The latest edition of 'Life Extension' as once again provided me with a bounty of lols. For instance, did you know that "For the past fourteen years, the gerontological establishment has sought to persecute anti-aging physicians, anti-aging health practitioners, and the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M; www.worldhealth.net) itself, simply because they defy the prevailing model of disease-based, drug-oriented medicine"? The assaults have even included "mocking the anti-aging medical movement and its physician leaders."

Well, if theres one thing I will never, NEVER stand for, its MOCKING!

*fumes with rage*

Heres the deal, theres a whole troupe of crazies we havent dealt with much on SciBlogs yet-- The anti-aging crowd. Orac recently mentioned them a bit in response to Oprah-woo:

The article starts with the example of Suzanne Somers, whom I've mentioned before because of her belief that alternative medicine cured her of her breast cancer:

...in her books she says that she also starts each day by giving herself injections of human growth hormone, vitamin B12 and vitamin B complex...

Unfortunately, however, what Ms Somers (and anti-aging HGH peddlers) is doing is quite illegal. US Federal Statute 21 USC 333:

...prohibits knowingly distributing, or possessing with the intent to distribute, HGH for any use in humans other than the treatment of a disease or other recognized medical condition...

Not that this stops True Believer anti-aging physicians. They still prescribe it 'off label', or compare normal adult HGH levels to childrens levels, which are much higher, thus normal adult becomes low, and YAY! YOU NEED HGH!

But these stupid 'laws' are just being used to persecute anti-aging physicians:

Under the influence of the misinformation campaign contrived by the gerontological elite, US Federal Statute 21 USC Sec. 333(e) "enables a witch-hunt of [anti-aging] physicians who judiciously administer hGH therapy," when instead the statute was intended to prohibit trafficking of performance enhancing substances by non-physicians, prior to the existence of the anti-aging medical movement.

But heres where things get funny! Its cheaper for bodybuilders/power-lifters to get their drugs from Mexico, but there is a way to get legal anabolic drugs in the US. Go to an anti-aging physician, and get them to prescribe them for you. But they cant prescribe them for anti-aging. So they just run a blood test and when your rigged testosterone test comes back 'low', you get your legal HGH for anti-aging... which you are really using for bodybuilding.

ROFL!!! Oh, what a tangled web the wooers weave!

Whats even funnier (at least to me), is that anti-aging HGH is BS, but I see absolutely no reason why anabolic steroids are illegal for athletes, or just people who want to put on some muscle. Why can *I* can choose to ask a physician for invasive, potentially deadly medical procedures to make my boobs bigger, but a man who wants to take anabolic steroids to improve his looks, cant?

I mean what happens when I get sick of my breast implants? What if theyre too big? What if the doc totally Tara Reid botches them? More surgery or a life of pain and embarrassment.

What happens if I guy isnt pleased with the results of his cycle of steroids? What if he decides the side effects arent worth it? He just has to stop using steroids. The effects of anabolic steroids are reversible.

Witch hunting is going the wrong way there, Prof. Dr. Zs.-Nagy.

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