With appearances on 60 Minutes and elsewhere, Alan Mintz MD, a radiologist by training, was one of the most vocal proponents of hGH and anabolic steroids for age-management that the industry has seen. Yet tragically, he died at the young age of 69 yrs. While the fact that he died so young should be enough to make one question the utility of anecdotes and testimonials for espousing the safety of these drugs, the published contradictory accounts of the cause of his death (an accident in the gym versus a brain lesion meriting a brain biopsy) lead one to be concerned about a cover-up.
With his six-pack stomach, bulging chest and bull-like shoulders, the muscleman in the newspaper advertisement displays the sort of rippling torso that adorns the cover of men's fitness journals. But there is one difference. From the neck up, Dr Jeffry S Life is a balding 67-year-old physician. His physique is the product not of a computer touch-up but a controversial American "ageing management" technique, that often includes a cocktail of human growth hormones and testosterone.
Some 13,000 clients have so far spent thousands of dollars on a technique known as Cenegenics (from the Greek for "new beginning"). As post-war baby boomers enter their 60s, it promises to boost performance from the office to the gym to the bedroom.
The initial one-day $2,995 evaluation at the Cenegenics Medical Institute (CMI) in Las Vegas, has already attracted a handful of unnamed Britons seeking the secret of Dr Life's remarkable torso.
However, unlike many other health fads, there is one reason why it may not prove popular.
Cenegenics was the brainchild of Alan Mintz, a radiologist, whose own buffed body also used to be the best advertising for his business - until he died in June, aged 69, five years short of the average male American life expectancy.
His death prompted internet speculation that he paid the ultimate price for using human growth hormones. But the CMI has been at pains to assert that Dr Mintz's passing was the result of a brain haemorrhage. His decline was due to an accident in the gym, according to Dr Life, his friend and personal physician, who also works for Cenegenics in Las Vegas.
After the initial evaluation, clients spend up to $13,000 on exercise and diet regimes, supplemented by vitamins and, in most cases, hormone replenishment such as testosterone. Approximately 20 per cent are also prescribed injections of human growth hormones if they are diagnosed as demonstrating adult growth hormone deficiency (AGHD).
Critics say that it is unproven and potentially dangerous. Tom Perls, a professor of medicine at Boston University, expressed surprise at the number of Cenegenics clients diagnosed with AGHD, as he said the condition normally affects three people in 10,000.
In an interview outlining his philosophy last year, Dr Mintz listed a panoply of positives that he attributed to human growth hormone. They include a decrease in fat and skin wrinkling, an increase in muscle and improved mood.
"Next year does not have to be worse than this year," Dr Mintz said. "How about good sexual activity with your loved one once a week, twice a week, feeling good about it?"
Dr. Alan Paul Mintz, whose controversial efforts to prolong and improve peoples' lives drew national attention, died Sunday at the age of 69.
"He was a visionary, dedicated to helping people live the most vital lives they could," said his wife of 47 years, Rabbi Yocheved. "He was the most loving husband, father, and grandfather." Mintz was famous largely because his Cenegenics Medical Institute based in Summerlin promoted the use of steroids and human growth hormone as an anti-aging therapy for some patients, and he showcased his own bodybuilder physique as evidence of the benefits of the regimens he espoused.
Mintz died Sunday from bleeding during a biopsy, Yocheved said. Mintz had been suffering from problems with his brain, possibly because of a stroke, she said.
She said many of his patients were flying in from all over the world for his service today at 10 a.m. at King David Memorial Chapel, 2697 Eldorado Lane, near Eastern Avenue. "So many people are better because for having known him," she said. Mintz's company, founded in 1998, grew to include offices in Charleston, S.C.; Boca Raton, Fla.; Tokyo; Hong Kong and Seoul, South Korea, and claimed to have more than 12,000 patients.
But many doctors warned that while human growth hormone had beneficial effects on body composition, there were safety concerns about long-term use. Mintz and some of his patients said the Cenegenics Medical Institute treatments gave them more energy, better sex lives and improved physical conditions. Mintz told "60 Minutes" last year he had been taking human growth hormone for about 10 years. He also said he wasn't certain if the treatments could be detrimental in the long run. "No, I'm not absolutely sure," he said. "Only a fool is absolutely sure. Am I confident? Do I sleep well at night? Yes."
Mintz had rippling muscles when the Review-Journal interviewed him January 2006. Although he recommended hormone therapy for about 30 to 35 of his patients, most of his work was in promoting exercise and healthy lifestyles, he said. He also said about 1,000 of his patients were physicians. Yocheved said her husband became interested with the field in 1990, when he became fascinated at his 70-yearold mother's ability to run marathons. Yocheved recalled that her husband had wondered, " 'Why is it that a time when her contemporaries are dying off... she can still go?" At the time, he had recently retired after building up a successful radiology company. He decided to come out of retirement to help people, she said. "He was so passionate about what he was doing," she said. Mintz's efforts were covered by GQ Magazine, CNBC and NBC's "20/20," among others.
