Live Longer Better: The Historical Roots of GH as Anti-Aging Medicine

[Michael Scally MD]

Medeiros A, Siegel Watkins E. Live Longer Better: The Historical Roots of Human Growth Hormone as Anti-Aging Medicine. Journal of the history of medicine and allied sciences 2018. Live Longer Better: The Historical Roots of Human Growth Hormone as Anti-Aging Medicine | Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences | Oxford Academic

In recent years, historians have turned their attention to the emergence of anti-aging medicine, suggesting that this interest group coalesced in the wake of widespread availability of recombinant human growth hormone (HGH) after 1985.

We take a longer view of modern anti-aging medicine, unearthing a nexus of scientific, medical, and cultural factors that developed over several decades in the twentieth century to produce circumstances conducive to the emergence of this medical sub-specialty established on the premise of the anti-aging effects of HGH. Specifically, we locate these roots in earlier hormone replacement therapies and in the so-called life extension movement.

We reveal the continual tension between, on the one hand, champions of a mainstream medical specialty and a field of biomedical research that aimed to improve health for the aged and, on the other hand, advocates who campaigned for medical endeavors to preserve midlife health in perpetuity, and even to extend the human lifespan.

We also demonstrate that the two groups shared a belief in science to solve – or at least to ameliorate – the problems of aging. This commitment to science has been the hallmark of twentieth and twenty-first century prescriptions for living life longer and better.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Mitchell F. Growing a billion dollar industry. The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology;5:96. Redirecting

 

[Michael Scally MD]

[Book] Heightened Expectations - The Rise of the Human Growth Hormone Industry in America by Aimee Medeiros
http://www.uapress.ua.edu/product/Heightened-Expectations,6402.aspx

 

[Michael Scally MD]

[Video] Heightened Expectations with Aimee Medeiros

 

[DragoT]

Medeiros A, Siegel Watkins E. Live Longer Better: The Historical Roots of Human Growth Hormone as Anti-Aging Medicine. Journal of the history of medicine and allied sciences 2018. Live Longer Better: The Historical Roots of Human Growth Hormone as Anti-Aging Medicine | Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences | Oxford Academic

In recent years, historians have turned their attention to the emergence of anti-aging medicine, suggesting that this interest group coalesced in the wake of widespread availability of recombinant human growth hormone (HGH) after 1985.

We take a longer view of modern anti-aging medicine, unearthing a nexus of scientific, medical, and cultural factors that developed over several decades in the twentieth century to produce circumstances conducive to the emergence of this medical sub-specialty established on the premise of the anti-aging effects of HGH. Specifically, we locate these roots in earlier hormone replacement therapies and in the so-called life extension movement.

We reveal the continual tension between, on the one hand, champions of a mainstream medical specialty and a field of biomedical research that aimed to improve health for the aged and, on the other hand, advocates who campaigned for medical endeavors to preserve midlife health in perpetuity, and even to extend the human lifespan.

We also demonstrate that the two groups shared a belief in science to solve – or at least to ameliorate – the problems of aging. This commitment to science has been the hallmark of twentieth and twenty-first century prescriptions for living life longer and better.

One sentence strikes me as the single most probable explanation of the controversy:

...They also reported that subjects’ main motivation for participating in the study was “a desire on their part to ‘age better’” and that most of the subjects had heard of Gerovital’s promise to combat aging before joining the study...

You cannot turn back the clock. I am 56 and will be 57 this time next year.

To age better is a concept, a style of living, not a result of a shot or a pill. Our gym offers all kind of classes, including "silver sneakers", you know what that is. It never stop amazes me when the class ends and they roll out of the room, how from behind some women look like 20y old girls in terms of body composition, and when see their faces, you wander how come they are not using a walker?!?

As I said before, when one decides to combat "aging", most of the time this decision is not "I will take HGH before drive to McDonald's", but a supplement to mental state of change of habits, diet and exercise.

And yet... I doubt our "silver sneakers" are juicing and the youth figure is result of that...

