Abstract
The anti-aging medicine movement proposes to alter the human body in order to achieve extreme longevity. To do this it has to reverse or by-pass the multiple causes of human aging. These include a large number of age-associated pathologies, each of which is being studied in great detail in research laboratories around the world. The protagonists of anti-aging medicine claim that it will be far more successful than the combined efforts of the innumerable scientists carrying out this research. Aging has an extremely long evolutionary history, and the anatomical structure and physiology of animals is directly related to their finite lifespan. The anti-aging movement proposes in a few decades to reverse what has been the result of millions of years of evolution.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Austad SN (1997) Why we age. Wiley, New York
de Grey ADNJ (2004) Interview with C. Deavans. BBC News Online Specials
de Grey ADNJ (2006) Extrapoholics anonymous: why demographers’ rejections of a huge rise in cohort life expectancy in this century are overconfident. Ann N Y Acad Sci 1067:83–93
Finch CE (1990) Longevity, senescence and the genome. University Chicago Press, Chicago
Hayflick L (1994, 1996) How and why we age. Ballantine Books, New York
Holliday R (1995) Understanding aging. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Kirkwood TBL, Holliday R (1979) The evolution of aging and longevity. Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 205:532–546
Kirkwood TBL, Austad SN (2000) Why do we age? Nature 408:233–238
Klatz RM (1996) Advances in anti-aging medicine. Larchmont, New York
Olshansky SJ, Hayflick L, Carnes BA et al (2002) No truth to the fountain of youth. Position statement on human aging. Sci Am 286:78–81
Olshansky SJ, Hayflick L, Perls TT (eds) (2004) Anti-aging medicine: the hype and the reality. J Gerontol Biol Sci 59A:515–709
Warner H et al (2005) Science fact and the SENS agenda. EMBO Rep 6:1006–1008
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Holliday, R. The extreme arrogance of anti-aging medicine. Biogerontology 10, 223–228 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10522-008-9170-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10522-008-9170-6