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The industry that promises a cure for ageing

By Catherine de Lange

15 September 2010

DON’T get sick, don’t get old and don’t die. These three maxims, as stated by Robert Goldman, a founding father of the anti-ageing industry, might sound a tad absurd, but they are nothing compared to many of the industry’s claims which Arlene Weintraub explores.

By medicalising the process of growing old, sellers of anti-ageing “medicine” have made fortunes based on unfounded claims, she argues. Time and again, vulnerable people are spun a yarn and relieved of their cash. Some of the stories are shocking: the case of the anti-ageing doctor who prescribed hormone supplements way above approved doses, for example.…

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