"Anti-aging" is an oxymoron

No intervention will slow, stop, or reverse the aging process in humans. Whether anti-aging medicine is, or is not, a legitimate science is completely dependent upon the definition of key terms that define the finitude of life: longevity determination, aging, and age-associated diseases. Only interv...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences Biological sciences and medical sciences, 2004-06, Vol.59 (6), p.B573-B578
Main Author: Hayflick, Leonard
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aged
Aging
Aging - genetics
Aging - physiology
Cellular biology
Geriatrics
Humans
Life Expectancy
Longevity - physiology
Medical research
Pathology
Preventive medicine
Risk factors
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Summary:No intervention will slow, stop, or reverse the aging process in humans. Whether anti-aging medicine is, or is not, a legitimate science is completely dependent upon the definition of key terms that define the finitude of life: longevity determination, aging, and age-associated diseases. Only intervention in the latter by humans has been shown to affect life expectancy. When it becomes possible to slow, stop, or reverse the aging process in the simpler molecules that compose inanimate objects, such as machines, then that prospect may become tenable for the complex molecules that compose life forms. Most of the resources available under the rubric "aging research" are not used for that purpose at all, thus making the likelihood of intervention in the process even more remote. If age changes are the greatest risk factor for age-associated diseases (an almost universal belief), then why is the study of aging virtually neglected?
ISSN:1079-5006
1758-535X
DOI:10.1093/gerona/59.6.B573