So anyone care to guess how old this man is? Really, take a guess. This physician, named Jeffrey Life is 69 years old! Do you call this fit or obsessed with youth?
Dr. Life is the chief medical officer at Cenegenics Medical Institute, a clinic in Las Vegas that specializes in "age management." In order to achieve a body like this, Dr. Life and patients like him have changed their diets drastically, exercised more, injected themselves daily with low dose human growth hormone and have given themselves weekly testosterone injections.
And for what? Well, they say it isn't about appearance but to live a longer, healthier life. And the expense of this "hormone therapy" is more than $1,000/month! The proponents of this anti-ageing theory--good nutrition, supplements,, and balance of hormones, say that this allows them to stay biologically younger. They claim that their cholesterol, lipids, libido, energy level, immune system, and memory all improve by this regimen.
However, this hormone therapy is not without its critics. Some physicians feel that there is a risk of diabetes and cancer while others feel quite the opposite. In recent years, HGH has been studied in various capacities. (pubmed)
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This whole obsession with youth isn't really that new. There is cosmetic surgery which has steadily increased in years with nearly 11 million performed in 2006. Breast augmentation topped the list, followed by nose jobs, and liposuction. Teen bariatric surgery has also tripled in recent years, according to this article. Though age is still controversial, there have been teenagers as young as 12 who underwent the procedure.
Then, there is the Calorie Restriction Society, individuals who feel that by reducing their calories, they will live longer and be healthier. This too has its controversies, though there have been a few animal studies demonstrating calorie restriction with longer life. It's still uncertain in humans, but this group is willing to be those guinea pigs despite the fact that one of their gurus still died at around 79 years of age which is not an astonishing feat. By the way, I recently saw a recipe book for living like a Cronie, that's their term. The book's recipe had like no real food in it--just mostly veggies seasoned in a variety of ways with occasional meat thrown in.
So where does this put us? Really obsessed and spending so much money! Where and when does it end? We are only teaching our youth that we need to be beautiful, thin, and young-looking at any cost.
Question: What's your opinion about the process of aging? Should we be trying to manipulate ourselves to eternalize youth? Would you subject yourself to hormone therapy at the possibility of staying youthful?
I stumbled upon this article the other day about what some are calling a new "beauty machine." Researchers at the Tel Aviv University have created software which "turns a picture of an ordinary face into that of a cover model" by just a click of a mouse.
According to Prof. Daniel Cohen Beauty, the lead researcher,"contrary to what most people think, is not simply in the eye of the beholder. With the aid of computers, attractiveness can be objectified and boiled down to a function of mathematical distances or ratios."
The professor says the main difference between this "machine" and the normal everyday photoshop programs is that that the images are more subtle, still retaining similarities to the original picture.
I guess I'm not seeing how "new" this is since the mathematical idea of aesthetics and beauty have been theorized in many different forms. The most well known is the "golden ratio" theory, though it is a bit inconclusive.
In my opinion, I don't know whether this is a good or bad thing. We already have enough problems with the implications of airbrushed and digital images as it is. Do we really need another one, even if it is subtle?
Hats off to Dr. Deb for posting this on her blog. This video called "Doll Face" by Andrew Huang, a director, animator, and artist in Los Angelos, is very interesting. The opinions from you tube viewers were various. Some said this piece was beautiful, amazing, powerful, incredible, sad. Others said it was creepy, eerie, haunting. I think it could be described as any of these terms. Personally, I think it's a thought provoking work with a great message.
I was browsing NPR today, looking for a story that I heard on NPR this morning. Unfortunately, I could not find the story. It was to do with Abercrombie and Fitch and how they strategically place "more beautiful" retailers up front. They say it is for sales purposes only and that many stores do this. I was curious if stores really do this? Anyway, it reminded me of the Olympic opening ceremonies with the little girl lip syncing to the song of the girl actually singing who was backstage since she just wasn't cute enough for public.
I also came across 30 second clip about the Miss Sister 2008 beauty contest being nixed on NPR. Reverend Antonio Rungi wanted to change the old stereotype that nuns were cranky and old, so he came up with a beauty contest online. The nuns would have a profile with a bio and a picture dressed in traditional attire, then people would vote online. After much outcry from the public, Reverend Rungi has decided not to have the beauty contest. In this article Rungi said "that contestants would not wear swimsuits or revealing outfits because it was inner beauty that counted.." Then the very next sentence is, "'We are not going to parade nuns in bathing suits. But being ugly is not a requirement for becoming a nun. External beauty is gift from God, and we mustn't hide it."
While I agree with Rungi that any woman, no matter what their external appearance can be a nun, for some reason, holding a beauty contest seems contradictory. If it is really about "inner beauty," then ideally, there should be no photos of the nuns at all with only their bios. I just find it interesting how the whole concept has even reached this mass of people. Is it simply trying to change their stereotype or is it based on culture?
So anyone care to guess how old this man is? Really, take a guess.
