Technology 'Could Lead to
Longer, Better Lives'
By Helen William, PA News
A brave new world in which science helps to push
back barriers to ageing was revealed today.
More than 350 delegates, each paying £250
a ticket, packed out the capital’s first International
Anti-Ageing two-day conference in Kensington, south-west London.
The audience, consisting largely of medics from
20 countries, came to hear the message that science is extending
life expectancy and quality of life from leading figures in
the controversial but pioneering anti-ageing medicine industry
– Chicago-based doctors Ronald Klatz and Robert Goldman.
Hollywood actress Brigitte Nielsen arrived, saying
she wanted to get some helpful health tips and to boost her
sex life.
Unzipping her trousers to reveal a tattoo on her
hip emblazoned with “Mattia”, the name of her Italian
boyfriend, she joked: “My boyfriend is 26 years old and
I need to keep up.”
They met on April 26 and now have matching tattoos.
The 41-year-old continued: “It is important
to eat well and stay healthy and I’m here to pick up some
suggestions on how to do it because I’m not very good
at it.”
Dr Goldman, chairman of the American Academy of
Anti-Ageing Medicine and founding president of the US National
Academy of Sports Medicine, compared anti-ageing doctors with
sports doctors, saying both are trying to improve performance.
But the main difference, he argued, is that anti-ageing
doctors are driven by the desire to prevent rather than just
treat disease.
“It’s not a magic pill, potion or
quick fix,” he said.
“It is a detailed scientific approach like
in sports.”
In a speech illustrated with pictures of the bionic
woman, aged athletes and technical detail, Dr Goldman spoke
of anti-ageing medicine as a natural progression from sports
medicine and a forerunner for treatments of human enhancement
and augmentation.
In the future, genetic engineering, cloning and
miniaturisation of drugs will be part of developments to aid
the anti-ageing process, he forecast.
Synthetic skin, artificial muscles, the internet
and artificial intelligence are all hi-tech developments which
are helping to improve the quality of life and, given time,
extend life spans, he claimed.
In response to the controversy and criticism which
this scientific field has stirred up, he said: “With the
good comes change but for us it (the controversy) is worth it
because we are taking the latest technologies and moving them
forward.
“There is no limit to where we can go with
focus, determination and discussion and having our minds open
to what we are doing and where we can be.”
Posted from the Scotsman.com website