In addition to his wife, Mintz is survived by their four sons, Dr. Ari Mintz, Steven Mintz, Jeffery Mintz and Jonathon Mintz.
Dr. William Regelson, physician, author, research scientist and World War II veteran, died March 19, 2002 at the age of 76. Faculty member at the Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University College of Medicine(Richmond, Virginia), Dr. Regelson’s pioneering work into the age-reversing benefits of DHEA and melatonin resulted with the utilization of these hormones in the anti-aging clinical setting.
Author of The Superhormone Promise: Nature’s Antidote to Aging (1996) and co-author of The Melatonin Miracle: Nature’s Age-Reversing, Disease-Fighting, Sex-Enhancing Hormone (1995), Dr. Regelson was an anti-aging pioneer and a vocal, longtime supporter of both the specialty and the A4M. Dr. Regelson is survived by his wife, five children, six grandchildren, and sister. Dr. Regelson will be bestowed the Infinity Award for Lifetime Achievement. The Infinity Award is the most prestigious commendation awarded for notable contributions that advance the science of anti-aging medicine. The awards ceremony will take place in December 2002 at the Tenth International Congress on Anti-Aging and Biomedical Technologies.
The Los Angeles Police Department discovered former bodybuilding cosmetic surgeon Bruce Nadler, MD and his wife dead as the result of gunshot wounds on Monday, February 4, 2008. Authorities believe it is an apparent murder-suicide perpetrated by Bruce Nadler.
Bruce Nadler called himself the “world’s strongest plastic surgeon.” He was probably the best known cosmetic surgeon catering to amateur and professional bodybuilders. He had performed over 700 gynecomastia surgeries in his career; “gyno” is a side effect of anabolic steroid use when antiaromatase and/or estrogen antagonists are not use concurrently.
After retiring from the practice of medicine in August 2005, Dr. Nadler, who called himself “the world’s strongest plastic surgeon,” wrote the “The Nip Tuck Workout: Exercise through the Eyes of a Plastic Surgeon” and subsequently moved with his wife to Los Angeles to reinvent himself in a new career as personal trainer with the opening of Nip Tuck Fitness LA in Beverly Hills.
Retired plastic surgeon and certified personal trainer Bruce J. Nadler M.D. has brought his Plastic Synergy training system to Los Angeles. As stated in his book, “The Nip Tuck Workout - Exercise through the Eyes of a Plastic Surgeon,” Dr. Nadler has created an exercise program based on the plastic surgical principles of proportion and symmetry. It combines careful analysis with an individualized exercise prescription.
Bruce Nadler, MD retired after the New York State Board of Professional Medical Conduct charged him with 29 specifications of professional misconduct in thirteen patients according to public records. Rather than fight the charges, Nadler submitted and consent agreement and voluntarily relinquished his medical license.
Failure to obtain and/or note an adequate and complete medical history and/or history of current complaint from patient.
Failure to perform and/or note a complete and appropriate physical examination of patient.
Failure to obtain and/or note appropriate and medically indicated laboratory studies on patient including: prolactin, TSH, LH, hepatic and renal function, and assays for estrogen levels and HCG.
Failure to properly diagnose patient’s condition and/or rule out underlying disorders.
Inappropriately and without medical idnication and/or justification, prescribing and/or maintaining patient on various medications.
Failure to maintain a medical record for patient in accordance with accepted medical standards which accurately reflects his care and treatment of the patient.
Bruce Nadler’s beliefs regarding anabolic steroids and bodybuilding were controversial for physician. He explained his own steroid use and his willingness to prescribe steroids and growth hormone to his patients in an interview with Testosterone Nation:
I’m my own test laboratory in that respect because, in the last two years, I’ve been taking 6 to 8 IUs a week of growth hormone, and I alternate between 200 mg a week of deca and 200 mg of testosterone cypionate the next week. Instead of going super physiological, I believe in just going to maximum natural levels to that of a man in his twenties. In this way, there are no side effects.
Nadler was also critical of the steroid hysteria in the U.S. and the political posturing surrounding anabolic steroids:
I’ve always felt that politicians always have to make the majority of the electorate think that they’re doing something? So they inconvenience a small, unimportant group, like bodybuilders. They have no idea what they’re talking about. Somebody hands them a speech, and they go! They took something that could have been done safely and sent it to the black market and all of the inherent dangers that go along with dealing with that element. Will they ever be legal again? I hope so.
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