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Modern medicine has developed along a deductive pathway which advocates the identification of the cause of a disease entity, thence create a technique to clear the pathology. Chemical drugs are often involved in this process of target-shooting, which has been very successful when a disease has a single straightforward cause.

Aging involves complicated degenerative changes which cannot be corrected by simple removal or counteractions. Aging is affecting large populations and has become a public health problem. Developing multiple methodologies counteracting aging is an important issue for health providers. A new stream of clinicians has started special aging clinics in Europe and United States to give special services to the elderly who complain about fatigue, loss of energy and general malaise. This group assumes that those aging syndromes are the result of subtle hormonal deficiencies or subclinical toxic states. Basing on the “bullet-shot” theory, specific hormonal supplements or detoxications for the problems. The efficacy of this approach has to be proven. On the other hand, Oriental medicine advocates prevention of disease and degeneration before symptoms are felt. This can be done with active but non-strenuous exercise training, careful choice of a balanced diet and psychosocial means to maintain an internal harmony. To facilitate this practice of natural healing and disease prevention, practitioners of Chinese medicine have used a variety of herbs, either as accompanying ingredients in daily cooking or as specific broths. The Oriental way of natural healing demands a fervent personal commitment and is recommended for all those being challenged with aging.

Aging is associated with numerous physiologic and psychosocial changes and with increased needs for medical care. Older adults are usually affected by two or more chronic diseases; are ill longer; have longer hospital stays; and hence, greater physical, mental and financial burdens. Complementary and alternative medicines (CAM), especially in the form of herbal medicines and botanical dietary supplements, are options that are being increasingly used by adults, including elderly consumers over 60 years of age, to treat or prevent a wide array of ailments such as chronic pain, arthritis, high cholesterol, insomnia, anxiety, Alzheimer disease, dementia, benign prostatic hyperplasia, and cardiovascular diseases. There are currently thousands of traditional medicines (TM) and other CAM herbal products available as such therapeutic agents worldwide. Yet, of the nearly 2000 herbal medicines listed in the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register as of June 2009, most of the clinical trials focus on a single plant herbal or phytomedicine. Hence, in this review, we will concentrate on single herb products that have been documented to have some clinical evidence of efficacy and/or safety for the treatment of diseases associated with aging. Space limitations, however, will not allow us to discuss every herbal product useful for this group of the population. In this review, the following herbs and their potential medical uses will be presented as examples of herbal medicine of potential relevance to the aging population. The examples presented are Boswellia (potentially useful for the management of arthritis, bronchial asthma, Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis), Echinacea (treatment and prevention of upper respiratory infections), Ginkgo (treatment and prevention of dementia), Ginseng (adaptogen for the maintenance and restoration of health, among other chronic conditions), Hawthorn (potential cardiovascular adjunct), Huperzia (Alzheimer's disease), Pygeum (Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia), and Saw Palmetto (Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia).

Chinese herbal medicines have been used to treat age-related diseases for a long time. Some Chinese medicines are also being used as functional food items in daily cooking for health maintenance and disease prevention purposes. This article provides an overview of the theories and principles underpinning the application of Chinese functional foods for health maintenance, especially in an aged population. The pathophysiology of aging is reviewed from a Chinese medical perspective, and the decline of kidney essence, the reduction of visceral functions and the accumulation of pathogenic products such as phlegm turbidity and blood stasis are identified as the basic mechanisms that drive the aging process. Accordingly, herbs with the functions of tonifying kidney essence, strengthening the qi and blood, resolving phlegm and invigorating blood circulation are the main ingredients for anti-aging applications. According to China's Ministry of Health, 87 Chinese herbs can be used as edible food items. Another 113 Chinese herbs can be classified as health promotion ingredients. These two categories of herbs are collectively called Chinese functional foods. The use of these Chinese functional foods for health promotion should conform to the basic principles of Chinese medicine. A number of functional food formulas are cited as examples to illustrate the application of Chinese functional ingredients for promoting health conditions among old people.

People in different societies have known tremendous of indigenous medicinal plants since prehistoric time. Among these societies, Chinese people have discovered thousands plants of medicinal properties since thousands of years. They have used them in their food and prescriptions to invigorate their body functions and to treat different ailments, respectively. Since the middle of last century, great attention has been paid globally to medicinal plants trying to use their active ingredients as an alternative medicine. During this period, many molecular ingredients have been identified and isolated from these plants by the aid of modern analytical tools. More recently, some of these molecular substances have been shown to exert neuroprotective effects against a number of neurodegenerative disorders by modulating certain CNS targets. This chapter will address and discuss the effect of the most popular Chinese herbs and their active ingredients against age-related neurodegenerative diseases with special references to Alzheimer's and Parkinson diseases.

The demographic change, its origins and its challenges for politics and medicine, is one of the most important topics in actual health-related research. Regrettably most of this research neglects non-clinical aspects and is not willing to consider soft facts like self-referenced well-being or perceived health. Bringing together actual health-related findings from different disciplines working in life satisfaction research, an introduction and overview on the current state of discussion with strong focus on the elderly shall be provided — it aims to show that life satisfaction is one of the most decisive factors for healthy aging and longevity.

Core aspects are the amazing relationship between well-being, self-referenced health and classical parameters like life expectancy, the question on the impact of money and the satisfaction paradox of the old.

The article is a review of ideas in Russian gerontology and geriatrics for 250 years. Most prominent concepts and figures in medical, biological and philosophical aspects of aging studies are shown, with accents made on immunoneuroendocrine mechanisms of senescence. The author’s own studies, with reference to autoimmune thyroiditis, inherited disorders of connective tissue and accelerated aging are briefly characterized.