When a lot of people first hear the term “anti-aging,” more often than not, they think about Botox, implants, and plastic surgeons. Which, in some cases might be accurate but more so aesthetic medicine than anti-aging. However, when it comes to anti-aging medicine more appropriate associated terms could be longevity, preventive, life extending, alternative.

Anti-aging doesn’t necessarily mean taking pills and injections to look and feel younger, it’s about a lifestyle change. A healthy lifestyle not only keeps one looking young and feeling great, it waves off age related diseases like diabetes, heart disease, dementia and Alzheimer’s. Going for a walk instead of watching TV, having a serving of veggies instead of fries, and spending more time with friends and family could cut inches from your waist, add years to your life, and keep you off any unwanted emotional down spirals. Anti-aging also means researching ways to prevent or halt age related diseases in their tracks.

The anti-aging medical model aims to both extend lifespan as well as prolong health span- the length of time that we are able to live productively and independently.

Of course, some of the science aspects to anti-aging medicine may at times, get controversial with topics involving stem cell research and gene mutation, so on and so forth. So, as we see, anti-aging has a broad spectrum of associated ideas that are scientific, evidence-based and well-documented by peer-reviewed journals. There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to “what is anti-aging?”