A medical fountain of youth?

Grace Beahm
The Post and Courier

Dr. Jeffry Life

Grace Beahm
The Post and Courier

Cenegenics CEO Dr. Michale J. Barber

You've seen the ad. The old guy with the ripped bod. Wearing only jeans, he stands with one hip cocked and smiles affably into the camera.

Dr. Jeffry S. Life, who will turn 70 this year, promotes Cenegenics Medical Institute, which specializes in "age management medicine."

Life was at the Charleston Cenegenics office Tuesday to meet with some of his fellow chief medical officers from other regions.

Five Cenegenics locations are in the U.S. and plans are taking shape for international sites.

"There's no way of stopping aging, but we slow down the diseases of aging," said Life, who traded the easy, weight-room air of a man often inclined to remove his shirt for the demeanor of a professional physician.

The downtown office, in the tower above Saks Fifth Avenue, is crisp and modern. Frosted glass, sleek furniture and cork floor suggests Cenegenics is for people of a certain income.

Dr. Michale "Mickey" Barber, who opened the Charleston office five years ago, does not flinch at the term "concierge medicine."

"We are certainly a five-star service," Barber said. She has seen more than 100 percent growth in business in the last year.

For $2,995, patients receive a seven-hour health evaluation that includes bone-density testing and a full lab work-up of 90 different tests. Fitness, strength and cognitive function are also measured. No forms of insurance are accepted.

To get people in top form and keep them there, Cenegenics doctors prescribe exercise routines, vitamins and "hormone optimization" — the institute's most controversial practice.

After lifestyle options are exhausted, and based on lab results, doctors at Cenegenics may prescribe human growth hormone, or HGH.

The body naturally makes HGH to fuel growth during childhood and maintain organs throughout life, but about mid-life, the pituitary gland begins decreasing the amount it makes.

HGH can only be prescribed for adults who are deficient, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

Life was found to be deficient about five years ago, and his regimen includes supplementing the hormone, he said

About 12 percent of patients are prescribed HGH, Barber said. "We won't treat them (with HGH) if they're not deficient," she said.

Dr. Jerry Back, director for the Advanced Centers for Hypertension, Diabetes and Cholesterol Disorders, and affiliated with Trident Health System, said that there's not mainline literature to support the use of HGH for anti-aging purposes.

"There's very little literature to back it up," he said.

The chief of Geriatrics and Extended Care at the Ralph H. Johnson Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Dr. Don Courtney, said that about 1 in 10,000 children are deficient in HGH, but once you reach a certain age, there are no symptoms.

HGH will boost muscle size, he said, but not necessarily strength.

"Yes, it reverses some things, but it does not prevent fractures and falls," he said. Also, the effect can be a higher oxygen demand and more strain on the heart, Courtney said.

Life, in addition to his HGH therapy, lifts weights, practices tae kwon do, eats well and in five small portions a day, sleeps well, takes vitamins and avoids alcohol, he said.

Reach Jill Coley at 937-5719 or jcoley@postandcourier.com.