Every yr thousands and thousands of individuals cross borders to endure medical remedies which are both unavailable of their house nation or too costly. For a lot of, this can be a final resort to ease the ache of a debilitating illness or defy a terminal analysis; for others the targets are purely beauty. However up to now few years a brand new sort of “medical vacationer” has emerged: these searching for to radically prolong their lives.
There are extra older individuals than ever earlier than – and extra individuals in the hunt for longevity. Within the UK, individuals over the age of 65 made up 19% of the inhabitants in 2019, a bounce of 23% from 2009, in a interval when the overall inhabitants solely elevated by 7%. And up to date developments within the science of ageing have given them hope that they don’t need to go so gently into that good night time in any case.
However whereas science has made some promising breakthroughs in finding out the causes and implications of ageing, actual options are a way off. In that hole between provide and demand, a bunch of fraudsters and rip-off artists are able to benefit from anybody gullible sufficient to imagine they will pay a bit of further for a couple of further years among the many residing. Many supply their companies overseas, in international locations the place regulation is mild.
Medical tourism has produced a gentle stream of horror tales since cheaper air journey kickstarted an increase in its recognition, from botched nostril jobs and damaged smiles to a good variety of deaths. Regardless of this, it stays a huge trade. In response to Sufferers Past Borders, the worldwide medical tourism market was value $74bn-$92bn (£59bn-£73bn) in 2019.
A main instance is stem cell therapies, regenerative remedies aiming to make use of the physique’s building-block cells to rejuvenate and repair injury brought on by illness or deterioration – an space of analysis with lots of potential however comparatively few established and permitted remedies obtainable to sufferers. Nonetheless, the potential results, most frequently exaggerated or unsubstantiated, lurethe determined to journey far and huge to hunt remedies, generally from practitioners of in poor health reputation. In response to analysis revealed final yr, the main international locations for stem cell tourism are the US, China, India, Thailand and Mexico. The identical report states that “stem cell applied sciences are sometimes related to inflated expectations of their therapeutic potential”.
Stem cell therapies may assist with most cancers and different sickness, however throughout my reporting for my e-book The Value of Immortality: The Race to Dwell Endlessly, I discovered plenty of examples of US-based stem cell corporations providing miracle cures and options to ageing. One clinic in Iowa was discovered to have made outrageous claims in shows to potential purchasers. “Anti-Getting old: Mesenchymal Stem Cell infusions turned again the arms of Father Time about three years! Would you wish to get again three years?” learn one slide of gross sales materials, collected by the state legal professional common’s workplace that was suing the corporate for false promoting.
Even when prosecuted or disciplined in a single nation, stem cell practitioners have been identified to maneuver on and proceed to supply the identical companies elsewhere. One in Florida had his medical licence revoked in 2015, after two of his sufferers present process stem cell remedy had died. After I appeared up the title of the physician, he was listed because the chief science officer at one other stem cell firm. A cheerful receptionist informed me on a name that the clinic was nonetheless operational and finishing up procedures within the Dominican Republic, a medical tourism hotspot.
Stem cell therapies should not the one anti-ageing choices luring individuals overseas for therapy. The nascent subject of gene therapies is in an analogous place, the place promising analysis has but to end in accessible interventions. I additionally just lately heard from a life extension fanatic within the US who deliberate to journey to France to endure plasmapheresis, a process he claimed would rejuvenate his blood and provides him a greater likelihood of residing till he was 500.
In some instances, sufferers don’t want even must fly overseas to entry medicine which have the potential to make them stay longer. I spoke to an aged lady in London who buys the most cancers drug dasatinib from an internet site in India, and takes it within the hope it'll destroy senescent cells, that are thought to play an integral function within the ageing course of.
Gerontologists and different researchers discover the apply irritating. A number of scientists I spoke to, significantly within the stem cell subject, are apprehensive these clinics are making a fast buck on the again of their breakthroughs whereas damaging the fame of those nascent medical applied sciences. They preach persistence, a advantage in brief provide for individuals who see the tip of their lives on the horizon.
Medical tourism presents clear risks. Sufferers might not discover the identical customary of care they're used to at house, and it's more durable to determine that the physician or clinic is respectable. Sufferers may undergo from side-effects in the event that they fly house too early after a process; communication boundaries may trigger points.
For somebody searching for therapy they will’t afford at house or a last-gasp unapproved remedy for an endemic, these dangers are value taking. However for individuals merely searching for to enhance their possibilities of residing radically prolonged lives, the gamble is way bigger, significantly when there’s no proof that any medical intervention might work. In a best-case situation, they go away with a lighter pockets. Within the worst, their quest to stay a bit of longer is reduce paradoxically quick.
The Value Of Immortality by Peter Ward (Melville Home, £20). To help The Guardian and Observer, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Supply fees might apply.
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