Numerous discoveries have been made since the '50s, which have allowed for deeper knowledge of the ageing process. Since then, constant scientific and medical developments have driven the growth of investigations around this concept called age management.
Scientific studies reveal that even though life expectancy has increased by almost 50 years in the last century, the quality of the last phase of life is poor, considering that from the age of 50 we only enjoy full health for an average of about three years.
Age Management Medicine emerges with the aim of increasing both life quality and expectancy, which optimises biomarkers related to age and this way prevents diseases related to the ageing process, restoring endocrine and metabolic balance.
Scientifically based on the '4 Ps medicine', integrating preventive, proactive, predictive and personalized protocols:
P1. Preventive Medicine
The purpose is to achieve levels of excellence in the key biomarkers related to ageing and health. The objective is to avoid future diseases, and consequently, improve each individual’s quality of life.
All areas of medicine, even the most avant-garde, tend to be structured in an orderly fashion. The Age management medicine is founded on a series of common pillars or action areas: exercise, nutrition, nutritional supplementation, metabolic and hormonal balance, behavioural and emotional health, rest and oxidative stress, detox, longitudinal monitoring of biomarkers, regenerative medicine, gene therapies and new technologies.
P2. Proactive Medicine
It is the medicine of the named 'health conscious' people or people who are aware of their health, since it is the patient himself who is responsible for his health and wellbeing and must take control of it, always under the supervision of a specialised medical team.
P3. Predictive Medicine
Genetic predisposition allows predictions about the future health risks of each individual to be made (genetic polymorphisms which tell us about the chances of suffering some types of cancer and neurodegenerative and cardiovascular diseases). Knowledge about this circumstance enables efficient preventive attitudes to be adopted. Likewise, the precise interpretation of certain non-genetic biomarkers predicts the risk of suffering specific diseases.
P4. Personalised Medicine
The analyses of biomarkers are the starting point of personalisation. Thus, each individual approach has to adjust to each person’s state of health, circumstances and objectives, therefore maximising the results and benefits.
The main difference between conventional medicine and this innovative medicine is that the first one works on patients who already suffer diseases, while in age management medicine each individual benefits on previous interventions to the disease state (sometimes they are in the subclinical phase), achieving a true prevention and welfare status maintenance.
Numerous public and private institutions are advocating for this new medical paradigm for the 21st century,where the approach to health is preventive instead of reactive, where the patient is proactive instead of passive individual, where the doctor/patient relationship is bidirectional and not unidirectional and where multidisciplinary teams of professionals participate.
The medical specialty of age management was born in the United States and is supported, by the American Medical Association, amongst other institutions.
Numerous scientific, academic and political institutions, public and private, are currently investigating the phenomenon of ageing not only at a biological level but also in the clinical, demographic, political, economical and sociological environment.
On an international level, there are lots of centres which dedicate resources to the study and research of ageing. Ones worth mentioning are the Robert and Arlene Center on Aging of the Mayo Clinic in the US, the National Institute of Ageing of the US government, the Swedish Ageing Research Center of the Karolinska Institute and the Biochemistry and Biophysics Department of the University of California in San Francisco with the Nobel Prize winner Elisabeth Blackburn.
International scientific groupings and societies in the clinical setting of ageing include Age Management Medical Group, the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine and the World Society of Anti-Ageing Medicine.
In Spain, there are several research and academic centres which are interested in the ageing process, including theCentro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológicas (CNIO) with Dra. MarÃa Blasco, the Instituto Universitario de OncologÃa de la Universidad de Oviedo with Prof. Carlos López-OtÃn and the Cátedra de FisiologÃa de la Universidad de Valencia with Prof. José Viña. The three of them are very prestigious at an international level.
In addition, there are academic institutions such as the Centro de Estudios del Envejecimiento with a multidisciplinary approach to the ageing process and the Fundación Arturo Fernández Cruz , as well as scientific societies such as the Sociedad Española de Medicina Antienvejecimiento y Longevidad.
There are more than 150 different types of scientific magazines related to the ageing process. A few noteworthy ones are Maturitas, Rejuvenation Research and Aging Cell.
The medical-scientific endorsement of the 4PM (preventive, proactive, predictive and personalized medicine) or age management, is based on the great amount of scientific and clinic knowledge obtained from all the institutions and research and academic centres.
There are already lots of doctors, including cardiologists, oncologists, as well as gynaecologists and endocrinologists who are interested in aspects that are preventive and related to ageing within their field of knowledge.
Usually, people who do an anti-ageing medicine programe at Neolife show substantial improvements over a short period of time, although it depends largely on the person’s initial health state. If the starting point is very good, improvements are subtler. But if it is low improvements in health, vitality, mind and wellness are very significant.
Our main objective is to prevent future diseases.However, in the short term, there is also an overall improvement in the feeling of health, with benefits at a cellular, physical and mental level, avoiding downfall over the years. You realise the overall result of the programme over the years when you compare yourself with your peers who do not do anything proactive to maintain their health.
