In St. Augustine, Florida, you can
visit Ponce de León’s Fountain of Youth
Archaeological Park for an admission
fee of $18.00. There, you can drink a
sample of the miraculous water. You
might even feel a bit younger... but only
if you believe and are suggestible...or
perhaps are just thirsty. This fountain
may be of historical interest, but it is
not of any therapeutic value.
A spring whose waters restore
the youth of anyone who drinks or
bathes in them is a myth that dates
back to prehistoric times. Herodotus
wrote about it in the 5th century BC.
The Spanish conquistador Ponce de
León was the first European explorer
to reach Florida. The King of Spain
had authorized him to lead an expe-
dition to search for “the Islands of
Benimy” and he originally mistook
Florida for an island. He was not
searching for a fountain of youth;
that myth wasn’t attached to his
name until long after his death. But
even if he had drunk of said fountain
of youth, he’d still be dead.
Hope springs eternal, and history
repeats itself. Today there are countless
modern versions of the Fountain of
Youth. Dietary supplements and other
treatments are claimed to reverse the
effects of aging and prolong life. Their
promoters claim there is science be-
hind them; in reality, they are just more
myths. Centenarians share their secrets
for a long life; they are all different.
No treatment has ever been proven to
keep humans young or make them live
longer. Dr. Joe Schwarcz of McGill’s Of-
fice for Science and Society said it best:
“the science is all wet and drips with
crackpot notions.”^1What Happens
to Our Bodies as we Age?
Many wines improve with age, but
human bodies don’t. We deteriorate
with age. We develop wrinkles and gray
hair, the skin thins and bruises more
easily, vision and hearing decline and
cataracts develop, blood pressure in-
creases, bone density decreases, strength
and agility decrease, the waist thickens,
joints become arthritic, memory loss
occurs, height may decrease by 1-
inches, we learn and think more slowly,
reaction time decreases, sexual func-
tions change and hormone levels drop,
and we become more likely to develop
the diseases associated with old age
such as cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s,
and heart disease. Psychologically, it’s
not all bad: the elderly have accumu-
lated a vast store of life experience and
general knowledge, sometimes but not
always leading to wisdom. And believe
it or not, older people tend to be hap-
pier.
As the World Health Organization
explains, “At the biological level, ageing
results from the impact of the accumu-
lation of a wide variety of molecular
and cellular damage over time. This
leads to a gradual decrease in physical
and mental capacity, a growing risk of
disease, and ultimately, death.”^2 Note
the words “wide variety of molecular
and cellular damage.” It is simplistic to
think any single intervention could re-
verse all of those different damages.
Insulin resistance is a sign of
aging, and the diabetes drug metformin
has been shown to extend the lifespan
of mice and appears to rejuvenate
Caenorhabditis elegans, a 1-millimeter
roundworm, a nematode, more fa-mously and elegantly known as C. ele-
gans. Unfortunately, humans are not
worms or mice.
A calorie restricted diet has re-
duced some biomarkers of aging in
many species, such as primates, rats,
mice, spiders, fruit flies, nematodes,
and rotifers, but curiously it didn’t
work for house flies, and there’s no
good evidence that it works for hu-
mans. Even if it did, is maintaining
yourself in a constant state of hunger
a good trade-off for living longer?
Lots of people apparently believe it is.
There is even a Calorie Restriction
Society International. Enthusiasts are
reducing their calorie intake by 25%
to 50%, which is unpleasant and im-
practical. Few people are willing or
able to reduce their food intake by
half, and there is concern that doing
so might interfere with adequate
nutrition. As the aging researcher
Rozalyn Anderson quipped, “Life is
difficult enough without engaging in
some bonkers diet.”^3 Intermittent
fasting is more palatable, and it re-
sults in weight loss and health im-
provements. One popular version of
this is to not eat for 12-14 hours after
dinner—you get the 8 hours of sleep
without thinking about eating (al-
though you may dream about it), and
if you can distract your attention from
eating by doing other things for a few
more hours, it’s doable.More difficult
are the longer stints of intermittent
fasting, and it was found that even a
five-day-a-month calorie restriction
diet caused 25% of participants to
drop out. Let’s face it: people like to
eat, and food is one of the pleasures
of life that make life worth living.COLUMN
4 SKEPTIC MAGAZINE volume 25 number 1 2020The Fountain of Youth
and Other Anti-Aging Myths
B Y H A R R I E T H A L L , M. D.