Whatever critics say about it being a fad and a pseudoscience, anti-ageing medicine has reached its quarter-century milestone with increasing numbers of practitioners in this clinical speciality.
Still, Prof Dr Bernd Kleine-Gunk is often asked: "Do you have to treat ageing as if it were a disease?"
"It's definitely not good for your health," he said. "Cancer, dementia, osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease -- one risk factor common in all of them is biological ageing. The thing is: if you want to prevent or treat disease, you have to treat biological ageing."
Diseases lead to more years of suffering and medical costs. Anti-ageing medicine's aim thus is not merely about life-extension but keeping healthy and maintaining vitality.
"There's no use in increasing the lifespan when you don't increase the health span," said Prof Dr Kleine-Gunk, the president of the German Society of Anti-Ageing Medicine.
His expertise makes him one of the international advisers at Verita Healthcare Group, which opened a membership-based clinic at MahaNakhon Cube in Bangkok last year.
Its personalised anti-ageing programme involves biological age and genetic profiling before prescribing the latest regenerative and functional therapies.
Only the well-off, though, can afford such luxuries, such as intravenous vitamin infusion, colon hydrotherapy, aesthetic treatments and young plasma therapy.
Prof Dr Kleine-Gunk, however, clarifies that, basically, nutrition, exercise, not smoking and leading a healthy lifestyle are the most important things, whereas everything else is on top.
Receiving a vitamin booster at Verita Health MahaNakhon.
"People come to my clinic and they ask, 'What should I take?'. My anti-ageing prescription starts with lifestyle," he said.
"For instance, exercise doesn't come in a pill and you have to regularly do your workout."
The anti-ageing expert also recommends intermittent fasting and calorie-restriction by eating less or skipping dinner.
"Calorie-restriction has long been practised by the people of Okinawa, not because an anti-ageing doctor told them to do so, but simply because, as a poor region, they had less to eat," he said.
"But because of their modern lifestyle, the new generation of Okinawans may not become centenarians like the older generation."
The controversial hormone-replacement therapy (HRT) is another component of the anti-ageing arsenal, which has become more complex, involving, for instance, oestrogen, testosterone, DHEA, melatonin and growth hormone.
"This is a renaissance in HRT, and anti-ageing medicine uses HRT in the right way through personalised dosage of bio-identical hormones," said the German doctor, who also has a background in gynaecology, osteology and nutrition medicine.
On promising anti-ageing intervention, he gives the example of "vampire therapy", inspired by the study of mice by Harvard's Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, as well as Stanford University researchers.
One study on surgically-conjoined mice sharing a blood supply found neurological-rejuvenating effects in elderly rodents and vice versa in younger ones. Young-blood-plasma infusion was also given to the old mice with positive results.
Researchers have made the next step by giving old mice human plasma from umbilical cords and young adults, and are working to identify "youth" proteins that would lead to developing an anti-ageing antidote.
Nevertheless, young-blood-plasma transfusion is already a business in Monterey, California, where the start-up Ambrosia charges participants US$8,000 (265,700 baht) a shot for taking part in a questionable clinical trial.
Google has even become one of the new players, diversifying from its Internet business to set up Calico (California Life Company), whose ambition is to harness advanced technologies in understanding the biological ageing process and controlling lifespan.
The name of the company relates to the cat believed to have nine lives.
Whether inspired by kitties or vampires, these new anti-ageing businesses affirm that finding the fountain of youth has always been a quest, dating back to ancient times, as documented in the "Epic Of Gilgamesh" and Egyptian papyri.
"Longevity has now become a business model and the next big thing in Silicon Valley, whose billionaires invest in finding anti-ageing solutions," observed Prof Dr Kleine-Gunk.
"They are also interested in it for a personal reason. They can buy everything with their money but they can't buy lasting health."
Verita Health MahaNakhon is on the 3rd floor MahaNakhon Cube, Silom. Call 02-115 7553.
