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Posts Tagged ‘anti-aging’

Coldfront Launches Cool Tool to Beat Hot Flashes

31 Mar

Yesterday I discovered a kindred spirit—a woman who believes the risks of hormone replacement therapies for menopause do not outweigh the benefits. She’s Susie Hadas, founder and president of Personally Cool, a company that makes an innovative hot-flash reliever: Coldfront, a discreet, palm-sized disc that stays cold all day and can be whipped out and held against your face or neck for quick relief.

Hadas presented her company to participants in Pipeline Fellowship, a program that trains female angel investors who are interested in supporting women-led businesses. Hadas had about five minutes to pitch her company to the panel of investors. Then she endured about 15 minutes of questions from the panelists, all of whom tried out her product with interest. Excuse the pun, but Hadas kept her cool throughout.

Coldfront is environmentally friendly and hormone free. It’s available online for $49.95. And you can follow Hadas on Twitter @personallycool. Here’s hoping more female entrepreneurs will follow Hadas’ lead and come up with innovative non-hormone methods for dealing with aging.

 
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Posted in Bio-Identical Hormones, Selling the Fountain of Youth

 

Dr. Oz Takes Tough Look at HGH for Anti-Aging

18 Oct

Kudos to Dr. Oz for urging viewers NOT to buy into the idea that injections of human growth hormone are the fountain of youth. My favorite quote: “It is not worth risking your health for the pursuit of youth and beauty.”

You can watch three excerpts from the show here.

 
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Posted in HGH

 

My Latest Interview: Growing Bolder Radio

30 Jul

I was interviewed today on the radio show “Growing Bolder.” We covered everything from bio-identical hormones (a terrible way to fend off aging, in my opinion) to exercise (the best way to stay young).

Listen here.

 
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Posted in Selling the Fountain of Youth

 

Selling the Fountain of Youth Continues to Grab Attention

14 May

Just a quick update on Selling the Fountain of Youth: On April 18, I was featured for a full hour on “Wriggling in the Middle,” a show on News-Talk WHBC radion in Canton, Ohio. The conversation spanned a range of anti-aging  topics, from supplements like resveratrol to hormone replacement therapy for menopause.

In June, I will tape an interview with “Growing Bolder,” a radio show that airs on WMFE, 90.7fm, Central Florida’s NPR station. (Air date to be announced.)

Meanwhile, I’ve been pleased to see a growing recognition of anti-aging scams. As NPR recently reported, the Federal Trade Commission has asked the federal courts to halt the advertising by 10 companies that are using fake news sites to sell the supplement acai, which is derived from a Brazilian berry that supporters say can halt aging and promote weight loss. In its complaint, the FTC points out that many of the so-called news sites purporting to run objective stories about acai are fictional, as are the reporters those sites feature.

Hopefully we can all continue to bring these false advertising efforts to light so fewer consumers will be fooled by anti-aging claims!

 
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New on HuffPo: Astaxanthin Makes Flamingos Rosy But Will it Keep You Young?

21 Feb

Another day, another anti-aging phenom.

The newest supplement to catch the fancy of folks who refuse to get old is astaxanthin, an antioxidant found in algae. Astaxanthin (pronounced as-ta-ZAN-thin) is the compound that gives salmon and flamingos their pink hue. Proponents claim that in people, it has the power to reduce inflammation and oxidative damage to cells, which in turn preserves the eyes, skin, joints and central nervous system.

Read more here.

 
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Posted in Lifestyle

 

Menopause Site Features Selling the Fountain of Youth

17 Feb

BellaOnline has posted a four-part review and interview about Selling the Fountain of Youth. Here’s an excerpt:

Q: As a journalist, you have witnessed the apparent shift from trusting only medical professionals (the men and women in white lab coats who look like serious researchers) to placing implicit trust in celebrities. What do you think accounts for this?

“Celebrity endorsement is hardly anything new in our society and has been used for many products. However, the anti-aging industry understands the power of marketing. Problems arise when the line is blurred between who are the ‘experts’ and people are confused.” Images speak volumes and often a well-crafted infomercial or television appearance grabs our attention in ways a medical journal article cannot.

