As a lifelong athlete now past the 50 mark, the aches and pains that follow my Sunday morning pickup soccer games are a constant reminder of the limitations that come with aging. As I try to keep up with teens and twenty-somethings on the field, my brain remembers what I once could do; my body can’t do it it any longer. Pass the ibuprofen, please.

Some men think there’s another answer: hormones. The Sunday, Jan. 17, New York Times Magazine, has an article about a Sunday morning soccer player about my age – 51-year-old John Bellizzi – who uses vitamins and hormone injections to stay in the game. But, there are risks, the magazine notes.

“This notion of ‘we’re getting old; it’s bound to happen’ doesn’t make any sense to me,” Bellizzi says in the article “I don’t think I’m so far out on the edge here that I’m gambling with my life. What I do know is I feel better.”

A related article on in the Los Angeles Times Monday, Jan. 18, also raises questions about hormone treatments by taking a look back at some of the research. “Long-term studies on effectiveness of the therapy are lacking, and the few small, shorter-term trials that exist have produced mixed results,” the article says.

LINKS

Sunday, Jan. 17, 2010, Tom Dunkel, New York Times Magazine, “Vigor Quest.” “John Bellizzi, like a growing number of well-off men, injects himself with a hormone to forestall the aging process. Does it work, or is it enough that he simply thinks it does?”

Monday, Jan. 18, 2010, Los Angeles Times, “Benefits of testosterone, HGH on aging unclear”. “The treatments are popular with older men, but the lack of long-term studies and potential safety risks including diabetes and cardiovascular problems have provoked controversy.”

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