Is There a Need for Scientific Education in the Aging Field?

The ambition and efforts to maintain youth and, at least, to control aging are long established in human culture. Human immortality was a central theme in a Babylonian legend about the king Gilgamesh who ruled southern Mesopotamia in about 3000 B.C. In the 3rd century B.C., Taoists developed a systematic program aiming at prolonging life in China. ¹ Indeed, diverse antiaging approaches have been propagated through the centuries of civilization. Some of them belonged to alchemy, others confronted the valid ethics of their time. Many of them could easily be considered nowadays as charlatanism, and others, although resembling reasonable and scientific, lack any evidence of effectiveness. Grafts, extracts, cell injections, consumption of elixirs, topical compounds, drugs, hormones, dietary supplements, specific foods, certain restrictive diets, cryonics and rejuvenation from devices, and exposure to various substances, such as mineral and thermal springs, have been proposed and practiced with disputable results. ^2,3

In the entrance of the 3rd millennium, we are witnessing an unprecedented rapid expansion of the population of elderly people. ⁴ Reasons other than the so-called “antiaging treatments,” and despite the cumulating environmental pollution, have increased life expectancy at a rate of about three months per year since the 19th century. Such a rapid and ubiquitous change has never occurred in the history of civilization. Among multiple challenges, our society has to deal with important socioeconomic, political, and health-economic consequences, and particularly with the maintenance of the quality of life of aging people. It is well established that the prevalence of many chronic and degenerative diseases increases with advancing age, probably because of long-term exposure to exogenous factors. ⁵ Nowadays, physicians have to confront with age-associated diseases, which were almost unknown some centuries ago. This fact has modified antiaging and rejuvenation strategies, which mostly target the sustaining of health in elderly, the so-called “healthy aging,” combined with a good quality of life. The historian Gerald Gruman has termed this target “prolongevity;” a significant extension of average human life expectancy and/or maximum life span without extending suffering and infirmity. ³

On the other hand, antiaging procedures flourish today as commercial and clinical enterprises that offer antiaging products, regimens, and treatments, and research efforts of scientists, who study the biology of aging. Antiaging has become a standard part of international conferences. However, a large number of “serious” scientists still avoid the field because they assume it dangerous for their reputation, both being “not yet serious enough” and, in the public perception, as something simultaneously seductive and desirable, yet also transgressive, suspicious, antimoral, and even dangerous. ⁶ However, the field of antiaging research is not only tinged with questions about the moral transgressions of interfering with the “natural” process of aging but also has emerged from a tainted history where the science itself was considered marginal and without much merit. ⁷ This history has conflated questions about whether we should pursue antiaging interventions and whether we can control aging. ⁸ Because of these questions, the field is still somewhat mired by its historically marginal and forbidden status, despite its recognition by large funding agencies and others as a now reputable and cutting-edge area of research. ⁷ In contrast to this cloudy situation, peer-reviewed research is emerging, with the skin currently been discovered as the mirror of the body. ^9,10 Skin aging research covers all fields, from molecular biology to clinical and therapeutic aspects. ^{11 –24}

It is obvious that what we need is a wide public education in the emerging field of aging. ²⁵ The European Society of Preventive, Regenerative and Anti-Aging Medicine (ESAAM) is a medical and scientific interdisciplinary umbrella organization with the main objective being the dissemination of knowledge about preventive, regenerative, and antiaging medicine throughout Europe. Its members are a wide range of organizations and single physicians and medical professionals, all keen to learn the latest research, share ideas, and discover the latest technologies in this field. Since its inauguration in 2004, ESAAM has encouraged the new clinical specialties of preventive and regenerative medicine and antiaging science, and the continuous education of physicians on these medical disciplines. The ESAAM disseminates knowledge in the respective fields by organizing the European Congresses on Preventive, Regenerative and Anti-Aging Medicine (ECOPRAM), publishing the ESAAM bulletin, and being involved in the publication of “Rejuvenation Research,” its official scientific journal. ECOPRAM are biannual events, with a comprehensive program ensuring the coverage of all components of preventive, regenerative, and antiaging medicine, representing a significant milestone for the European medical and healthcare community.

One of the activities of ESAAM is the current issue of “Rejuvenation Research,” which includes articles presented at the 4th Conference of the ESAAM in cooperation with the Hellenic Society of Dermatologic Surgery, October 30–31, 2015, in Athens, Greece. The conference has been supported by the Department of Dermatology, Andreas Syggros Hospital, the National Kapodistria University of Athens. I am indebted to Dr. Zois Polizois, President of the Hellenic Society of Dermatologic Surgery, for the excellent cooperation between our societies, and to Prof. Dr. Christina Antoniou, Department of Dermatology, Andreas Syggros Hospital, University of Athens, for her enthusiastic support. I also cordially thank Dr. Aubrey de Grey for the opportunity to publish this work in Rejuvenation Research and the journal staff for the impeccable publication procedure.