Celebrities are persuasive and for aging Boomers, it is difficult to resist the ‘proof’ offered by a living and breathing personality. Weintraub stresses the danger lies when people latch blindly onto aggressive treatment options. These options may work for one individual, but have not been scientifically proven for widespread or long term use.

Read more here.

 
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Posted in Selling the Fountain of Youth

 

New on Huffington Post: “Conductorcise” Encourages Exercise Through Music

18 Jan

Everyone knows that exercise is good for their health and longevity, but so few of us are willing to get off our butts and actually do it. According to a 2009 Roper poll, only one in four Americans can manage to squeeze in a half-hour of exercise five times a week. This despite the mountain of data proving that exercise extends lives. A study by the Institute for Aerobics Research in Dallas, for example, found that men who became fit decreased their risk of dying of any disease by a remarkable 44 percent.

On Jan. 13, I met David Dworkin, a Julliard-trained musician who has invented a wonderfully innovative solution to exercise phobia. Read more here.

 
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Posted in Lifestyle

 

Penn Gazette: Habitat for (Aging) Humanity

17 Jan

The January/February issue of the University of Pennsylvania’s alumni magazine, the Gazette, features an October conference that was held at the college in October. The event, called “New Aging: International Conference on Aging and Architecture,” brought together a range of experts in the field of aging. I was invited there to talk about Selling the Fountain of Youth, and I was quoted in the Gazette story as someone who rejects the idea that getting old is a disease.

As the story points out, what made this conference different was that it wasn’t just about architecture. Rather it was meant to get people thinking about aging in all its dimensions. Among the other speakers: Sylvana Joseph, who co-authored a humor book about sex and aging, and Aubrey de Grey, a world-renowned scientist who believes science should bring an end to aging.

Read more here.

 
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Posted in Science of Aging

 

AARP: The Dangers of Trying to Live Forever

13 Jan

AARP Bulletin featured Selling the Fountain of Youth in its regular series “The Author Speaks.” Here’s an excerpt:

Q. What started the modern antiaging movement?

A. In 1990, scientist Daniel Rudman published a sensational study. He gave human growth hormone (HGH) to about a dozen healthy men over 60. They significantly increased their lean body mass, including muscle, and they lost about 14 percent of their fat.

Q. How did we get from a single splashy study to an entirely new industry?

A. A small group of doctors latched on to the idea that if you replace your hormone levels to where they were in your 30s, you’ll feel as great as you did back then. Rudman’s study inspired the formation of the American Academy of Anti Aging Medicine and has been cited on the Web something like 50,000 times.

Q. What are the cornerstones of the antiaging industry?

A. It started with HGH and expanded into alternative estrogen and progesterone products for menopause, as well as testosterone, which has recently become quite a sensation in this industry. It’s being prescribed not just to men, but also to help improve women’s libido.

Q. What are proponents claiming about these products?

A. They say if you replace those hormones, you can prevent osteoporosis, shield yourself from Alzheimer’s, improve your sleep, lose weight, gain muscle mass and boost your sex drive.

Q. Does any good science support those claims?

A. Antiaging doctors often say HGH is one of the most studied hormones. Well, that’s true, but many of those studies were in children with growth hormone deficiencies, and you can’t extrapolate from those children to healthy adults. The original Rudman study of HGH in adults was very small, and some scientists have been disturbed by the popularity of it. Some antiaging doctors twist the research to fit their viewpoints.

Read more here.

 
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Posted in Selling the Fountain of Youth

 

Is Anti-Aging Medicine the New Ageism?

11 Jan

I wrote an Op-Ed for the latest edition of Aging Today, the newspaper of the American Society on Aging. Here is an excerpt:

Hormones are the cornerstone of the anti-aging credo, which one doctor described to me as rectangularization (mortality compression). The idea, he said, is that patients should not have to age like their parents did, suffering a gradual increase in frailty and a slow decline towards the nursing home–triangularization, if you will. Instead they can use hormones to stay strong and healthy throughout their lives and then “fall off a cliff fast,” he said.

I find that sad. The fact is, there are no long-term, placebo-controlled studies proving that hormones extend life and that they’re safe for healthy people to take long term.

 
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Posted in Selling the Fountain of Youth

 
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