Center promotes good health

      When the Spaniard Ponce de Leon explored Florida from 1513-1521, he was doing more than exploring the New World. De Leon was convinced the mysterious, humid, alligator-infested land held the elusive "fountain of youth:" a magical place that could render a man immortal by just drinking its water.
      Since the time of de Leon, people all over the globe have been searching for their own "fountain of youth" trying to cheat death and discover the secret to immortality.
      Cenegenics Anti-Aging Center, located in the Sir Williams Business Court at 851 S. Rampart Blvd., doesn't promise youth or immortality. However, the business hopes to offer a measure of better health, and perhaps a youthful feeling, through optimal nutrition and exercise training.
      "We don't promise the 'fountain of youth' or that you'll get younger by participating in our program," said John E. Adams, co-founder of Cenegenics. "What we are accomplishing with hormone therapy is youthful aging. We want our patients to feel as young as they possibly can for their age."
      At the center of the Cenegenics program is the latest in anti-aging medicine technology: hormone therapy.
      A breakthrough in treating aging occurred in 1990, when Dr. Daniel Rudman of the University of Wisconsin Medical College released the results of a two-year study on hormone therapy's apparent ability to slow aging.
      Rudman treated men and women for deficient amounts of progesterone, testosterone and human-growth hormone. All three hormones, progesterone in women and testosterone in men and human-growth hormone in both sexes, decrease in adults as they age.
      Rudman added hormone supplements to the patients' diets and started them on exercise regimens.
      His findings concluded adults treated with hormone therapy felt younger, stronger and healthier. With the supplements, the patients' levels of the hormones reached levels characteristic of people in their late 20s or early 30s. Research shows hormone production typically slows after age 30.
      Later studies, including one by Cenegenics' Dr. L. Cass Terry, seemed to corroborate Rudman's idea that hormone therapy could slow visible aging.
      The only side effects reported from Rudman's survey were minor ailments, such as carpal tunnel syndrome and some body swelling. The studies show side effect reports have come from people who took more than the prescribed amounts of hormones, typically athletes using the supplements to enhance their performance.
      With this research in mind, Cenegenics opened for business in December 1997.
      Dr. Alan P. Mintz, chief executive officer of Cenegenics, said his septuagenarian mother inspired him to start the business.
      "She had such energy and vigor at her age that I never forgot that," Mintz said. "I decided to look further into anti-aging medicine and research, because I felt it was now possible for people to remain vigorous late in life."
      Mintz, 59, who received his anti-aging certification from the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, and Adams, 33, are not only proponents of hormone therapy, they're patients. They've been on the hormone therapy plan for three and two years, respectively. Meanwhile, both are avid weight lifters. Mintz won the 1996 Amateur Athletic Union Mr. Illinois Grand Master Division bodybuilding championship.
      Not shabby for a man approaching 60.
      "I wouldn't be in this business if I didn't believe in the program myself," Mintz said. "I feel better today than I have since I was around 35-40 years old."
      The Cenegenics program costs approximately $500-$1,700 per month, depending on the amount of hormones needed, and is not covered by insurance.
      "This is considered a wellness program," Adams said. "The insurance business is based on sickness, not wellness, so it is not currently covered."
      The Cenegenics program begins with the patient having blood drawn. The blood work is a comprehensive test given to find hormone levels.
      Once the blood work is completed, patients are evaluated in the Cenegenics MedBACE testing center here in Las Vegas. MedBACE is a diagnostic test and consultation with the Cenegenics staff, which includes a physician, care coordinator and fitness and nutrition counselor. The eight hours of testing measures physical strength, hand-eye reaction time, bone mass and body fat.
      "The entire approach we take here is scientific," said Mintz, a retired board-certified radiologist and former adjunct professor at the Center for Cardiovascular Research at Northeastern Illinois University. "Our approach is based on diagnostic tests, which then form the baseline from which we mark progress."
      The lab tests and diagnostic results are then used to develop a tailor-made program for that specific Cenegenics patient.
      "Each one of our patients has different needs," Mintz said. "All the testing we do during the MedBACE process tells us what the patient needs in the way of hormone replacement."
      Once on the hormone therapy, diet and exercise program, patients return to Cenegenics at one-month, three-month, six-month and one-year intervals, to let doctors evaluate their progress.
      According to Mintz, the typical patient encounters increased sexual function, less fatigue, increased exercise stamina and better mental function.
      No Cenegenics patients were willing to comment on the program.
      While all hormones prescribed at Cenegenics have been researched and developed by reputable pharmaceutical houses, only the human-growth hormone has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in growth hormone-deficient adults.
      Dr. Ronald Klatz, president of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, said the Cenegenics approach is based on good research.
      "Treatment of aging with growth hormone as well as other hormones is on the cutting edge of medicine technology," Klatz said. "The numbers are good and hormone therapy has proved to be effective."
      Opponents of hormone therapy say long-term effects of hormone therapy are unknown because the longest study ran two years. Those opponents say more time is needed to fully judge the effectiveness of hormone therapy.
      The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine is the only group to certify physicians in the new field. American Medical Association certification has not come about yet, but Mintz is confident it will eventually happen.
      "The medical field can sometimes move slowly," Mintz said. "I'm confident that eventually they will begin certifying doctors using hormone therapy."
      The typical Cenegenics patient is between 40 and 60 years old and lives outside Las Vegas. The company said it currently has about 60 patients.