ABSTRACT
Anti-ageing medicine (AAM) presents challenges not only to mainstream understandings of the role of medicine but also to our notions of the natural and unnatural. Stukelberger argued that anti-ageing pushes beyond what she re-names the 'better ageing' of the WHO, to create a third trajectory, which plateaus as 'peak performance' and includes both human enhancement and a prolonged life. A criticism of the anti-ageing approach is that it adopts the language of medical science, preventive medicine and 'New Age' lifestyles to obtain a legitimacy that it does not deserve. Much of the activity around anti-ageing medicine has centred around the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M), registered as a non-profit organisation in the United States. The A4M offers a mix of advice ranging from conventional diet and exercise through to the sale of anti-ageing products.
