INSIDE EDITION reports on a man who is 73 years old, but you wouldn't know it by looking at his buff body. He says he knows the secret to staying young and fit and says it's safe, but is what he's doing dangerous to his health? Jim Moret reports.
From the neck up Dr. Jeffrey Life looks every bit his age, but if you just look at his buff body, you'd think he's found the fountain of youth.
"I'm 73 and I really feel like I'm in my 30's, I actually feel better than I did when I was in my 30's," he told INISDE EDITION.
Dr. Life is literally a walking billboard for an age management practice based in Las Vegas called Cenegenics.
INSIDE EDITION's Jim Moret spoke with Dr. Life and pointed out, "There was a time in your 50's when you looked like a lot of us do, kind of shlubby."
"I was in terrible shape. I was short of breath climbing a flight of steps. I was a horrible example for my patients and my grandkids and that's when I decided to make a change," said Dr. Life.
And boy, what a change it was - before and after pictures show the massive change. It's hard to believe the photos are real but Dr. Life says they are absolutely authentic.
"What would you have said if someone said you'd look like this at 73?" asked Moret.
"I would have said this is Photoshopped, clearly this is Photoshopped," said Dr. Life.
Dr. Life said he took some basic steps to transform his body. Including more exercise, better diet, vitamin supplements, and more sleep - but there were also some controversial measures.
"Do you take testosterone?," Moret asked.
"I do," he replied.
Moret then asked, "Do you take human growth hormone?"
Life responded, "I do, I do."
Dr. Life offers no apologies for taking those two prescription drugs. He says he takes hormones because he is clinically deficient. But critics say these drugs can be abused and may be dangerous.
They point to Dr. Life's former colleague at Cenegenics, Dr. Alan Mintz, to whom Dr. Life dedicated his best selling book.
In 2006, Mintz was featured on 60 Minutes showing off the benefits of human growth hormone and testosterone. But one year later, at the relatively young age of 69, Mintz died shortly after undergoing a biopsy on his brain.
Moret asked, "Alan Mintz passed away at the age of 69. What would you say to those who would suggest that was the result of using human growth hormone?"
"He died young because he had a surgical catastrophe, that's why he died, I think the concern about growth hormones is completely overdone," said Dr. Life.
Moret asked, "Why?"
"Because there are no studies out there, zero studies, zero studies on people that have taken hormones (suggesting) that it is bad thing. It just doesn't cause problems," said Dr. Life.
But Dr. Thomas Perls, a professor at Boston University School of Medicine, who testified before Congress about the potential dangers of hormones, disagrees. "To say there are no side affects from these hormones is very misleading," Dr. Perls told Inside Edition.
"These include painful joint swelling, high blood pressure and up to 15% of these people getting diabetes a life shortening disease with lots of complications," said Dr. Perls.
Dr. Life said in his nine years taking hormones, he hasn't experienced any side affects. He is happily married to a woman almost 20 years younger and says he is living proof that his program works. In fact, he says Cenegenics boasts 20,000 patients worldwide who are willing to pay up to $1,200-a-month in an effort to turn back the clock.
"We're all going to age, everything ages, but we don't have to get old," Dr. Life said.
