From The Chicago Tribune

June 2009 | Chicago Tribune

Article presented to physicians group at Chicago meeting
By Bruce Japsen
Tribune reporter

The American Medical Association is taking on a segment of the $50 billion "anti-aging" industry that promotes the use of hormones as a treatment for consumers to slow or reverse the aging process.

In a report presented Sunday in Chicago to a committee of the AMA's 543-member policymaking House of Delegates, the AMA Council on Science and Public Health calls into question claims made by for-profit Web sites, anti-aging clinics and other businesses promoting hormones as anti-aging treatments.

"Despite the widespread promotion of hormones as anti-aging agents by for-profit Web sites, anti-aging clinics and compounding pharmacies, the scientific evidence to support these claims is lacking," the council said in its report.

The nation's largest physicians group says it currently has no policy on anti-aging. But several specialty groups of physicians testified Sunday on the lack of scientific evidence to support anti-aging benefits. In addition, doctors worry about potential dangers of using hormones as anti-aging treatments.

"People want a fountain of youth, and it doesn't exist," Dr. John McGill of Bangor, Maine, who testified before the committee as an AMA delegate from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, said in an interview.

Take Boca Raton, Fla.-based BodyLogicMD, which links consumers to a network of more than 30 physicians across the country for anti-aging treatments that include use of "bioidentical hormones" that are derived from plants and mixed or blended by pharmacies.

On its Web site, BodyLogicMD touts bioidentical hormone treatments from "anti-aging physicians." It also headlines its medical services as "The Time is Now," running a companion quote from the late actress Mae West that reads: "You're never too old to become younger."

BodyLogicMD defends its treatments, saying the physicians in its network are educated and trained to know what they are doing. And the pharmacies that compound the treatments are regulated by states.

"I don't tell my patients they can stay young with this stuff. I tell them they can maintain optimal health," Dr. Jennifer Landa, chief medical officer of BodyLogicMD, said in a telephone interview.

Landa said BodyLogicMD's services involve meetings with physicians and that consumers are not allowed to order medications directly from the Internet.

AMA delegates attending this week's meeting say they want to call the public's attention to potential health risks in a burgeoning industry.

Although the number of anti-aging agents is so vast that the council said it was "impossible" to list them in a single report, the group estimates the U.S. market alone is $50 billion annually.

"This report should be widely disseminated so the public and physicians have access to information," McGill said. "You need to conduct trials which prove the efficacy and safety of these products as you would with any other medication."

BodyLogicMD's perspective: All consumers/patients know - it's up to them to find the most highly qualified doctor for whatever the case might be. I am very privileged to be working with who I consider the very best in physicians specializing in bioidentical hormone treatments, as well as the best lab partners and compounding pharmacists in this field.

I look forward to the AMA opening a further dialog with the experts in this field of medicine. And I hope that Mr. Japsen's opinion that "the AMA has lost some of its clout in recent years" is not a future forecast of its importance.

Read the rest of Patrick Savage's response to this article. Savage is the President of BodyLogicMD.