Dr. Jacob Rosenstein And The Southwest Age Intervention Institute: “Make the rest of your life the best of you...

In the not-too-distant future, AI will change the way we do everything, as well as the way everything gets done. What it won’t and can’t change is the fact we live in our bodies and are responsible for taking care of them. Just like a dietician can give us the blueprint but cannot force a client to execute the plan consistently, over time, AI-generated health programs will only be as effective as the client’s desire to follow through.

That 37% of the American population is presently obese suggests Americans may not be doing the greatest job caring for their bodies. But 37% is just a statistic, while each person is an individual and each case is different. It’s within that person’s power to adopt a healthy lifestyle or correct an unhealthy one. “Optimal health,” according to Dr. Jacob Rosenstein,” is the result of optimal lifestyle habits. So get started down this road today.”

Easier said than done? Maybe. But Dr. Rosenstein is at the forefront of those trying to turn the American health ship around. As one of the premier neurosurgeons in the country, Dr. Rosenstein became intent on maintaining his focus and energy levels as he aged. His experience trying to optimize his health set him on the path of studying telomeres, strands at the end of each cell that scientists believe are indicative of longevity, among other states and conditions. Rosenstein’s research, and his personal experience, set out to prove that if one could use diet, supplements, and lifestyle changes to rebuild shortened telomeres, new and longer telomeres could be regrown. Dr. Rosenstein believed this would result in healthier bodies, longer lifespans, more energy, and more focus, among other benefits.

Ultimately, Dr. Rosenstein would prove himself right. Having succeeded in reversing his aging as measured by telomeres, Dr. Rosenstein set about counseling his patients on how to achieve similar results by founding the Southwest Age Intervention Institute. According to Rosenstein, the Western diet, high in sugar and saturated fats, is tied to 95% of today’s maladies and illnesses. Sugar is an especially toxic culprit, but the American diet generally is largely devoid of nutrients and the public is not educated on the nuance. Take the societal discourse surrounding fat for example. The American diet is high in omega-6 fatty acids that produce inflammation, but low in omega-3 fatty acids that fight inflammation and protect against heart disease, among other ailments. However, we often just use the catchall phrase “fat” when discussing omega 6 fatty acids in food, omega 3 fatty acids in food, and fat on the human body without any further distinction.

The need for an institute grew out of Rosenstein’s observation that people want and need structure to understand and adopt a healthy regime. “Good health,” he notes, “doesn’t happen by accident. It requires a desire to be and stay healthy. The knowledge of what it takes to get there. Then a plan to get you there and keep you there….Good health is not a one-time event. It is a lifetime habit.” Dr. Rosenstein and his team strive to provide this support and infrastructure so that their clients can put the knowledge into action.

To this end, SAII was conceived as a place where health professionals could calculate and address the age management needs of each client. This tailored process begins with an intensive intake interview with Dr. Rosenstein himself, then proceeds through 90-biomarker bloodwork to fitness assessments, cognitive assessments, blood vessel evaluations, iDXA total body composition scans, and other measures. The objective is to use this data to develop a customized regimen specific to the individual, a regime that can intervene in and reverse the aging process and the resulting loss of energy and focus.

There’s no doubt that, in time, AI will make the process of assessing a patient’s needs and formulating a regime for them, quicker and more efficient. What it won’t be able to do is substitute for the individual’s desire to turn their life around nor will it be able to replace the compassion and support of a team of humans. That is always going to be up to them, and to pace-setters in the field of age reversal who, like Dr. Jacob Rosenstein, are laying out the path for people who want healthier lives to follow.

To find out more about Dr. Jacob Rosenstein, consult his book, “Defy Aging: Make the Rest of Your Life the Best of Your Life.” To find out about the Southwest Age Intervention Institute, visit its website.

Written in partnership with Ascend