An investigative series on anti-aging medicine by Brian Alexander of MSNBC is highly critical of the anti-aging industry. Alexander has interviewed a few academics to reinforce the skeptical overview of the industry suggesting the industry is more about financial profiteering than health optimization (”Mainstream docs join anti-aging bandwagon,” April 21).
Dr. Thomas Perls, a Boston University researcher who studies centenarians (people who live at least 100 years), and a vociferous critic of the anti-aging industry, argues that while some anti-aging practitioners “may have their hearts in the right place … in my mind the whole anti-aging practice has so many problems of ethical and professional misconduct. These practices are selling medicines and substances at great profit with very little in the way of clinical studies to support what they are doing.”
Dr. Perls has a long history of trying to discredit the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M) and to eliminate the distribution of human growth hormone for anti-aging purposes that resulted in legal action against Perls by the founders of A4M.
The answers to the science questions can be complicated, but the motivations of some doctors to enter the anti-aging world are not. Dr. Arnold Relman, a former editor of The New England Journal of Medicine who is now a professor emeritus of medicine and social medicine at Harvard Medical School, believes “the interest in anti-aging practice is mainly based on economic considerations” by physicians who are looking to boost income.
Alexander is troubled by the extreme commercialization of the anti-aging industry as seen at anti-aging conventions (”Selling longer life – or snake oil?” April 18).
Indeed, there is no better place to witness the truism of the phrase “hope springs eternal” — and perhaps “there’s a sucker born every minute” — than an anti-aging convention, especially on the trade show floor where the latest products and services are hawked.
At the 15th Annual World Congress on Anti-Aging and Regenerative Biomedical Technologies in Las Vegas, held under the auspices of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M), dozens of businesses set up displays to market everything from horny goat weed dietary supplements to wands containing dirt that supposedly align water molecules so the H2O will get into your cells…
Dr. Ronald Klatz takes exception to attempts at discrediting the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M) based on vendor booths and dubious products advertised at the convention.
In an interview, Dr. Ronald Klatz, co-founder, with Dr. Bob Goldman, of A4M, said he gets annoyed when reporters wander the booths of an A4M event and use the sketchy claims and flimsy science of fringe products to attack the credibility of A4M or anti-aging in general.
“This exhibit hall is constantly being mistaken for the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine,” he said. “But that is just the exhibit hall. That is where advertising, lotions, potions, lasers, X-ray equipment, plastic surgery equipment are being sold. That is an exposition. That is advertising! Then there is the scientific conference. That is where the real science is going on and real clinical medicine is being taught.”
The investigative series reveals that the founders of A4M, Dr. Ronald Klatz and Dr. Bob Goldman, have a conflict of interest with the scientific agenda of A4M since they have financial interests in the very products (e.g. Arasys Perfector) and services (Regenerco) advertised at the associated convention.
But distancing A4M from the kinds of products and services offered at the exposition is somewhat disingenuous. Klatz, Goldman and the company that organizes the meeting itself, Tarsus Group PLC, are deeply involved in some of these same kinds of businesses.
Regenerco, for example, is a Klatz and Goldman company seeking to “offer, at a reasonable cost, high-quality, multi-screened vital pathogen-free stem cells originating from umbilical cords and placentas of healthy, live-births, or autologous [genetically identical] adult stem cells from peripheral blood collection.” It promises to use such cells as an anti-aging therapy and has made a deal with a resort developer in Indonesia, PT Hanno Bali, to be the exclusive stem cell distributor for anti-aging resorts serviced by yet another company called One Life +.
The Arasys Perfector is being funded with up to $500,000 from a firm called CapRegen PLC, a publicly traded regenerative medicine investment company based in the United Kingdom. CapRegen’s founders? Klatz, Goldman and Tarsus Group.
Do the commercial ambitions of the founders of A4M jeopardize the scientific agenda of A4M? What do you think?
Prosecutors have re-opened the case of anti-aging doctor Ramon Scruggs in an effort to find more baseball players who have used anabolic steroids (”Inquiry Into Doctor May Link Players to Drugs,” March 12). In June 2004, Dr. Scruggs was formally accused of prescribing steroids and ancillary medications without justification over the internet to patients who he did not physically examine. He settled his case with the State of California in August 2006.
In the settlement, Scruggs agreed the state could prove the charges and accepted a $4,800 fine and 35 months of probation: during that time he is required to have an outside monitor, take various courses and cease prescribing over the Internet. The settlement was agreed to in August 2006 and took effect in March 2007.
Dr. Scruggs prescribed steroids to professional baseball players Troy Glaus and Scott Schoeneweis in 2003 and 2004. In the fall of 2007, this information was leaked to the media by the office of District Attorney David Soares which is leading the investigation of the steroid scandal involving Signature Pharmacy.
It appears that the federal government is mounting a case against Applied Pharmacy Services (APS) based in Mobile, Alabama. APS has been target of a federal probe for several years although no one has yet been charged with a crime.
However, in court documents provided to MESO-Rx indicate federal investigators believe APS was part of a conspiracy to distribute anabolic steroids:
[A]n illegal conspiracy to dispense and distribute anabolic steroids, which are Schedule III controlled substances, human growth hormone (HGH) and other drugs, outside the usual course of professional medical practice.
The alleged conspiracy includes Applied Pharmacy Services, Inc. with Samuel Kelley and Jason Kelley identified as major shareholders involved in the day-to-day operations of the pharmacy.
Also named in the conspiracy is Brett Branch, an APS sales rep and owner of Infinite Health in Eaton, Colorado. Brett Branch is accused of recruiting local physicians to write steroid prescriptions for customers of his clinic as well as recruiting customers from gyms around Eaton, Colorado; Branch also allegedly received commissions on each steroid prescription dispensed to customers of Infinite Health. Colorado physicians identified include Kenneth Olds, M.D., Kelly Tucker, M.D. and Scott Corliss, M.D. Dr. Tucker subsequently invested in Infinite Health to become a co-owner with Branch.
A raid on APS in December 2006 originated with Albany District Attorney David Soares. However, the federal investigation and alleged conspiracy charges are separate from the New York state investigation.
