Editing Life extension (section)

===Aging as a disease===
Most mainstream medical organizations and practitioners do not consider aging to be a disease. Biologist [[David Sinclair (biologist)|David Sinclair]] says: "I&nbsp;don't see aging as a disease, but as a collection of quite predictable diseases caused by the deterioration of the body."<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Hayden EC | title = Age research: a new angle on 'old' | journal = Nature | volume = 450 | issue = 7170 | pages = 603–605 | date = November 2007 | pmid = 18046373 | doi = 10.1038/450603a | doi-access = free | bibcode = 2007Natur.450..603H }}</ref> The two main arguments used are that aging is both inevitable and universal while diseases are not.<ref>Hamerman D. (2007) ''Geriatric Bioscience: The link between aging & disease''. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Maryland.</ref> However, not everyone agrees. Harry R. Moody, director of academic affairs for [[AARP]], notes that what is normal and what is disease strongly depend on a historical context.<ref>{{cite journal| vauthors = Moody HR |title=Who's afraid of life extension?|journal= Generations|volume=25|issue= 4 |year=2002|pages= 33–7}}</ref> [[David Gems]], assistant director of the Institute of Healthy Ageing, argues that aging should be viewed as a disease.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Gems D | year = 2011 | title = Aging: To Treat, or Not to Treat? The possibility of treating aging is not just an idle fantasy | journal = American Scientist | volume = 99 | issue = 4| pages = 278–80 | doi = 10.1511/2011.91.278 | s2cid = 123698910 }}</ref> In response to the universality of aging, David Gems notes that it is as misleading as arguing that [[Basenji]] are not dogs because they do not bark.<ref name=Gems2>{{cite journal | vauthors = Gems D | title = Tragedy and delight: the ethics of decelerated ageing | journal = Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences | volume = 366 | issue = 1561 | pages = 108–112 | date = January 2011 | pmid = 21115537 | pmc = 3001315 | doi = 10.1098/rstb.2010.0288 }}</ref> Because of the universality of aging he calls it a "special sort of disease". Robert M. Perlman, coined the terms "aging syndrome" and "disease complex" in 1954 to describe aging.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Perlman RM | title = The aging syndrome | journal = Journal of the American Geriatrics Society | volume = 2 | issue = 2 | pages = 123–129 | date = February 1954 | pmid = 13129024 | doi = 10.1111/j.1532-5415.1954.tb00884.x | s2cid = 45894370 }}</ref>

The discussion whether aging should be viewed as a disease or not has important implications. One view is, this would stimulate pharmaceutical companies to develop life extension therapies and in the United States of America, it would also increase the regulation of the anti-aging market by the [[Food and Drug Administration]] (FDA). Anti-aging now falls under the regulations for cosmetic medicine which are less tight than those for drugs.<ref name=Gems2/><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Mehlman MJ, Binstock RH, Juengst ET, Ponsaran RS, Whitehouse PJ | title = Anti-aging medicine: can consumers be better protected? | journal = The Gerontologist | volume = 44 | issue = 3 | pages = 304–310 | date = June 2004 | pmid = 15197284 | doi = 10.1093/geront/44.3.304 | doi-access =  }}</ref>