What is Cenegenics?
You may have seen the commercials featuring muscular and sculpted physicians and patients living lives full of vigor. You may have seen its ads on the internet or airline magazines. But, you may still be wondering “what is Cenegenics?”
Every eight seconds someone in America turns 50. But getting older doesn’t necessarily means that you cannot stay young physically and mentally. Cenegenics is a pioneer in the Age Management Medicine field committed to helping the middle-aging lead physically and mentally healthy and rewarding lives.
Cenegenics is a medical practice headquartered in Las Vegas with several office locations throughout the country. I know something about the company as I practiced with Cenegenics for two years in its Dallas-Fort Worth location from 2010 to 2012.
Cenegenics has been the leader in Age Management Medicine since 1997. “Age management medicine” is essentially another term for anti-aging medicine, but is perhaps a more realistic term that recognizes aging is going to occur (though there is evidence that we can reverse aging to a degree), but can be successfully managed so that we age in a healthy and energetic way.
Healthy aging is dying at the slowest rate possible. Far too often we take years off our lives through unhealthy habits. Cenegenics will help you break those unhealthy habits that are dooming your health and productivity and replace them with healthy habits that will increase your chances of living productive lives until the end.
Cenegenics Program
The Cenegenics Program is a proactive approach focusing on three key components of health; nutrition (including nutraceuticals), exercise, and achievement of optimal hormone levels. Though most patients are males, more and more women are seeking Cengenics expertise. This corresponds to the increasing number of women executives who like their male counterparts are looking for a “competitive edge” by becoming as healthy as possible.
Cenegenics’ protocols are based on evidence-based medicine. Its team of physicians and researches regularly review the literature. Based on the latest science, Cenegenics adjust its treatment protocols.
The initial evaluation is typically 6 hours long and includes consultation with a physician, consultation with an exercise/nutrition specialist, and diagnostic testing that includes comprehensive lab work done prior to office visit and VO2 max testing, bone density testing, body composition testing, strength and flexibility testing, and neurocognitive testing all performed on the day of the evaluation.
The program emphasizes a low glycemic eating plan, comprehensive exercise program including strength training, flexibility training, aerobics and high intensity interval training. Hormone deficiencies are addressed. Follow up visits or evaluations vary from patient to patient but are generally every 3 to 6 months.
Does the Cenegenics Program Work?
Cenegenics touts the following health benefits of its programs.
● Increased energy
● Enhanced libido
● Reduced body fat
● Increased lean muscle mass and strength
● Improved cholesterol levels
● Strengthened immune system
● Lifted moods and sense of well-being
● Better stress management
● Sharper mental acuity
Let’s take a more detail look at the individual health benefits of the Cenegenics program.
Increased energy
More than anything, it has been our experience that middle-aged to elderly adults want more energy. And, energy is the key to life. Life ends when energy production ends. It is that simple. Improving hormone levels, increasing stamina through exercise, and fueling your body with better fuel through healthier eating all lead to higher energy levels.
Enhanced libido
Libido is not just for men. Women down play the importance of libido, but for the women who seek help from Cenegenics maintaining a healthy libido is just as important as it is for men. Again, the trio of hormone optimization, increased fitness, and healthier eating all improve libido with hormone balance playing a pivotal role.
Also, the importance of an active sex life throughout one’s years is not always fully realized. There are many health benefits from sex. Sex reduces stress and depression, improves heart health, improves sleep, burns calories, improves immunity, and much more. See our post, Just Say “Yes”: the Health Benefits of Sex.
Reduced body fat
If you are middle-aged you may have noticed that you are putting on weight despite the fact that there has been no change in your diet or your activity level. Why does weight gain happen in that case? Most often such weight gain is due to declining sex hormone and/or thyroid levels. It is difficult to lose or maintain weight in the face of sex hormone and thyroid hormone deficiency.
Another key hormone related to weight gain is insulin. Rising insulin levels prevents your body from tapping into the calories stored in your fat or adipose tissue. Insulin is secreted in response to meals, especially carbohydrates. Eat too many carbs, especially involving simple sugars and your insulin levels are likely to be elevated and contribute to weight gain. Cenengenics advocates a low glycemic eating plan which keeps insulin levels to a minimum.
Increased lean muscle mass and strength
The more muscle you have the more calories you burn. Muscle pound for pound burns about 3 times as many calories as fat. Also muscle contains a high concentration of insulin receptors. This means your body can better process carbs requiring less insulin. This helps prevent fat gain.
Also, many activities of daily living rely more on muscle strength than they do endurance. Getting out of chair at age 70 requires muscle strength not endurance. Maintaining muscle strength is vital to healthy aging.
Improved cholesterol levels
Low glycemic eating will lower cholesterol better than avoiding fats in the diet improving the unhealthy LDL cholesterol while lowering triglycerides. In addition, aerobic exercise along with weight loss will improve the good or HDL cholesterol.
Moods and well-being
Optimal hormone levels especially sex hormone levels have a positive affect on mood and well-being. The grumpy old man syndrome is real and is related to declining testosterone levels in men. Many women feel better overall in menopause when their sex hormones have been restored to healthy levels through hormone replacement. Both sexes notice better energy levels when hormones replaced.
But, diet is also important. Feed the body low grade fuel and your body and brain eventually will feel sluggish. Improve your diet and your moods will improved. Also, take note that synthesis our neurotransmitters all require amino acids which come from protein. Many do not consume enough protein in your diet. The Cenegenics eating plan emphasizes high quality protein throughout the day.
Sharper mental acuity
Sharper mental acuity through Cenegenics results primarily from hormone optimization with improvement in physical endurance and improved eating contributing to improved clarity of thought. Most patients report crisper memories and more focused concentration.
Stress management
Stress is a real killer. Managing stress appropriately will increase the odds of living longer more so than exercise, quitting smoking, and losing weight. While the Cenegenics Program does not provide direct stress management therapies, the improvement in physical health and moods as a result of the Cenegenics Program helps the individual better deal with stress whether it be a physical stress like an illness, or an emotional or psychological stress. Overall the Cenegenics program improves the brain’s reserve to deal with stressful situations.
Personal Experience with Cenegenics
I can tell you this. If you follow the program Cenegenics outlines for you, you will see results with rare exception. The biggest stumbling block or obstacle is in changing eating habits. That is where most patients fail. There is a reason for that.
Getting people to exercise is much easier than getting patients to improve their dietary habits. Eating healthy is a 24/7/365 commitment. It is a constant and daily struggle and effort. 24/7/3765 is long time to resist the temptation to revert back to bad eating habits. Exercising is a 30 to 60 minute daily proposition most days of the week. But, eating healthy is where you get the biggest return in terms of weight loss and disease prevention.
Quite honestly the easiest part of the program is getting hormones optimized and that falls on the physician. The anti-aging doctors at Cenegenics are experts in prescribing hormone therapy. But, if you don’t exercise and follow the Cenegenics nutrition plan you are likely to obtain suboptimal health results. Poor eating will sabotage your results. It has been estimated with a healthy eating plan and an exercise program that promotes hormonal changes the results from hormone optimization increase two-fold.
Cenegenics sponsors medical conferences for health care professionals in conjunction with the Age Management Group or AMMG. It has its own physician training program as well and has trained 5,000 physicians. It is engaged in clinical research especially in the area of hormone replacement and cardiovascular or heart disease.
So, what is Cenegenics? It’s a medical practice that uses evidence-based medicine to achieve optimal health through exercise, nutrition, and hormone optimization.
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