Friday, 21 December 2012

Dr. Life - The 70-year-old man with the body of a 40-year-old | Oddity Central - Collecting Oddities

Neck-up, a 70-year-old man. Neck-down, a 20-year-old bodybuilder. This is what a photograph of Dr. Jeffrey Life looks like. When I first looked at it I thought it was actually a young person whose face is ageing due to an illness, but it’s actually the other way round.

 The photo is that of a real 70-year-old, and we can safely vouch for the fact that his head hasn’t been photoshopped onto a model’s body. Although, Dr. Life’s methods to achieve the body of his dreams can’t exactly be termed as natural. The man is heavily dependent upon hormonal modifications to look like this.

Dr. Life’s life (that’s weird) changed at the age of 60, when he started to take fitness pretty seriously. Until then, he was overweight, a borderline diabetic and stressed-out. It was when he came across a 12-week fitness challenge on Muscle Media Magazine that he decided to make a few changes in his life. So he sent in his before picture as required by the challenge and started to work out big-time. After the 3 months were up, he had lost over 25 pounds and considerably cut-back on body fat. This, however, was not long-lived and at age 64, his body could no longer hold muscle mass and began to shrink. The culprit – a condition known as andropause – involving a steady decline of testosterone levels.


And so, to get back to a young and pumped body, Dr. Life has for the past 9 years been taking regular doses of testosterone and human growth hormone. This, of course, along with a strict regimen of exercise (six days a week including hard cardio, heavy weight lifting, martial arts, Pilates, and more) and diet (with low GI carbs and supplements). And the result is plain for all to see.

Photo by Terry Goodlad
Testosterone replacement therapies do not come without their own risks, however. It is known to cause an enlarged prostate, and human growth hormone could increase risk of diabetes and cancer. Most doctors believe that the fall in testosterone levels is a normal part of the aging process and must not be tampered with. Top doctors even say that these programs are completely illogical and prey upon people’s desires to wind back the clock.

But Dr. Life is unfazed by such warnings. He’s pretty happy with the treatment he is undergoing and has no qualms about artificially adjusting hormones in his body. A few years ago, he even quit his medical practice to start an anti-aging practice. He himself spends about $1,500 a month on his own treatments. So now that reversing  the aging  process has been made possible by scientific advancements, perhaps the next step would be to try and get Dr. Life to become immortal. What else would you expect him to do, with a name like his?