"We've been down this path with other hormones," Perls says. "We looked at DHEA and melatonin and found they don't do anything to prevent aging. Now we're fighting the use of HGH, which is basically anabolic steroids, but those injecting it don't call it that."
"People think if you simply inject a substance that wanes with age, all will be well again, and it just isn't so," Olshansky says. Replacing hormones has been something physicians have been trying for centuries to promote virility, youth and longevity. The concept has proven over and over again to be false, and sometimes detrimental.
Mehmet Oz
(1960 - **)
The longevity guru du jour, Mehmet Oz is a cardiac surgeon . and the director of the Cardiovascular Institute at Columbia University Medical Center in New York. He's also the power behind RealAge.com, a website that invites visitors to learn how their birth age stacks up against their "real age." He's also the author of several books with Dr. Michael Roizen, including "YOU: The Owner's Manual: An Insider's Guide to the Body That Will Make You Healthier and Younger."
A telegenic media personality, Oz often appears on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" wearing scrubs and touting ways to achieve optimal health and "extreme longevity." He declares that people living today can reach age 125, "without any question."
The verdict: Though the public loves his optimistic views on longevity, scientists in the field are less charitable.
"Oz mistakenly assumes we all have the potential to live as long as the longest-lived person, and that's not true. He doesn't understand the difference between preventing disease and aging," Olshansky says.
However, researchers do give Oz points for his RealAge Test, an online questionnaire that has visitors enter information about their genes, health issues and lifestyles, to determine their age score. "I'm all for any education tool that provides an interesting way to get the public thinking about healthier behaviors," Perls says. "Most of what's on his site is backed by good science."
The site has received criticism, most notably from the New York Times, for sharing visitors' medical profiles with pharmaceutical companies for marketing purposes.
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health@latimes.com
