Inner-Age the future of preventative medicine

One of the persisting and difficult questions in preventative medicine is how do we “prove” to a healthy patient, that the products and protocols they are using are keeping them healthy for longer?

In a diseased patient progress can been seen by the slowing and hopefully the reversing of the disease in question. Certainly, the diseased patient is in a position to more accurately reveal if they “feel better,” as well as if they “look better.”

Until recently, nearly all the tools that were available to the “anti-aging clinic” were disease markers. Indicators of whether this-or-that problem may occur in the future. But if anti-aging medicine is really about avoiding disease, then the earliest possible detection is essential. By this rule, even disease markers may be too late.

The answers to these problems may lie in the development of what is known as “biological age measurement,” or “biomarkers” for short.

Biomarkers are measurable changes that take place in us all as we age. They cover a wide variety of measurements. Some are simple, such as the changes in eye-sight, hand grip strength or the thinning of skin. Others are more complex, such as measuring lung capacity and force or blood work to see the changes in various hormone levels.

Literally hundreds of measurements have been taken from thousands of patients over many years by Professionals from all over the world. This data collection has been undertaken by the one man clinic, the University, right up to Government sponsored research programs. This data has been used to form graphs (see figure 1 as an example), and from these graphs it is possible to extrapolate the “biological” average for the “chronological” age. Put simply it allows us to work out a true “biological age” rather than the crude ever increasing chronological age.

Why is a biological age important?

Firstly consider what has already been stated. A biological age can determine how quickly you are aging, and it can also highlight the specific areas of your body that are aging faster than others, at least faster than the average for your age group.

Armed with this information you can pinpoint your aging problems and seek to incorporate preventative action into your daily routine, whether that is changes to lifestyle, exercise regimes or by use of acupuncture, nutrition, drugs, hormones and stem cell therapies.

Undertaking another biological age assessment at a later date would then allow you and your physician to know what was working for you and what wasn’t. Targeting specific problem areas would save you time, money and allow you to enjoy the longest possible maximum health span.

The ultimate goal of a biological age programme would be to avoid the appearance of disease markers. It is estimated that between 75-90% of health care costs are consumed by degenerative diseases (which by definition are the disorders of getting older). None of us want to experience disease and it would seem that knowing and adjusting our biological age is our best hope of maximizing our healthy productive years, as well as increasing our overall life expectancy.

The development of Inner-Age

To date, actual biological age measurement has been a rather “hit-or-miss” affair. The biological age “packages” previously available to measure biological age, have only concentrated on the physiological measurements, and didn’t incorporate the biochemical changes, which meant that many of the most important markers were not measured.

Another major problem with these systems was the limitation of data the results were based on. Many of the packages operated on as little as 2000 patients data and because the data was not pooled it did nothing to improve the scope and accuracy of the field.

Efforts were made by a select group of visionary doctors to collate this data into a more comprehensive study of Biomarkers. Dr Ward Dean’s seminal work “Biological Age Measurement” provided the bench mark for all subsequent studies. Other prominent publications have included “Physical Dimensions of Aging” by Dr. Waneen Spiriduso and the; “Practical Handbook of Human Biologic Age Determination” by Dr. Arthur Balin.

[Ed.- These books and many others can be found via the IAS website under library at: http://www.antiaging-systems.com/publications/index.htm]

These groundbreaking publications drew down on the published clinical data from medical Journals, proving that there are biomarkers that can be used to estimate the specific and perhaps even the overall biological age of a patient.

These works coupled with the advancement in technology led a group of Professionals to believe that for the first time it would be possible to develop a comprehensive biological age measurement system.

After three years of extensive research a system that could be assimilated effectively into a normal clinical environment was unveiled. Inner-Age is an internet based program that incorporates over 500,000 patient’s data, comparing up to 150 physiological and biochemical levels from published clinical results. The software then generates a report which includes easy to understand colour graphics. These patented visualizations literally show which areas of the body are aging well and which areas are aging badly.

With regular testing it would be possible to determine the changes that have taken place, with the goal of course being to have all the measurements turning “green,” -to literally be biologically younger wherever possible!

Because the system is internet based not only did it automatically share data, but it could also be easily updated with the latest published information, and anyone logging on can then always benefit from the very latest data. Also being made up of a serious of easy, pain free tests that take less than 2 hours to perform it could be incorporated into any practice anywhere in the world.

The critics of anti-aging medicine have always complained that not enough is done at anti-aging clinics to assess the patient and monitor their progress. Now everything has changed, with the ability of Inner-Age to “measure-treat-measure” and demonstrably show the effectiveness of protocols and products upon the aging of the patient.

The world renowned anti-aging physician Dr. Garry Gordon realised the potential of inner-age when he commented; “The realization of Inner-Age is a giant leap forward in the establishment of anti-aging medicine as a clinical science. I believe that this system will become the foundation of anti-aging clinics everywhere.”

In a future article, we will follow a patient through an Inner-Age exam and see what is involved in this comprehensive test, and how their biological age compares to their chronological age.

If you want to find out more today, please go to:

http://www.inner-age.com

At the Inner-Age website you will discover much more, including a list of the leading anti-aging clinics around the world currently using Inner-Age.