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Medeiros A, Siegel Watkins E. Live Longer Better: The Historical Roots of Human Growth Hormone as Anti-Aging Medicine. Journal of the history of medicine and allied sciences 2018. Live Longer Better: The Historical Roots of Human Growth Hormone as Anti-Aging Medicine | Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences | Oxford Academic

In recent years, historians have turned their attention to the emergence of anti-aging medicine, suggesting that this interest group coalesced in the wake of widespread availability of recombinant human growth hormone (HGH) after 1985.

We take a longer view of modern anti-aging medicine, unearthing a nexus of scientific, medical, and cultural factors that developed over several decades in the twentieth century to produce circumstances conducive to the emergence of this medical sub-specialty established on the premise of the anti-aging effects of HGH. Specifically, we locate these roots in earlier hormone replacement therapies and in the so-called life extension movement.

We reveal the continual tension between, on the one hand, champions of a mainstream medical specialty and a field of biomedical research that aimed to improve health for the aged and, on the other hand, advocates who campaigned for medical endeavors to preserve midlife health in perpetuity, and even to extend the human lifespan.

We also demonstrate that the two groups shared a belief in science to solve – or at least to ameliorate – the problems of aging. This commitment to science has been the hallmark of twentieth and twenty-first century prescriptions for living life longer and better.

CONCLUSION

Klatz, Goldman, and the A4M membership believed that supplementing growth hormone would solve the problems of aging in much the same way that Masters promoted sex hormones for the same problems fifty years earlier. The battle cry of “live longer better” recapitulated decades-old efforts with a new weapon in hand.

The latest band of anti-aging enthusiasts had capitalized on the evidence in Rudman’s 1990 article in the New England Journal of Medicine as justification for their much broader claims about HGH as an effective agent against the disabling effects of aging, although HGH replacement therapy for aging adults never really took hold in mainstream medical practice.

Promoted by its boosters as a fountain of youth, HGH did attract a significant following in the broader medical marketplace with the promise of both vitality and freedom from the disabilities that accompanied aging.

The anti-aging marketplace of the twenty-first century and the life extension movement in the twentieth century shared a conviction that the decline that accompanies aging is predictable and preventable with the right kind of intervention. While the recommended interventions changed over time, their promises remained consistent.

Like estrogen, testosterone, and Gerovital before it, HGH and growth hormone promoters were touted for their potential to reverse or stave off disabling conditions. Amid the historical continuity in anti-aging medicine were changes in its location on the spectrum of medical orthodoxy. Some proponents championed the alternative nature of anti-aging practices; others sought mainstream legitimacy.

Whether inside or outside the fluid boundaries of conventional medical practice, anti-aging adherents ascribed to a faith in science. That is, they believed that science could – and should – be marshaled in the fight against aging. From the utopian scientific fiction of cryonics to the more pragmatic off-label prescribing of human growth hormone, anti-aging medicine has been characterized by faith in the power and promise of science.

What differed between fringe and mainstream practitioners was the level of commitment to the scientific method, evidence-based medicine, and the sanctity of the randomized controlled trial. While government-funded researchers and board-certified physicians followed the rules of evidence-based medicine and medical research (or at least professed to do so), the life extension and A4M group viewed anecdote and personal experience as sufficient evidence

The story of anti-aging medicine contributes to a blurring of the distinction between the roles of traditional and non-traditional actors in medical practice in late twentieth and twenty-first-century America. While they may have been portrayed as hucksters, the life extenders and anti-aging advocates truly believed in their products and procedures, as evidenced by their own enthusiastic adherence to anti-aging regimens. That faith, combined with a flair for marketing and promotion, has sustained the persistence of the “youth peddlers” for the past seventy years.

Our investigation into the deeper roots of anti-aging medicine has brought to light a rogue’s gallery of colorful characters, all of whom –with the exception of Ana Aslan – are white males. We hope this initial inquiry inspires research into the roles of gender, race, and ethnicity among the providers and promoters of anti-aging medicine. This paper has focused on those providers and promoters; more research is needed to learn about the consumers of anti-aging hype and hormones. Finally, the epistemological and rhetorical intertwining of aging as disability and aging as disease, as performed across the spectrum of medical practice, warrants further consideration.