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Youthfulness an American Obsession - At What Cost?

“There’s no doubt that the celebration of youth and looking younger has certainly accelerated in the last 10 years, five years even,” Wood says. “And this is a generation that’s growing up with that at a very young age.”

The effect has been palpable, says Neil Howe, a respected generational expert who has written extensively about “millennials,” young people who are coming of age in this century.

“I guess even young isn’t enough anymore,” Howe says. “It’s got to be ‘perfect’ young.”

Alex Sabbag, a 23-year-old Chicagoan, has felt the pressure, both self-imposed and societal.

“I’ll age until I’m 25. Then I’m over it,” she said to co-workers during a lunchroom conversation that turned to the topic of Botox.

She was only partly serious. But she says she’s also accepted that we live in a society where being well put-together and youthful gives you status.

“We all buy into it,” Sabbag says. And plastic surgery and other cosmetic procedures are part of it.

She’s never had anything done, though wouldn’t rule it out in the future. She also vividly recalls how her mother left home for several days, when Sabbag was in elementary school, and returned after having a facelift.

Dr. Jeffry Life when he was 67, after being on the Cenegenics program for about two years. Life, the chief medical officer at Cenegenics, will be 70 this Christmas day. (Source: AP)

“I think it gives women and men alike worlds of confidence that ultimately makes them better people,” Sabbag says. “Yes, it is a vain practice … but I think there comes a point for people when hard work isn’t enough to kick the last bit of belly fat or gravity has become entirely too unbeatable, and so a little nip-tuck of the forehead needs to happen.”

Detwiler, Life’s patient at Cenegenics, is not looking for the appearance of youth. He’s looking to extend his youthfulness, and his life.

He knows about human growth hormone and its controversies in sports. But this, he and his doctor insist, is different. While it is illegal for these kinds of hormones to be dispensed for anti-aging purposes, he takes relatively low doses prescribed for “hormone deficiency.” The idea is to bring his levels back up to those of a young man in his 20s.

“My friends say, ‘Oh, Ed’s on steroids,’” says Detwiler, who has watched as muscle has replaced fat on his belly and elsewhere. “No, I’m not. Look at me. Do I look like I’m on steroids?”

He holds out his arms to indicate that his body is fit-looking, but not monstrous. “I’m not. I’m on hormone therapy,” he says of a regimen that costs him more than $1,000 a month.

Besides human growth hormone, testosterone, and an adrenal hormone known as DHEA, his diet now largely consists of things like hard-boiled eggs, fruits, nuts, Greek yogurt, salads and palm-sized pieces of fish, chicken or low-fat beef. He also exercises regularly, alternating between intense cardio workouts and weight-resistance training.

“I can’t tell you in words how great I feel,” says the man who used to crack open a Pepsi to get him through the day.

For a group known as the Calorie Restriction Society, youthfulness isn’t found in hormones. It’s reducing food intake to, in some cases, near-starvation levels.

But the claims are much the same — “lots of energy” and feeling “sharp,” says Brian Delaney, a 45-year-old California-born writer now living in Sweden. He’s the president of the group that claims about 2,000 members worldwide and many more followers who use the method in hopes of markedly increasing their longevity.

By cutting daily calories to about 1,900, roughly half the recommended amount for someone his height and age, and exercising every day, Delaney has shrunk himself to about 140 pounds. He says his blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels have improved dramatically.