This week we finished our first book, Selling the Fountain of Youth by Arlene Weintraub. This book was fascinating and so informative on the roots of the anti-aging industry, but also alarming and shocking because I was previously unaware of the full picture of the industry dangers. The anti-aging industry capitalizes off of people’s fear of aging and exploits it through tactics that feed and popularize these already existing fears to market their products. I was most alarmed by how unregulated these hormonal products were by the FDA. Essentially anyone could be making them with little to no scientific evidence to base measurements and prescriptions off of. The author visited compounding pharmacies and found the areas where they mixed hormonal anti-aging products to be sloppy and unsanitary. The product's popularity was heavily progressed through the support of celebrities with no medical background but a lot of social influence. People looked up to these people and chose to believe them over other scientists, opposing the products due to lack of evidence, in part because we tend to give more influential weight to claims/testimonies that reinforce our pre-existing beliefs/wants than challenge them. Overall, the book revealed to me another scary example of how things become medicalized for profit and their harmful effects on health are able to run unchecked while keeping the public uninformed or protected. It can be a complicated issue when even some medical professionals are on board with the industry (through plastic surgery and other cosmetic procedures) and genuinely believe they are helping their patients. However, through providing these products and procedures that aren’t always essential to maintaining human health they are in part fueling the type of cultural climate that produces that want for these services. Our society is youth-centric and a certain type of beauty-centric and these harmful cultural norms are what keep the industry alive. Doctors do not create the problems and neither does the industry but they are both a part of a larger system that allows dangerous and unnecessary products to thrive.
On a more positive note, this Sunday we are volunteering together socially distanced to put together valentines day goodies for the seniors. It’ll be nice to see everyone masked up and in person for the first time. I’m excited to be doing this as something that will hopefully brighten up people’s day especially around a holiday that sometimes brings people mixed emotions. But I know Sunday will be the highlight of my weekend being able to help out and also be outside on a nice day!
On a more positive note, this Sunday we are volunteering together socially distanced to put together valentines day goodies for the seniors. It’ll be nice to see everyone masked up and in person for the first time. I’m excited to be doing this as something that will hopefully brighten up people’s day especially around a holiday that sometimes brings people mixed emotions. But I know Sunday will be the highlight of my weekend being able to help out and also be outside on a nice day!