far between.  For the vast majority of the population, we are going to depart this life in our 70s, 80s, or 90s.  What we want to do is take those people who would pass away in their 70s, and extend their life into the 80s.  And not just extending life for the sake of extending life, but increasing the quality of their life as well.

Medicine can keep you alive for an awful long time but the quality of your life is going to have a lot to be desired.  Who wants to live to be 100 if the last 20 years are spent in a hospital or a nursing home hooked up to machines?

Prevention just doesn’t pay

 The medical industry right now is a business model based on illness.  You don’t really think about the doctor until you get sick, then you need the service.  Until you get sick, you don’t spend much time at the doctor’s office.  When you do get an appointment, you see the doctor for maybe 10 minutes, get a prescription, and you are back out on the street.

You can’t blame the doctors either.  I won’t get into insurance reimbursement here but if the doctor could spend more time with you, he would.  The truth of the matter is, they are getting paid less and less for each patient.  In order to keep making money, they have to “treat ‘em and street ‘em” as the saying goes.

If medicine would teach prevention, the overall cost of health care would go down.  Unfortunately, insurance companies just won’t pay a doctor for prevention.  A doctor’s time is expensive and you cannot blame the doctor for not wanting to do something for free.  To educate someone on these lifestyle changes, it is going to valuable time.

Why “Age Management?”

 There are two basic types of people who come to an age management doctor.  One is the person who does not feel their age, they just feel “old.”  They may have one or two lifestyle related diseases like diabetes or high blood pressure and are not getting satisfaction from the traditional doctor they are seeing.  The other is the person who is energetic and in good health, usually in their 30s, 40s or 50s, and wants more out of life.  We only go around once and these people want to live longer, have more energy, and want to be sure everything is working the way it’s supposed to.

The more energetic person is the one who will benefit the most from age management.  Since they are starting relatively early in life, the quality, and therefore longevity, of their life will improve.

The other person who comes to see me is generally in their fifties, maybe late forties, overweight, taking a handful of medications daily, and is just tired of feeling old and wants another option.  These people take a little longer to convince because the process is a little slower than just taking a pill for something that makes you feel bad.  It is a process of lifestyle changes and hormone regulation.  When I say hormones, I mean the estrogens, progesterone, testosterone and occasionally growth hormone.  It also involves getting the thyroid levels back to normal.  This helps with the person with their energy levels, especially the afternoon energy.  Lifestyle changes like diet and exercise as well as some stress management techniques are also helpful.

Everything is connected in the body.  Each system is separate but the body is one.  So everything you eat will affect your body, either positively or negatively.  If you eat positively on a regular basis, that big plate of chicken wings at the Super Bowl party isn’t going to hurt you.  But if you are eating fast food every day, then those wings are going to compound the problems that you are creating for your body every day.

Exercise is very important and I know you’ve heard it before.  God made our bodies to move.  We are made to work.  Exercising gets the body going, it gets the blood moving.  Think of it like a body of water.  If you look at a slow moving or stagnant canal, the water is dark, dirty, and barely moving.  But a flowing creek has clear water moving along rapidly.  That is because the fast moving water can filter itself through the rocks, the sediments is pushed downstream and out into a larger body of water.  The slow canal just sits there.  The debris settles to the bottom.  It is muddy and just dirty.

That’s how you should imagine your blood flowing.  Keep it moving, get it flowing quickly on a regular basis so things don’t stagnate.  The mud doesn’t collect, so to speak.  You want your blood flowing and cleaning out the impurities and the waste products and pushing them out of you.

Another thing to keep in mind, everything you do affects you either positively or negatively.  Every meal, every jog around the block, and every night in front of the TV watching nothing is affecting your body.  If the act is positive then your quality of life will increase.  A negative act will decrease your quality.  These increases and decreases are not felt right away.  These bodily effects are years, maybe even decades, down the road.  The good news is, even if caught late in life, many of these negative actions that you may have done, can be corrected and the damages reversed.

Grandma, the model of age management

 I’ve lived through something that I think really sums what we are trying to do here.  My grandmother passed away several years ago and the way she lived her life is sort of the model I use.  Grandma rode her bike everywhere, for as long as I can remember.  She rode it to Saint Clement’s Church every day, to the store, to my parent’s house, everywhere she went.  So she got exercise on a daily basis.  She didn’t need to work but was the busiest person I knew.  She volunteered in just about every place that could use her.  She was very active into her 80s and then had a sudden decline.  She died at her home surrounded by family and friends.  Her decline into death lasted about two or three weeks.

This is what we are looking to do, a long, high quality life with a sharp drop off at the end.  No burden to your family, no long stays in a hospital or nursing home, a sudden, rapid decline at the end of a long and fruitful life.  This is the life we are trying to secure for everyone.