Merck Shares Fall Sharply Amid Worry Over Gardasil Sales - Wall Street Journal
Merck Shares Fall Sharply Amid Worry Over Gardasil Sales Wall Street Journal - By VAL BRICKATES KENNEDY Merck & Co. shares fell sharply Monday amid concerns raised in buy synthetic caffeine research note by UBS about how sales of its new vaccine Gardasil are faring. Video: Is HPV Vaccine Safe? Complaints Cause Gardasil Cervical Cancer Vaccine Scrutiny |
Our world population is aging. In just a few years, half of our world's population will be over the age of fifty. As with all trends, opportunities arise for some to profit off of the change. A new slew of doctors, known as anti-aging specialists, have emerged and are presenting this new "silver boom" generation with a figurative "fountain of youth". The resulting changes to this generation are creating a split, which will become more and more obvious as time passes.
For tens of thousands of years, man has aged in the same pattern. He is born, experience puberty in the early teen years, peaks testosterone production by age twenty, then slowly declines in bone and muscle mass, as well as testosterone levels, for the remainder of his life. By age 50, some body functions may suffer as the body begins to break down, and by 75 or 80, the average male passes away. It's the cycle of life.
Hormone replacement therapy and testosterone supplementation is changing all of this. For the first time in mankind's history, men are now able to postpone the "collapse" which results from the decline of the body's natural testosterone production. Men are now able to stand before us at age 40, 50, 60, and beyond, with the vitality, strength, and hormone function of an 18-year old male.
This technology is brand new. And while it was reserved for the rich and vain for its first ten years of existence, it's suddenly being used by the middle-class. Older men everywhere want to feel like young men again, and are flocking to their doctors, seeking patches and shots to help them be kids again.
What will be the effects of this influx to the fountain of youth? Medically, we don't know the long-term effects of 40+ years of testosterone supplementation on the human body. Most people who have done so to this point have done so quietly, for obvious reasons. As a society, what will be the effects? What happens when these millions of 50-something men suddenly feel twenty years old again? Will we see higher divorce rates and a restructuring of the traditional family unit? And what are the economic implications? Assuming these men live much longer than anticipated, social security system will certainly take a hit, providing years of retirement funding not originally planned for. And what about the women? Will they follow suit and begin their own macro-trek to the fountain of revisited youth?
It's an exciting trip we're entering with this world of artificial hormonization of humans to postpone, or completely avoid, the aging process. Time will tell if time can be postponed successfully or not.
Dane Fletcher is the world's most prolific bodybuilding and fitness expert and is currently the executive editor for http://www.BodybuildingToday.com
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