Anti-aging test: The measurement of the body
I am a little thin but have too many fat cells. My muscles could be stronger. My resting heart rate can be compared to that of swimming Olympic champion Britta Steffen. The memory of my brain cells is comparable to that of an average retirement home resident. My bone density seems to be okay. And biologically I'm five years younger than the 47 years my passport shows.
Since I had an anti-aging test done in an Allgäu health resort, I know a lot about myself, which otherwise would have escaped me. In the spacious, bright treatment room, I climbed onto a scale, had my body determine the amount of fat by infrared, was transilluminated with ultrasound and checked from head to toe with a computer program. I had to pee in a cup and give blood. All on an empty stomach. The result came four hours later.
The fact that the computerized memory game catapulted me to the retirement age, did not surprise me. In the morning and without breakfast I am about as responsive as a manatee in the swamps of Florida. It was not possible to respond to red lights with a snap of a button. The shame I tried to make up for the muscle test. Instead of one hand, when no one was looking, I pressed with both hands on the peg that measured the arm strength. So strong are otherwise only 18-year-olds! So, when the doctor congratulated me on discussing the results at my adolescent age, I felt a bit bad. All dizziness - but only I know.
But while I could live well with my tummy so far, I found myself suddenly too fat. It did not help much that the doctor recommended a special, not quite cheap protein powder to my fat, untrained cells, which he casually distributes exclusively. Since that experience, I ask myself: How much do I even want to know about myself? How serious do I have to take the whole thing? And: When will my findings about my organism possibly even harm me - physically and psychologically? If I wanted, I could learn everything about myself.
The measurement of my body are at most financial limits.
The survey of my body today are at most financial limits. Companies with names such as 23andMe, Navigenics or deCODEme promise to rush through the genes for a few hundred euros or dollars to cover about a hundred disease risks. With a bit of spit it can be determined whether my chances of developing breast cancer or Parkinson's are increased, or whether my vision could later be clouded by macular degeneration. And that is just the beginning. Researchers are already working to reduce the cost of decoding the entire genome. At the moment it costs around 100,000 dollars. In a few years, such an analysis will cost less than $ 1,000. Then, theoretically, I could experience every tiny risk of a disease I carry. And could probably even guess if my genes are rather long or short lived. Maybe a meaningful supplement to the Allgäu anti-aging test?
The view into the own genome is undoubtedly fascinating. But he also has an unbelievably high risk of unpleasant surprises. Professor Wolfram Henn from the genetic counseling center of the Saarland University Hospital calls him "the ultimate step in medical self-exposure". For people like me, the results would probably be hard to interpret, even if the company promises 23andMe on their website, the results of his "easy to read", easy to understand. However, experts such as Professor Stefan Schreiber, director of the Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology at the University of Kiel and one of the speakers in the National Genome Research Network, warn that "most commercial genetic testing currently available outside the medical system is humorous, no more meaningful than horoscopes."
This assessment is also taken into account by the Genetic Diagnostics Act, which has been in force since the beginning of the year and provides for stricter rules for genetic testing. It wants to prevent explosive data from being misused by insurance companies or the employer. The law also requires consultation before each genetic test. Babies must not be genetically tested for gender and possible characteristics before birth, only for curable or preventable diseases. In addition, it is forbidden to investigate diseases that could only break out in adulthood. The background to this case law (which will not prevent a person from obtaining the necessary information against money) is that it is currently possible to detect in part whether or not there will be a rare fatal disease, such as Huntington's Disease.Healing does not exist (yet) - not even an exact prognosis, if at all, when or in which strength some diseases break out. Impossible it is even possible to detect folk suffering by genetic testing. Although there are genes that are related to diseases such as diabetes or high blood pressure. But at best they can point to a disease risk. Whether blood pressure or blood sugar levels actually ever rise dangerously depends on many other factors: the lifestyle, the diet - and simply chance.
Anti-Aging Test: The Germans as Precautionary World Champions?
Am I still healthy when I know that I have a disease risk in me?
