In the eternal search for the Fountain of Youth, many Boomers are falling prey to snake oil claims for magic bullets that will purportedly turn back the clock. An article published online in USNews noted that many cities boast so-called "anti-aging" or "longevity" clinics that offer "an assortment of remedies ranging from multivitamin cocktails to hormone injections to miracle pills that, if you believe the pitches, will guarantee you youthful entry into the triple digits."

Yet these expensive treatments, which are not covered by insurance, often don't work and may even be dangerous for your health. For example, as the USNews article points out, too much vitamin A has been associated with osteoporosis, while an excess of vitamin B may cause to nerve damage. Worse yet, overdosing on vitamin E may lead to cancer.

Anti-aging skin creams may also be questionable. The USNews article cites a review of over-the-counter topical creams published in Aesthetic Surgery Journal

that concluded there was "little evidence that most anti-aging creams worked and that the evidence for products containing botanicalssuch as those based on tea, fruit, and cocoa extractswas particularly slim." AConsumer Reports investigation reached a similar conclusion in 2011.

The most controversial treatments of all, however, are the wildly pricey hormone injections. USNews quotes Nir Barzilai, director of the Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York as saying: "What you have are a bunch of charlatans pushing treatments that not only don't work, but are actually harming people. These kinds of treatments don't slow aging, they accelerate it." So, buyer beware. In your quest for staying younger than your years, you're still best off sticking with those old reliable lifestyle changes: a healthy diet and regular exercise. They're affordable and effective. Who could ask for anything more?

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Bogus Anti-Aging Treatments