Fountain of youth?

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?

Other article: HGH and youth