Gene tests are hardly helpful so far. By contrast, such prophetic medicine opens the Pandora's box - and permanently alters our relationship to our own body. It makes the border between illness and health, which has been evident since time immemorial, disappear forever. Am I still healthy when I know that I have a disease risk in me? Or am I just not sick yet? Previously, this question did not arise. Like no other: am I irresponsible if I refuse to be measured and checked down to the last corner of my body?
Today we are confronted with it almost at every doctor's visit. To the usual, financed by the health insurance precaution many physicians offer so-called individual health services (IGeL): from tests for blood in the intestine to blood tests on tumor markers, from the ultrasound of the uterus to the bone density measurement or hormone check. We Germans seem to be precautionary world champions: in 2007, we spent an estimated one billion euros on voluntary medical examinations.
The cancer check can itself become a cancer trigger.
The problem here: The tests promote many abnormalities and incidental findings, the meaning of which is initially unclear and which must be clarified in further, perhaps even dangerous investigations at the expense of the statutory health insurance funds. Whether this actually can prevent diseases is often not clearly proven. In addition, preventive medicine supports the view that any illness can be nipped in the bud - if only it were recognized early enough.
A fatal mistake! Not all diseases can be healed, some things are simply immutable. And often it turns out that our body can not be measured according to Scheme F. An American study at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, showed that nearly every fifth blood count deviated from the norm. In less than two percent of cases, the deviation was attributable to a diagnosis. Even blood tests for tumor markers are considered by experts to be absolutely nonsensical. Studies have shown that more than three quarters of tumors that can be detected with other procedures are overlooked. Just as bad come away so-called Ganzkörpercans, computed tomography examinations, which illuminate the inside of the body on abnormalities and the many specializing in anti-aging medicine doctors for 400 euros and more. According to the journal "German Medical Weekly" experts can not recognize a bonus. On the contrary, they warn against psychostress by false alarms and a significantly increased radiation risk. Thus, a "cancer check" due to the high radiation exposure itself can become the cause of cancer.
So what really makes sense? Obviously, to identify fewer diseases that actually have clear genetic causes, such as hereditary breast or colon cancer, a predictive genetic test may be useful. Scientists around Professor Alfons Meindl from the Klinikum rechts der Isar at the Technical University of Munich have just found another gene that causes hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. For example, whoever had a mother who died of one of these diseases could be examined. Because that offers, according to researcher Meindl, "the possibility of particularly well-cared for affected women".
Anyone who knows everything about themselves, eventually loses the healthy feeling for themselves
Undoubtedly make the paid by the health insurance check-up at the doctor sense. If I know that I have high blood pressure, I can counteract with medication and the right lifestyle. But for many voluntary health services, Professor Jürgen Windeler, new head of the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG), advises a healthy dose of skepticism. Not dangerous but pointless are probably most anti-aging checks and so-called hormone analyzes; they say little and usually do nothing. Of course, women could have the values of their sex hormones estradiol, the follicle stimulating hormone FSH and the luteinizing hormone LH determined. But what do you know then? Whether they are already in menopause or not? They might just as well be careful if they still bleed every month or start sweating at night. Anyone who knows even the smallest details about themselves will eventually lose the healthy feeling for themselves and their bodies.In addition, all experts agree: having the hormone status determined only once and drawing conclusions from it is not very meaningful. The values fluctuate too much for that.
Anti-aging test? I renounce!
Anti-aging test, whole body scan, gene analysis, hormone check - I have decided to do without the comprehensive measurement of my body. What use is it for me to know his last secret values and dimensions, but to lose the feeling for him and his needs? Instead of having him checked from top to bottom, I prefer to listen to his signals. He'll tell me if he does not feel well. If suddenly I lose weight without cause, feel limp for weeks, have a high fever or pain, of course I would go to the doctor. Otherwise, however, I trust myself and my organism to have a healthy self-preservation instinct.
Even my balance I have abolished meanwhile. Because I do not want to go crazy with it day by day, whether I am gaining weight or not. Because I do not want to constantly measure myself. The look in the mirror tells me when I should pay attention to my weight. I do not need a body fat measurement for that. After Christmas, Easter and the holidays in the south of France, I would not even think of letting my liver shine through right now. I know what to expect. This is called common sense combined with self-esteem. It's time we remembered that!
