The Gerontologist
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
 QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     


This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Mehlman, M. J.
Right arrow Articles by Whitehouse, P. J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Mehlman, M. J.
Right arrow Articles by Whitehouse, P. J.
The Gerontologist 44:304-310 (2004)
© 2004 The Gerontological Society of America

Anti-Aging Medicine: Can Consumers Be Better Protected?

Maxwell J. Mehlman, JD1, Robert H. Binstock, PhD2,, Eric T. Juengst, PhD2, Roselle S. Ponsaran, MA3 and Peter J. Whitehouse, MD, PhD2

Correspondence: Address correspondence to Robert H. Binstock, PhD, Professor of Aging, Health, and Society, School of Medicine, Room WG-43, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106. E-mail: rhb3{at}po.cwru.edu

The use of interventions claiming to prevent, retard, or reverse aging is proliferating. Some of these interventions can seriously harm older persons and aging baby boomers who consume them. Others that are merely ineffective may divert patients from participating in beneficial regimens and also cause them economic harm. "Free market regulation" does not seem to weed out risky, ineffective, and fraudulent anti-aging treatments and products. Public health messages, apparently, are having little effect. What more can be done to achieve better protection for older consumers? An analysis of the potential for federal and state action reveals many barriers to effective governmental regulation of anti-aging interventions. In view of dim prospects for stronger public regulation, physicians and other professionals—especially geriatricians and gerontologists—will need to be more aggressive in protecting older consumers. In particular, The Gerontological Society of America and the American Geriatrics Society should undertake a sustained program of specific educational efforts, directed at health professionals and the general public, in which they sort out as best they can the helpful, the harmful, the fraudulent, and the harmless anti-aging practices and products.

Key Words: Anti-aging • Geriatrics • Gerontology • Government regulation • Professional regulation




This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci.Home page
M. UNDERWOOD, H. BARTLETT, and W. HALL
Community Attitudes to the Regulation of Life Extension
Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci., October 1, 2007; 1114(1): 288 - 299.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Home page
JAMAHome page
T. T. Perls, N. R. Reisman, and S. J. Olshansky
Provision or Distribution of Growth Hormone for "Antiaging": Clinical and Legal Issues
JAMA, October 26, 2005; 294(16): 2086 - 2090.
[Full Text] [PDF]


Home page
J. Gerontol. A Biol. Sci. Med. Sci.Home page
A. Kahn
Regaining Lost Youth: The Controversial and Colorful Beginnings of Hormone Replacement Therapy in Aging
J. Gerontol. A Biol. Sci. Med. Sci., February 1, 2005; 60(2): 142 - 147.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Home page
GerontologistHome page
T. Wetle
FOUNTAINS OF YOUTH OR FOUNTAINS OF HEALTH? SEARCHING FOR THE FUTURE OF AGING RESEARCH
Gerontologist, December 1, 2004; 44(6): 844 - 847.
[Full Text] [PDF]




HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
All GSA journals Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences
Copyright © 2004 by The Gerontological Society of America.