Opinion by Consumer Advocate Tim Bolen
The American Academy of Anti Aging Medicine (A4M) is celebrating its twenty year Anniversary.
Ron Klatz MD, DO and Bob Goldman Md, PhD, DO head up the 26,000 member American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M), the largest, and to my mind, most effective association of cutting-edge health care practitioners on Planet Earth. Six thousand health professionals regularly attend their Las Vegas convention, this year held at the Venetian / Palazzo Resort December 12 to 15th, 2012. They also host another event every year in Orlando, Florida, this coming year at the Gaylord Palms Resort April 11th to 13th. Then too, they hold mini-conferences all over the world – Mexico City, Dubai, China, Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia, Thailand etc. They have trained well over a hundred thousand health practitioners worldwide.
That’s right – over one hundred thousand.
A4M maintains two separate websites: www.A4m.com is about their conferences, etc., and http://www.worldhealth.net/ is about their Mission.
Years, and years ago, I had met Ron Klatz MD, casually, on several occasions, and Bob Goldman MD maybe once before the day I got a combined telephone call from them from the Chicago airport, where they were waiting for a flight to somewhere in the world. They were calling me, chuckling, about my latest newsletter, appreciating my humor about those that attack cutting-edge health care providers. And, to invite me to come to their next conference as their guest.
During the laughter generated in our first phone call a question arose, coming from Bob Goldman. He said “Who, and why, in the world would anyone be AGAINST Anti-Aging? Our goal is to increase average lifespan to 120 years or greater.” I responded that I could think of several groups that would be their instant enemies – like the people who manage Retirement Funds, for instance. They, after all, must provide an income return for all those people who invested in their Plan, and YOU, meaning A4M, were now telling them that they would be paying out for another sixty-five years. Financially, they didn’t plan for that. And then, I said, there’s the US Social Security Administration…
It got real quiet for a while.
There are, after all, those people who not only do NOT want people to live longer (except, perhaps for themselves), but want far fewer people to live at all on this planet.
So, there has always been a dilemma.
But since that first phone call there have been many, many more communications. Ron Klatz and I attended the Cancer Control Society meeting last labor Day, in Universal City, California one day, and we took Nick Gonzalez MD out to dinner that night. Nick, of course, is one of the cancer doctors featured in Suzanne Somers’ book “Knockout.” Suzanne, in the photo at the right, of course, is a featured speaker, regularly, at A4M.
What, exactly, is anti-aging?
According to the A4M Mission Statement:
The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, Inc. (“A4M”) is a not-for-profit medical society dedicated to the advancement of technology to detect, prevent, and treat aging related disease and to promote research into methods to retard and optimize the human aging process. A4M is also dedicated to educating physicians, scientists, and members of the public on anti-aging issues.
A4M believes that the disabilities associated with normal aging are caused by physiological dysfunction which in many cases are ameliorable to medical treatment, such that the human life span can be increased, and the quality of one’s life improved as one grows chronologically older. A4M seeks to disseminate information concerning innovative science and research as well as treatment modalities designed to prolong the human life span.
What is Anti-Aging Medicine:
- It is scientific. Anti-aging diagnostic and treatment practices are supported by scientific evidence and therefore cannot be branded as anecdotal.
- It is evidence-based. Anti-aging medicine is based on an orderly process for acquiring data in order to formulate a scientific and objective assessment upon which effective treatment is assigned.
- Is well-documented by peer-reviewed journals. As of this writing, the National Library of Medicine hosts more than 3,000 peer-reviewed articles on the subject of anti-aging medicine.
