CHICAGO, March 13 (UPI) -- A University of Illinois at Chicago professor Thursday bestowed Silver Fleece awards on the diet supplement Longevity and Clonaid, the company that claims to have cloned a human being.
Longevity is sold on the Internet by Urban Nutrition Inc. -- findlongevitynow.com. The Web site promises the product's active ingredient, 2-AEP, helps to strengthen and seal cell walls to protect takers from toxins and diseases.
S. Jay Olshansky, professor of epidemiology at the UIC School of Public Health, said there's no reason for anti-aging quackery to flourish in the face of real scientific progress.
"The anti-aging industry has been around for thousands of years," Olshansky said. "It's been documented in the scientific literature. It's been documented in historical literature. Countless billions of dollars have been spent in the pursuit of immortality and the extension of life.
"Today we have a business that is far more extensive than we have ever seen in history. One of the main reasons is the rapid aging of the baby boom cohort. We're not going to go easily into old age. They claim you can reverse aging and live 20 years longer and there's no scientific evidence whatsoever that it is currently possible with this product to slow stop or reverse aging," Olshansky said.
Olshansky said he was particularly tickled by the Web site's list of people who subscribed to Longevity's benefits -- most of whom are dead.
He presented the awards as part of a presentation at the joint Conference of the National Council on the Aging and the American Society on Aging.
The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine took issue with Olshansky's position, saying he's part of a "multi-billion dollar gerontological machine" that seeks to discredit innovative scientists. The academy said anti-aging medicine is scientifically based and documented in medical journals.
"The demographic trends of increased longevity in America and the majority of developed nations ... and wide-ranging improvements in quality of life are indisputable," the academy said. "To deny these facts offered by the new clinical medical specialty of anti-aging medicine defies basic logic."
As for picking an organization deserving of the Silver Fleece award, Olshansky said there were many to choose from. "And then Clonaid announced it had cloned a human being and we just couldn't resist," he said.
Olshansky noted a recent General Accounting Office report indicating anti-aging is a multibillion-dollar industry.
"The irony is this anti-aging quackery is surfacing at a time when science is making significant inroads," Olshansky said, citing research on the benefits of caloric restriction, gene modification and promising pharmaceuticals.
Retarding aging will be necessary in coming years.
"There's a demographic wave coming. It's going to hit in 2011," Olshansky said. "You are going to have a large number of people who are very unhappy about the fact they're growing older. We're going to see large increases in frailty and disability as a result of this massive age wave. ...
"As far as we're concerned, one of the most important ways of dealing with the oncoming age wave is to try to influence the aging process itself, slow it down and postpone the diseases and infirmities of growing older. The scientific pursuit is not just warranted, it's necessary."
