ESAAM today

 

The rapid progress of the past three decades has led to the geroscience field

near a point where human interventions in aging are plausible

“Computational tools for geroscience” (Joseph C.P. Kruempel;  www.keaipublishing.com/TMA).

Foundations

It has been about 30 years since the advent of the term Anti-Age medicine and the creation of the first community of the American Academy of Anti-aging Medicine (A4M) in the USA (A4M.com). During this time, more than 26 thousand people became members of the Academy and about 65 thousand specialists attended its courses. This largest organization in the world became an example for many other countries and the first association in Europe was formed in 2003 as the European branch of A4M.

One of the leading French specialists in the field of aesthetic medicine, a doctor of endocrinology Professor Jean-Jacques Legrand, stood at the roots of its creation. He was also one of the founders of International Union of Aesthetic medicine in 1973 (aestheticmedicinejournal.org). Later he became an Honorary President of the European Association of Preventive, Regenerative and Anti-Aging Medicine which was registered in 2006 in Vienna, Austria as ESAAM.

Leading European experts played a significant role in the development of ESAAM. Among them are Prof. Michael Klentze (Germany), Prof. Christos Zouboulis (Germany), Prof. Damiano Galimberti (Italy), Dr. Michael Papacharalambous (Greece), Dr. Ghislaine Beilin (France), Dr. Jean-Pierre Naim (Switzerland), Prof. Cimen Karasu (Turkey). Over the past years, their contribution allowed to found the new European community, hold 10 European Conferences and Congresses, to form a program of educational courses; to establish partnerships with leading European magazines in Longevity field – “Rejuvenation Research”, “Aging Research Review”, “Mechanism of Aging and development” and “Biogerontology”; to arrange National associations for Anti-Age medicine in most European countries (Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Switzerland, Great Britain, Russia, Armenia, Latvia, etc). This new wellness and healthy aging philosophy made a foundation for the new commercial projects in the field of anti-age SPA, Medical fitness, Anti-age Beauty Institutes and Multidisciplinary Clinics. Several projects in this area had been initiated and successfully realised by the medical experts of ESAAM: “Orthobiotiki Center” in Athens (www.orthobiotiki.gr), “Aura Medical Clinic” in Prague (www.auraclinic.cz), “Preventive Medicine Clinic Dr. Mario Krause” in Hannover (www.dzip.de), “Lancette” in Gelendzhik (www.cliniclancette.ru) and “Tree of Life” in St. Petersburg (www.antiagingclinic.ru), Elena Baranova Clinic in Monaco (www.baranovamonaco.com).

Outside Europe the most successful results of cooperation between fundamental science and clinical medicine were demonstrated by Japan Anti-Aging Medicine Association JAAM. It was created in 2003 and now has more than eight thousand members. The activity of JAAM is based on multidisciplinary approach and new philosophy of social positioning of Anti-Age medicine in the society as “Uni-Age”, an anti-age medicine without age restrictions (www.anti-aging.gr.jp).

Challenges

Despite its popularity in the world of aesthetic medicine, the term “anti-age medicine” is still considered to be controversial among the scientific community.

  1. The clinical community is sceptical about the reliability of technologies, methods and products used in this field. This attitude comes from the requirements of evidence-based medicine and perspectives of widespread adoption of such technologies in clinical practice.
  2. During the past 15 years in the European development of anti-aging medicine, such issues as the development of clinical guidelines for medical practice and the standardization of technologies and methods have not been resolved.
  3. Perhaps, the biggest challenge is the low level of involvement of population in even the most developed countries, in the active care of their health and the desire to entrust it to doctors in the absence of severe pain symptoms.

The question is – do we have a chance to improve this situation and find a compromise between the requirements of official regulatory medical organizations, the interests of the mass product industries and personal approach for the prevention and treatment of age-related diseases; the desire of the population for healthy active longevity and the interest of the official bodies to minimize the costs associated with an aging population and the prevention of chronic age-related diseases?   

The future of anti-age medicine

In the next 5 years ESAAM aims to shift in focus to the methods of early prevention of chronic age-related diseases, standardization of regenerative technologies and personalized interventions for wellbeing lifestyle. The key words of this Road map are: geroscience (www.afar.org), translational medicine (www.keaipublishing.com/TMA) and digital aging (www.icarboux.com/en/). ESAAM wishes to achieve the following within this period of time:

  1. The main vector of Anti-Age medicine should be the integration of advanced achievements of the fundamental sciences (biogerontology, physiology and adaptology, system biology, microbiology, immunology and genetics) with a new health care paradigm of preventive and regenerative medicine on the pre-clinical stages.
  2. Creation of an open access Data Base for aging biomarkers and interventions to evaluate the effectiveness of new products and technologies for personal use during different age periods.
  3. A standardization of methods, parameters and ranges of risks in molecular and clinical laboratory studies of biomarkers;
  4. Development of a telemedicine platform for communication between doctors and patients for monitoring the parameters of physiological and laboratory studies and managing the risks of developing chronic age-related diseases;
  5. Development and adoption of an educational program for advanced training of doctors of various clinical specialties with an emphasis on methods and technologies of preventive and personalized medicine;
  6. Formation of basic requirements for design, ecology, technology and methodology principles for future Pilot Centers of Anti-Age clinics;
  7. Definition of requirements for the certification of Clinics, technologies, products and services in the field of anti-aging medicine;
  8. Development of protocols for the organization of preclinical studies of new products, methods and equipment for the formation of a “gold standard” database of anti-age medicine;
  9. Coordination of efforts with leading specialized analytical Agencies in the field of Longevity and anti-aging medicine;
  10. Formation of joint expert commissions with the leading world associations in the field of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M, JAAMA, WOSIAM) for the unification of the methods, technologies and practical guidelines.

To realise this road map ESAAM is organised with a new functional structure, new headquarter in Athens (Greece) in the premises of pilot Anti-Age “Orthobiotiki Clinic”, high rank and globally recognised scientists in the Advisory and Scientific Committees, pioneers in the practical creation and management of novel Anti-Age Clinics in the Medical Committee.

Functional structure