They have a whole webpage of interesting information about Anti-Aging. You can access by clicking here, but first an excerpt:
Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health have found that the anti-aging lifestyle can add 24.6 more years of productive lifespan. The research team found that the longest-living Americans are Asian-American women residing in Bergen County, New Jersey USA. They live longer than any other ethnic group in the United States to an average lifespan of 91.1 years. In contrast, the Harvard team found that the shortest-living Americans are Native American populations in South Dakota, despite receiving free or low-cost government provided medical care living an average lifespan of 66.5 years. A distinguishing characteristic of the Bergen County women’s longevity is that they are availing themselves of the armament of state-of-the-art biomedical technologies in advanced preventive care, including preventive screenings, early disease detection, aggressive intervention, and optimal nutrition – all of which are cornerstones of the anti-aging medical model. [“Bergen County, NJ is long in longevity,” New York Times, September 12, 2006; “Asian women in Bergen have nation’s top life expectancy,” Free Republic, September 12, 2006.]
Dr Shripad Tuljapurkar of Stanford University reported to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) that “We are on the brink of being able to extend human lifespan significantly, because we’ve got moist of the technologies we need to do it.”
But, it’s more than that…
Way more.
Ron Klatz, as some of you may already know, has a sense of humor sometimes as black and biting as mine. He is sometimes direct and sometimes inscrutable. For sure he covers up the fact that he is an idealist. When I approached him a while back about the fact that the things they teach to doctors are not, per se, really “Anti-Aging,” but apply to people of any age, even children, he just smiled and said “And, your point is?”
So, then he went on to point out that all those things they teach really do extend, and improve, life – at every level.
And, its VERY organized…
Besides very well attended conferences, they offer Fellowships, Certifications, Board Certifications, Clinical Hands-On Training, Technical and Proficiency Training in high tech medical devices like lasers, thermography, ultrasound, and new minimally invasive surgeries, including robotic surgeries.
They offer training in Cloning technologies, Stem Cells, CT and MRI total body scanning, Hyperbaric and advanced oxidative therapies.
Their speakers are a Who’s Who of cutting edge. If they are speaking, you can be sure they are at the top of their game – Nobel prize winners, top academicians, well published, and well respected in their fields. To the right, in the photo, is Ron Klatz MD, DO, giving Opening Remarks.
So, let’s get to the point…
A4M is a SERIOUS organization. More than any other, these people make a difference in the overall health care offering. It isn’t a social club. It is, in every way, a professional organization. What they offer has substance.
For example, let’s look at their The Fellowship in Anti-Aging, Regenerative and Functional Medicine (FAARM) as explained by Pamela Smith MD in a three minute video, just below:
Impressed? You should be.
And, they offer FOUR Fellowships – Anti-Aging, Aesthetic, Stem Cell, and Cancer.
Besides Fellowships they offer Certifications. Those Certifications are in (1) American Board of Anti-Aging and Regenerative Medicines (ABAARM), (2) American Board of Anti-Aging Health Practitioners (ABAAHP), (3) Brain Fitness, (4) Metabolic Cardiovascular, (5) Weight Management, (6) Skin Cancer Medicine, (7) Clinic/MedSpa, (8) Life Style Coaching, and (9) Advance Metabolic Endocrinology.
Who is this all designed for?
They have a simple webpage that answers the question “Who Should Attend A4M Events?” In short – just about anyone in health care.
I attend the A4M Las Vegas event every year. Occasionally I get to say hello to Bob or Ron as they pass, hurriedly, to their next meeting. We wave. For I’m heading to another meeting also. Days after, on the phone, we can tell each other what the other missed. It’s that busy there.
I take clients to A4M as my guests.. Why? Well, for one thing, I simply walk them through the Exhibit Hall, stopping to introduce them to various people, explaining that what they see here in this Hall will, for the most part, be mainstream medicine fifteen years from now.
And, that’s exactly what A4M is – mainstream medicine fifteen years from now. The health professionals trained here are the leaders of the new health care paradigm. Ron and Bob have pulled cutting edge health care out of the Research Centers, out of Academia, and they are putting it in clinics – right now. Over a hundred thousand so far.
Stay tuned…
Tim Bolen – Consumer Advocate