{"id":44315,"date":"2010-12-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-12-27T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/how-aging-became-disease-and-huge-business\/"},"modified":"2010-12-27T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-12-27T00:00:00","slug":"how-aging-became-disease-and-huge-business","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/how-aging-became-disease-and-huge-business\/","title":{"rendered":"How Aging Became a &#8220;Disease&#8221;\u2014and a Huge Business"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Trying to look younger and prevent aging has become an $511 billion a year business [as of 2022]. According to a book by Arlene Weintraub titled <em class=\"citation\">Selling the Fountain of Youth: How the Anti-Aging Industry Made a Disease Out of Getting Old&mdash;And Made Millions.<\/em>According to an article based on this book, &quot;The anti-aging phenomenon started off with good intentions. Baby boomers were getting older and didn&#39;t like what they saw or how they felt.&quot; In 1990 the <em>New England Journal of Medicine<\/em> claimed that human growth hormone (HGH), which was previously used to treat growth disorders in children, could be used to reverse aging. Adults latched on to this news like &quot;junkies.&quot; Then, in 1993 a number of doctors started injecting themselves with HGH. A little later these doctors started opening clinics where patients could learn to inject themselves with HGH (for thousands of dollars of course).<\/p>\n\n<p>Today supermarkets and drugstore aisles teem with bottles adorned with the words &quot;anti-aging.&quot; In 2023 Botox sales topped $18 billion. Anti-aging &quot;institutes&quot; have also continued to expand their client base. According to one anti-aging company president, these products comprise &quot;the perfect example of a service you&#39;re not going to give up in a bad economy.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>What&#39;s driving this quest to find, bottle, sell, and ingest a modern-day fountain of youth? The answer might be found in this book&#39;s subtitle&mdash;<em>How the Anti-Aging Industry Made a Disease Out of Getting Old<\/em>. Sadly, for many people in our culture, getting old isn&#39;t an opportunity to grow in wisdom and grace; it&#39;s a &quot;disease.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p><em>Editor&rsquo;s note: Statistics were updated as of March 2024<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[405,410],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[446],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3400,3401,3683,3726,3737,3851,4175,4493,4558,4917,4923,4935,4970,5227],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-44315","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-ageism","tax_ctp_tags-aging","tax_ctp_tags-contentment","tax_ctp_tags-culture","tax_ctp_tags-death","tax_ctp_tags-elderly","tax_ctp_tags-human-body","tax_ctp_tags-mortality","tax_ctp_tags-old-age","tax_ctp_tags-self-esteem","tax_ctp_tags-self-image","tax_ctp_tags-self-worth","tax_ctp_tags-short-life","tax_ctp_tags-vanity"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How Aging Became a &quot;Disease&quot;\u2014and a Huge Business - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/how-aging-became-disease-and-huge-business\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Aging Became a &quot;Disease&quot;\u2014and a Huge Business - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Trying to look younger and prevent aging has become an $511 billion a year business [as of 2022]. 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