Anti-aging medicine--the good, the bad, and the ugly

Insights into the Anti-Aging Prevention and Diagnostic Medicine and Healthcare

Aging is an irreversible and natural phenomenon that occurs as a person ages. Anti-aging medicine applies advanced science and medical technology to early detection, prevention, treatment, and reversal of age-related dysfunctions, disorders, and diseases. Therefore, anti-aging diagnostic medicine and healthcare are important factors in helping the elderly population lead healthy and active lives. However, it is challenging to diagnose various aging and related diseases accurately through various forms of anti-aging diagnostic medicine and health management. It may not be treated appropriately, so many older people are making various efforts to prevent aging themselves in advance. Therefore, anti-aging medicine and health care have been developed in various forms, from health checkups to alternative medicine and biophysical technology beyond simple clinical medicine, and are being applied to demand the needs of the elderly. This review intends to explore and characterize various applications related to anti-aging medicine and healthcare in the elderly. In addition, economic, medical, and ethical considerations arising from the relationship between the increase in the elderly population and the continuous development of anti-aging medicine can be considered.

Are We Ill Because We Age?

Growing elderly populations, sometimes referred to as gray (or silver) tsunami, are an increasingly serious health and socioeconomic concern for modern societies. Science has made tremendous progress in the understanding of aging itself, which has helped medicine to extend life expectancies. With the increase of the life expectancy, the incidence of chronic age-related diseases (ARDs) has also increased. A new approach trying to solve this problem is the concept of geroscience. This concept implies that the aging process itself is the common cause of all ARDs. The corollary and consequence of such thinking is that we can and should treat aging itself as a disease. How to translate this into the medical practice is a big challenge, but if we consider aging as a disease the problem is solved. However, as there is no common definition of what aging is, what its causes are, why it occurs, and what should be the target(s) for interventions, it is impossible to conclude that aging is a disease. On the contrary, aging should be strongly considered not to be a disease and as such should not be treated; nonetheless, aging is likely amenable to optimization of changes/adaptations at an individual level to achieve a better functional healthspan.

The Ethics of Ironic Science in Its Search for Spoof

The goal of most scientific research published in peer-review journals is to discover and report the truth. However, the research record includes tongue-in-cheek papers written in the conventional form and style of a research paper. Although these papers were intended to be taken ironically, bibliographic database searches show that many have been subsequently cited as valid research, some in prestigious journals. We attempt to understand why so many readers cited such ironic science seriously. We draw from the literature on error propagation in research publication for ways categorize citations. We adopt the concept of irony from the fields of literary and rhetorical criticism to detect, characterize, and analyze the interpretations in the more than 60 published research papers that cite an instance of ironic science. We find a variety of interpretations: some citing authors interpret the research as valid and accept it, some contradict or reject it, and some acknowledge its ironic nature. We conclude that publishing ironic science in a research journal can lead to the same troubles posed by retracted research, and we recommend relevant changes to publication guidelines.

The use of complementary and alternative medicine in later life

The increasing prevalence of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use is a significant health care issue in contemporary societies and researchers have identified CAM as holding potential for treating and coping with chronic illness and other conditions experienced in later life. This paper focuses upon contemporary research literature to provide a critical review of the prevalence, correlates, conditions, perceptions and communication of CAM use in later life. Evidence from recent research illustrates the substantial prevalence and complexity of CAM use amongst older people and such ‘community’ use requires all providers, regardless of their experience or perception of the worth of CAM, to at least acknowledge and enquire with their older patients about the potential use of these other medicines.