WHO IS: Ronni Sandroff writes on health and medicine for consumer magazines and pharmaceutical companies

MY LOVE IS HERE TO STAY — AND STAY
by Ronni Sandroff

The year is 2055. One hundred-year-old Boomers (1946-1955) are throwing wild birthday parties instead of drooling quietly in nursing homes. Fifty percent of all centenarians are still jogging, working, enjoying dysfunctional relationships, playing Jeopardy, and reporting for weekly gene transplants to keep their bodies wrinkle-free. Their children, of course, want to kill them. So do their children's children's children.

What's pushing us toward this "ageless society"? The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (AAAAM) for one.

Launched in 1993 with 12 physicians, the AAAAM is now 5,000 strong, and includes some of our leading gerontologists, brags founder Ronald Klatz, D.O., author of Stopping the Clock (with B. Goldman) and Growing Young on HGH.

See their site's "hot news" for the latest on lifespan doubling (in worms and fruit flies), and the biopharming of genes, transplant organs and nerve-growth therapies in cloned calves. Learn how to lead a longer, healthier life by maintaining your blood pressure below recommended levels, challenging your memory ("What is Jeopardy?"), and having more sex.

In their discussion area, e-mailers wonder how much of up-and-coming (but far-from-proven) anti-aging supplements (SOD, DHEA, growth factor) they should take. (Hint: You're not a fruit fly.) There's also an anti-aging clinic and physician locator.

Be warned: the site is relentlessly upbeat, perpetuating the myth that keeping people healthier, longer will save the health-care system. I predict that the disinherited generations will soon find better ways, like voting to:

• Up Medicare eligibility to age 99
• Decriminalize elder abuse
• Offer massive tax incentives for signing on to Dr. Kevorkian's early retirement plan.

Related Links:
(1) The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine

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