In present-day Romania, research in beauty care and beauty industry isn’t as fast-developing as abroad. The main goal of any cosmetic or medical product of that industry is, of course, rejuvenation. Hence the creation by Romanian gerontologist Ana Aslan, many years ago, of vitamin H3, widely known as Gerovital H3, a wonder-working medicine which acts against aging processes highly effectively at molecular and cell level. It was also Ana Aslan who founded, 65 years ago, the Gerontology and Geriatrics [1] Institute currently bearing her name, the first of its kind in the world. In 1974, the Institute became a national one, so that today it is known as the “Ana Aslan” National Institute of Gerontology and Geriatrics.
Ana Aslan (1897-1988) studied medical science in Bucharest, worked as a gerontology specialist, professor at the Faculty of Medical Sciences in Timişoara, Head of Department at the Endocrinology Institute in Bucharest and, starting 1952, Director of the Geriatrics Institute. She was one of the founders of gerontology as a world-level medical field.
Dr Aslan anticipated and discovered the benefits of procaine, and co-invented with pharmacist Elena Polovrăgeanu Gerovital H3. It is the first medicine designed to prevent and treat typical old-age diseases, an original Romanian product developed between 1946 and 1956 by Dr Ana Aslan and her team, following extensive research. Although initially the proposal was met with scepticism, in time it turned out to be valid. In 1956 the drug was first presented to the medical world at the Therapiewoche Congress in Karlsruhe and then at the European Congress of Gerontology in Basel. Thus, Romanian research in the field gained international standing and generated a great deal of comparative testing with similar products.
A few years later, Dr Aslan with pharmacist Polovrăgeanu blueprinted yet another geriatric product containing procaine and an activating antiatheromatous [2] agent, which they named Aslavital and was used to prevent specific old-age heart and brain disorders (particularly loss of memory).
From a clinical point of view, procaine treatment on elderly patients resulted in numerous benefits: reduced anxiety and depression, enhanced physical and intellectual capabilities, improved hair and skin tone, increased muscular firmness, better articular mobility, etc. There was also evidence of high effectiveness in preventive Gerovital H3 treatment applied prior to nerve dystrophy, and its prophylactic use engendered Dr Aslan’s subsequent research in social gerontology. [3]
During her career, Ana Aslan was the medical adviser of many people of international renown living in her lifetime, of whom Josip Broz Tito, Charles de Gaulle, Nikita Khrushchev, J.F. Kennedy, Indira Gandhi, Marlene Dietrich, Konrad Adenauer, Charlie Chaplin, Salvador Dalí and others had Gerovital treatments.
Dr Ana Aslan’s huge work as a medical practitioner and researcher along with her team’s contribution were widely appreciated globally. International studies confirmed the results of Romanian research, acknowledging the effectiveness of Gerovital over other products in the world pharmacopoeia. Ana Aslan and Gerovital are registered trademarks in 154 countries.
As for skin beauty, Dr Aslan created an antiaging cosmetic product line and it is the Cluj-based Romanian company Farmec that owns the right to produce and commercialise Ana Aslan cosmetics complying with the original recipe.
[1] While gerontology pertains to biology and focuses on aspects of aging, geriatrics is the medical field concerned with old-age diseases.
[2] Preventing the formation of atheroma (fatty deposits) in the arteries.
[3] For further information, see www.ana-aslan.ro/.
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