There are at present no effective antiaging medicines: US Bias

New York - Dr. Andrew Weil comes out hard against antiaging. “There are at present no effective antiaging medicines. Yet the field keeps expanding,” writes Weil in exclusive excerpts from his new book Healthy Aging: A Lifelong Guide to Your Physical and Spiritual Well-Being (Knopf), appearing in the upcoming issue of TIME (on newsstands Monday, October 10).

“Currently, popular practices include live-cell therapy (injecting the fetal cells of animals into human beings), caloric restriction (drastically limiting of the number of calories a body takes in) and hormone therapy (to restore hormones to levels found in younger people). Here is the crux of the difference between practitioners of antiaging medicine and more conventional colleagues: the former are using methods and making claims that the latter consider unsupported by scientific evidence. Most of those methods may be relatively harmless except to the bank accounts of clients; others may not. Furthermore, I am dismayed by the emphasis on appearance in antiaging medicine,” writes Weil.

“The promises you will hear from antiaging practitioners are going to become more extravagant in the coming years,” writes Weil. “These theoretical breakthroughs serve only as distractions from what’s important - namely, learning to accept the inevitability of aging, understanding its challenges and promises, and knowing how to keep minds and bodies as healthy as possible while moving through life’s successive stages…The best we can do - and it is a lot - to accept the inevitability of aging and try to adapt to it, to be in the best health we can at any age. To my mind the denial of aging and the attempt to fight it are counterproductive, a failure to understand and accept an important aspect of our existence. Such attitudes are major obstacles to aging gracefully.”

TIME names 10 Americans over 60 who are aging gracefully. They include: Toni Morrison, Joan Baez, Martha Stewart, Lauren Bacall and Sandra Day O’Connor, Paul Newman, Colin Powell, Robert Redford, Philip Roth and Warren Buffett. A Time.com poll, to be posted Sunday, October 9th at www.time.com/poll, asks people to vote among these 10 or nominate others.

An Ounce of Prevention: “It is quite possible that our criteria for obesity and our thinking about its medical implications have been warped by fashion,” writes Weil. “We all know morbid obesity when we see it; clearly, it interferes with activities of daily living and makes people unhappy and unhealthy. But being too lean may also compromise health and successful aging. I believe that those who are somewhat overweight but fit in middle age may enjoy a healthier and longer old age than those who are lean and not fit.”

Touch and Sex: “Touch is a basic requirement for optimum health…I urge you as strongly as possible to find ways to touch and be touched as you move through life. One way, a perfectly good one, is to treat yourself to massage on a regular basis,” writes Weil.

“If you are older and living with a partner, try to express your needs, especially if they have changed. See if you can find areas of common ground where you can exchange some form of nurturing touch. Self-stimulation is always an option. I consider it a healthy practice throughout life,” writes Weil. “Everyone is different. Pay attention to how your interests and appetites change. Try to adapt to the changes. And keep in mind that for some people diminished interest in sex can be a liberating and welcome change.”

Supplements: “I have always favored increased regulation of the dietary supplement industry, which has proved incapable of policing itself. I would like to see the U.S. Food and Drug Administration create a new Division of Natural Therapeutic Agents to regulate herbs, vitamins, minerals and other products - not with the intent of thwarting consumer access to them but rather of ensuring that products on the market are safe, contain what they claim to contain, and do what they claim to do…Apart from providing insurance against gaps in the diet, supplements can provide optimum dosages of natural therapeutic agents that may help prevent and treat age-related diseases,” writes Weil.

Diet: “I am going to urge you to follow a diet that I believe can increase the probability of healthy aging, but I hesitate even to call it a diet. It is absolutely not intended as a weight-loss program, nor is it an eating plan to stay on for a limited period of time,” writes Weil. “Rather, it is the nutritional component of a healthy lifestyle. I like to call it the Anti-Inflammatory Diet…I believe without question that diet influences inflammation. The food choices we make can determine whether we are in a proinflammatory state or in an anti-inflammatory one.” Weil offers specific recommendations for foods to include and foods to avoid. TIME’s excerpt includes additional tips by Dr. Weil for healthy aging.

Dr. Andrew Weil is a thought leader and pioneer in the field of integrative medicine. More than a decade ago, Dr. Weil founded the Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, which has served as a model for similar programs at other leading medical schools around the country, including Harvard, Columbia, and Duke. No other physician has done more to shape the direction of medical education in America. Dr. Weil has also empowered consumers to take an active role in their health and wellness and encouraged them to question the care they receive from their physicians. He was one of the first physicians to warn of the over prescribing of America. And he has been a driving force behind people turning to models of wellness that are based on diet. Dr. Weil is the author of ten books that have sold millions of copies worldwide and spent more than 175 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. His last four books have all been number-one New York Times bestsellers. Dr. Andrew Weil lectures extensively on medicine and medical issues and has testified before Congress on health and wellness issues. In October and November, Dr. Weil will be hosting town hall meetings across America on HEALTHY AGING, in an effort to change the way people think about the process of aging.