Youthfulness an American obsession — at what cost?

Dr. Jeffry Life stands in jeans, his shirt off. His face is that of a distinguished-looking grandpa; his head is balding, and what hair there is is white.

But his 69-year-old body looks like it belongs to a muscle-bound 30-year-old.

The photo regularly runs in ads for the Cenegenics Medical Institute, a Las Vegas-based clinic that specializes in “age management,” a growing field in a society obsessed with staying young. Life, who swears that’s his real last name, also keeps a framed copy of the photo on his office wall at Cenegenics.

As the baby boomers march toward retirement, Botox, wrinkle fillers and hormones of various kinds have become big business. Medco’s latest drug trend report shows, for instance, that human growth hormone use grew almost 6 percent in 2007.

Many in mainstream medicine and elsewhere worry that we’re becoming too focused on treatments with short-term benefits that have potentially dangerous side effects and scant, if any, evidence that they’ll help in the long run.

Some of the more bizarre methods include fetal cell injections, inhaling radon gas, even cutting off testicles, an ancient practice meant to reduce overexposure to reproductive hormones.

There also are concerns that this obsession is sending the wrong message to younger generations. Surveys from cosmetic surgery trade groups suggest that sizable numbers of people, even in their 20s, are getting cosmetic procedures. And a fall 2007 survey from TRU, a research firm that specializes in the teenage demographic, found that a quarter of people 12 to 19 — and a third of girls in that age group — are interested in having cosmetic surgery to improve their appearance.

However, as they age, many baby boomers are far more concerned with feeling younger, and extending their lives. So while it is illegal for human growth hormone and other hormones to be dispensed for anti-aging purposes, Life’s patient Detwiler spends more than US$1,000 a month to take relatively low doses prescribed for “hormone deficiency.” The idea is to bring his levels back up to those of a young man in his 20s.

“My friends say, ‘Oh, Ed’s on steroids,”’ Detwiler says. “No, I’m not. ... I’m on hormone therapy.” He holds out his arms to indicate that his body is fit-looking, but not monstrous.

Besides human growth hormone, testosterone, and an adrenal hormone known as DHEA, his diet now largely consists of things like hard-boiled eggs, fruits, nuts, Greek yogurt, salads and palm-sized pieces of fish, chicken or low-fat beef. He also exercises regularly, alternating between intense cardio workouts and weight-resistance training.

For those going to even greater lengths to try to keep aging — and ultimately death — at bay, there also are no guarantees.

Dr. Alan Mintz, founder of Cenegenics, died at the relatively young age of 69 due to complications during a brain biopsy.

Some research has suggested that human growth hormone injections can cause cancer. They’ve also been linked with nerve pain, elevated cholesterol and increased risks for diabetes.

Even so, Life, now the chief medical officer at Cenegenics, remains steadfast. Among other things, he points to studies that suggest that human growth hormone in low doses poses no cancer risk, if there is no preexisting cancer. “Within the next 10 years, maybe less, this is going to be thought of as mainstream medicine — preventing disease, slowing the aging process down, preventing people from losing their ability to take care of themselves when they get older and ending up in nursing homes,” Life says.

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