American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine

The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M) is a charitable 501(c)(3) medical society dedicated to the advancement of technology to detect, prevent, and treat aging related disease and to promote research into methods to retard and optimize the human aging process. The A4M is not recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties, which currently recognizes 130 medical specialties in the US, but has tried to establish anti-aging medicine as a specialty. As of mid-2006 the organization has a membership of nearly 18,000 physicians, scientists and health professionals in 85 countries, and has certified 1,500 physicians in the specialty of anti-aging medicine. The Academy has trained over 30,000 new physicians in its hands-on scientific, clinical and academic programs, and today influences over 100,000 health professionals via its educational training programs, seminars, board certification programs, videos, website, textbooks, and outreach programs. A4M has brought a great deal of scientific attention to the problems of aging and what medicine can do to alleviate those problems.

History
The A4M was founded in Chicago in 1992 at a meeting of a dozen physicians organized by Dr. Ronald Klatz and Dr. Robert Goldman, both of whom are Doctors of Osteopathic medicine (D.O.s) and skilled promoters. In 1993 the A4M began organizing educational conferences that are currently attended by thousands of physicians annually and include exhibitors promoting a wide variety of remedies intended to reduce aging. A few years later, the A4M organized the American Board of Anti-Aging Medicine (ABAAM) offering anti-aging medicine as a specialty, and giving educational credits to those who attended the conferences (which include special workshops for physicians). The A4M also publishes textbooks of anti-aging medicine.

The New York Times has recently published an article which questions A4M's scientific foundations.