American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine The Free Radical Theory
Although the roots of longevity medicine—a recognized subspe-cialty of conventional medicine-trace back to the 1950s, when Denham Harman of the University of Nebraska first announced his “free-radical theory of aging,” the formal investigation of the aging process began in 1958 with the inauguration of the Baltimore Longitudinal Study on Aging (BLSA) by Nathan W. Shock, M.D. The BLSA helped establish the field of “Biogerontology” and is the oldest and most famous investigation into the changes that accompany the aging process. It was during this same period that Bernard Strehler, Ph.D., of the University of California helped launch The National Institute on Aging (NIA). Meanwhile, a scientific landmark occurred when Leonard Hayflick, Ph.D., found that human cells possessed a barrier equivalent to the four-minute mile (which for so long daunted runners).
Dr. Hayflick found that cells in the human body—with the exception of renegade cancer cells-could multiply up to, but no more than, 100 times. He theorized that this finding was behind the inability of the body to regenerate itself indefinitely and placed a ceiling on how long a person could live. An influential book by Durk Pearson, a physicist trained at M.I.T., and Sandy Shaw, a U.C.LA biochemist, made the bestseller list in the 1980s. Life Extension: A Practical Scientific Approach drew upon a large body of scientific research that supported the importance of vitamins and minerals in health and aging. Pearson and Shaw proposed that by taking a variety of
nutrients in large doses (megadoses), an individual could live longer and minimize the risk of developing an age-related illness. In 1985, the Life Extension Foundation, co-founded by Pearson and Shaw, began funding further research into the causes of aging and the means by which the process could be slowed, stopped, or even reversed.
Another key milestone was achieved when a group of 12 Chicago doctors joined together in 1993 and founded the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M). A4M is a membership organization who’s stated purpose is to end the disease of aging. “Age is inevitable—aging is not,” asserts its founder, Ronald Klatz, D.O. A4M is largely a society of M.D.s and Ph.D.s, which has been particularly effective on two fronts. First, in bringing together key longevity researchers and medical doctors of various specialties at its annual conferences. Second, through its major national media efforts—through feature articles in magazines and segments on major network television programs, A4M has successfully introduced the field of longevity medicine to the general public. Through its certification program, doctors can obtain accreditation in diagnostic and therapeutic protocols.
In 1997, A4M was joined as an accrediting institution for longevity practitioners by the International College of Advanced Longevity Medicine (ICALM). Founded by Garry Gordon, M.D., ICALM has broadened its membership to include complementary practitioners with backgrounds in homeopathy, naturopathy, chiropractic, herbalism, energy medicine, and from living longer and in good health to acupuncture, in addition to M.D.s and those who’s quest is for the ultimate Ph.D.s. Training is offered in seminars longevity prize—human immortality. And conducted throughout the year, which the methods employed in the field vary
focus on the basic and advanced meth- wildly, from transcendental meditation
ods of diagnosis and therapy in the to genetic engineering to megadosing
field of longevity medicine. nutrients—even to using biotechnology
Other organizations and groups to grow spare body parts in the event
have also come onto the scene, with your original equipment is not working
agendas and philosophies that vary as it should.
