The American Acaemy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M) is a charitable 501(c)(3) medical society dedicated to the advancement of technology to detect, prevent, and treat aging related disease and to promote research into methods to retard and optimize the human aging process. The A4M is not recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties, which currently recognizes 130 medical specialties in the US, but has tried to establish anti-aging medicine as a specialty. As of mid-2006 the organization has a membership of nearly 18,000 physicians, scientists and health professionals in 85 countries, and has certified 1,500 physicians in the specialty of anti-aging medicine. The Academy has trained over 30,000 new physicians in its hands-on scientific, clinical and academic programs, and today influences over 100,000 health professionals via its educational training programs, seminars, board certification programs, videos, website, textbooks, and outreach programs. A4M has brought a great deal of scientific attention to the problems of aging and what medicine can do to alleviate those problems.