Anti Aging
Anti-aging is a term often mentioned but hardly ever explained. People are not only fascinated by the idea of staying young, but also with living very long lives.
Over the years, anti-aging has taken on many different meanings and connotations. In the scientific community and the Administration on Aging, the term refers to the slowing, preventing, or reversing of the aging process.
In the medical and upstanding business community, anti-aging refers to the early detection, prevention and reversal of age-related diseases.
In the business community, anti-aging is considered a valuable marketing tool and can refer to anything from crèmes that may make your skin look younger, special dermatology medications or anything that helps you to look or feel younger.
From its most common definition in the medical and scientific realm, anti-aging medicine (also called life-extension, experimental or biomedical gerontology) refers to attempts made to slow down or reverse the process of aging and thus maximizing lifespan.
Certain illnesses which develop mostly at an older age such as erectile dysfunction and heart disease are often treatable by compounded medications. Anti-aging products are a highly popular market in the United States, with the sale of anti-aging products including nutrition, physical fitness, skin care, hormone replacements, supplements, vitamins and herbs reaching almost $50 billion in revenue a year.
Theoretically speaking, the extension of our maximum lifespan could be achieved by reducing the rate of aging damage, replacement of damaged tissues, or by repair and rejuvenation of deteriorated cells and tissues.
The most popular current ways of combating the effects of aging revolve around the following:
- Diet
- Caloric Restriction
- Antioxidant Supplements
- Hormone Treatments
Research is currently being done to develop additional techniques to
prevent aging. These include nanotechnology, genetic modification, cloning / body part replacement, and cryogenics.
While the ethics of these methods are often in heated debate, the research continues and advances are frequently being made on the anti-aging front.