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Is fighting aging your top health priority? Many of us have come to rely on anti-aging beauty products and food supplements, sometimes without the approval of our doctors. Some, meanwhile, would even undergo all sorts of surgery and Botox just to look younger.


If you seek the fountain of youth, too, you might want to consider longevity medicine, a new field that focuses on neutralizing age accelerators. In the Philippines, such treatments are offered by the Asian Institute of Longevity Medicine (AILM), an institute that partners with stem cell researchers and regenerative medicine organizations in Germany and Austria to help people increase their health span.

Headed by doctors Quincy P. Raya and Christopher Rex Gloria, both educated in Europe, AILM offers intensive consultations and personalized medicines that reverse the symptoms of aging. This is possible through the institute's Bio-identical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT), which corrects hormone deficiencies in both men and women by using bio-identical hormones derived from natural sources.

"Through BHRT, we can give clients hormones with bio chemical composition the same as [that] of hormones from your own body," says Dr. Raya. "We can restore hormonal balance to the level of a 25-year-old, the average age of optimum health."

Because BHRT is customized and tailored to an individual's specific needs, clients need to go through an extensive consultation that covers a detailed review of his or her medical history, diet, and lifestyle; an orientation on bio-identical hormones; and a discussion on the client's prescribed hormonal screening plan. Then, the patient goes through blood and urine tests to determine his or her precise hormonal levels and deficiencies. Results will then be used to prepare the patient’s customized kit of hormone prescriptions in daily-dose packets. A series of monitoring processes follows.

By resetting one's hormonal clock to delay effects of aging, BHRT promises to boost energy levels, promote good sleep and memory, increase muscle and bone mass, enhance sexual function and libido, and diminish body fat and wrinkles.

If BHRT sounds attractive to you, Dr. Raya and Dr. Gloria recommend that you take the consultation when you're free of any illnesses. "BHRT should be taken only when you're truly healthy," says Dr. Raya. "If you treat people with illnesses, that's disease care. This is health care. You have to be in good shape."

AILM's extensive therapy also comes with a hefty price tag, but it's significantly lower than those offered in Europe. "Most of our clients are Europeans who have heard that BHRT is less expensive here even if we source patient kits from Germany," says Dr. Gloria.

The Asian Institute of Longevity Medicine is located at 2/F Liberty Plaza, 102 H.V. de la Costa St., Salcedo Village, Makati City. For more information, call 385-1111 or 843-AILM (2456), or visit www.a4clinic.com.