Selling The Fountain Of Youth: How the Anti-Aging Industry Made a Disease Out of Getting Old — And Made Billions

Author:
Arlene Weintraub
Publisher:
Basic Books
Reviewed in:
Fall 2010
Category:

The anti-aging industry used to revolve around powder and paint — subtle agents to enhance beauty and help one age gracefully. Now, the business has been overrun by steroids, human growth hormone injections, plant-based "bio-identical" hormones, and endless web ads for red-wine extract. An associate editor at Business Week, Weintraub investigated anti-aging marketing from the Internet promoters behind the rise of acai berries to the backrooms of local pharmacies where made-to-order, nonregulated compounds are produced.