American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine

American nonprofit organization

The American Academy of Anti Aging Medicine (A4M) is a United States 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that promotes the field of anti aging medicine, and the organization trains and certifies physicians in this specialty. As of 2011, approximately 26,000 practitioners had been given A4M certificates. The field of anti aging medicine is not recognized by established medical organizations, such as the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) and the American Medical Association (AMA). The academy's activities include lobbying and public relations. The A4M was founded in 1993 by osteopathic physicians Robert M. Goldman and Ronald Klatz, and as of 2013 claimed 26,000 members from 120 countries. Several of the anti aging methods recommended by the academy have wide support among experts in the field, such as exercise and a healthy diet, but others, such as hormone treatments, do not have support from a consensus of the wider medical community. Many scientists studying aging dissociate themselves from the claims of A4M, According to MSNBC, anti aging advocates have responded to such criticism by describing it as censorship perpetrated by a conspiracy of the US government, notably the Food and Drug Administration, the AMA, and the mainstream media, motivated by competing commercial interests.

According to The New York Times, their co founder and president Ronald Klatz stated that "We're not about growing old gracefully. We're about never growing old." Writing in the 2001 issue of the journal Generations, historian Carole Haber of the University of Delaware, states that Klatz' aspirations and the rhetoric of the A4M "reflect well worn ideas and the often enunciated hopes of the past", drawing parallels with the ideas of the 19th century physiologists Charles Édouard Brown Séquard, Serge Voronoff and Eugen Steinach. Haber states that the current resurgence of these ideas may be due to their appeal to the aging Baby Boom Generation, in a culture that is focused on the ideal of youth. Haber has also discussed the strong continuities within the philosophy of the anti aging movement, writing that "For Steinach and Voronoff, as for the members of the A4M, old age was a 'grotesque' disease that could be scientifically eradicated through the correct combination of hormones, diet, and surgery." A 2006 review of anti aging medicine notes that of the researchers who are interested in this topic, the "vast majority dissociate themselves from the A4M." The Los Angeles Times states that "Many physicians, researchers and scientists, delving into the physiological aspects of human aging, view the Academy's activities with disdain, saying that the organization is an inappropriate blend of scientific and commercial interests."

The main activity of the A4M is PR and advocacy for its brand of anti aging medicine. It does this through publications, on line activity and sponsoring conferences including the World Anti Aging Congress and Exposition and the Annual World Congress on Anti Aging Medicine. The Los Angeles Times stated that the 2004 annual conference of the A4M at Las Vegas presented a mix of "scientific and technical presentations" and exhibitors selling "wrinkle creams, hair growing potions, sexual enhancement pills and hormone treatments". The review notes that these efforts at legitimization are contentious and have been rebuffed by some academic scientists who work on aging, who instead attempt to portray the A4M as "charlatans whose main goal is making money." The Times went on to note a partnership between Klatz and Goldman and a business named Market America, which sells products that promise to "slow the ageing process". However, according to a 2005 article in the Chicago Tribune, the company later pulled out of this contract. The International Journal of Anti Aging Medicine (IJAAM) was another periodical published by the A4M. According to Ulrich's Periodicals Directory, IJAAM was published by Total Health Holdings, LLC from 1998 to 2001, on behalf of the A4M. The contents of the International Journal of Anti Aging Medicine have been strongly criticised. In a 2002 letter published in Science, Aubrey de Grey described them as consisting of a set of advertisements for a "pseudoscientific anti aging industry". According to Bruce Carnes of the University of Oklahoma: Robert Binstock of Case Western Reserve University stated in 2004 that this periodical is a "nonrefereed publication".