Philip Kim, MD, ABAARM
Anti-aging medicine is a clinical specialty is founded on the application of advanced scientific and medical technologies for the early detection, prevention, treatment, and reversal of age-related dysfunction, disorders, and diseases. It is a healthcare model promoting innovative science and research to prolong the healthy lifespan in humans. As such, anti-aging medicine is based on principles of sound and responsible medical care that are consistent with those applied in other preventive health specialties. The phrase "anti-aging," as such, relates to the application of advanced biomedical technologies focused on the early detection, prevention, and treatment of aging-related disease.
Anti-aging medicine complements regenerative medicine, as both specialties embrace cutting-edge biomedical technologies aimed at achieving benefits for both the quality and quantity of the human lifespan. Some of the most promising aspects of regenerative medicine, most notably:
Stem cell therapeutics, technologies aiming to beneficially alter the very basic cellular sources of dysfunctions, disorders, disabilities, and diseases
Therapeutic cloning, technologies to develop ample sources of human cells, tissues, and organs for use in acute emergency care as well as the treatment of chronic, debilitating diseases
Genetic engineering and genomics, advancements that permit the identification and alteration of genetics to ameliorate dysfunctions, disorders, disabilities, and diseases
Nanotechnology, deploying micro- and molecular-sized tools to manipulate human tissue biology for microsurgical repair on a gross level, as well as microscopic nano-biology for repair at the most basic cellular level
Taken collectively, the advancements offered by anti-aging and regenerative medicine to improve the quality of, and/or extend the length of, the human lifespan, are the singlemost potent emerging biomedical technologies today.
Universally, those involved in healthcare, or those whose fields of expertise intersect with healthcare issues, support anti-aging medicine as a healthcare model promoting innovative science and research to prolong the healthy human lifespan. Public policy organizations and government agencies in a number of nations are now embracing anti-aging medicine as a viable solution to alleviate the mounting social, economic, and medical woes otherwise anticipated to arrive with the trend of unprecedented global aging.
Anti-aging medicine is now practiced by thousands of physicians in private medical offices, as well as at some of the most prestigious teaching hospitals around the world. Involving a patient base in the hundreds of thousands worldwide, anti-aging medicine is achieving demonstrable and objective results that beneficially impact the degenerative diseases of aging.
