Dr. James Forsythe (born August 11, 1938) is an American author, anti-aging physician, and integrative oncologist specializing in the use of human growth hormone to combat the symptoms of aging. He is a native of Detroit, Michigan.
Forsythe is a former associate professor of medicine at the University of Nevada School of Medicine and frequently appears as the featured speaker at conferences of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine International Congress. He founded the Century Wellness Clinic in Reno, Nevada.
In 2009, Forsythe was profiled in actress Suzanne Somers’ New York Times best-selling book, Knockout: Interviews With Doctors Who Are Curing Cancer.
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After graduation from the University of California at Berkeley in 1960, Forsythe was accepted at the University of California at San Francisco Medical School. To finance his medical education, he turned to the U.S. Army's medical school program. In return for U.S. Army financial assistance, he agreed to serve in the military after finishing medical school in 1964.
Upon graduation, Forsythe was commissioned a second lieutenant and sent to Letterman Army Hospital at the Presidio in San Francisco to serve his medical internship. When the internship ended in 1965, he was sent to San Antonio, Texas for a four-week basic military medical training course. Promoted to captain, he transferred to Fort Bragg, North Carolina and the 82nd Airborne, where he served as assistant chief of pathology at the Womack Army Hospital.
In January 1969, Forsythe received a transfer to Vietnam. He initially served as a forensic pathologist at the 93rd Evacuation Hospital in Long Binh, 30 miles north of Saigon. Attaining the rank of major, he was transferred to the 312th Evacuation Hospital at Chu Lai, on the South China Sea, where he served as chief of pathology. He held a similar position for a surgical hospital located 10 miles away in the jungle.
Following an honorable discharge from the Army in 1970, he signed up with the Army Reserves for ongoing duty, and accepted a hematology and oncology fellowship at the University of California at San Francisco. This was the first year that oncology boards were offered for certification. He later entered oncology practice at Saint Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco.
In 1974, Forsythe relocated his oncology practice to Reno, Nevada He developed cancer wards at the city’s two major medical facilities at that time, Saint Mary’s Hospital and Washoe Medical Center. He simultaneously served as medical officer in charge of Reno’s Washoe Medical Center.
In 1978, Forsythe married Earlene Marion Lombardi, a nurse at the Army Reserve Hospital. In 1993, he retired as a full colonel following 26 years of Active Army reserve and National Guard duty, the last decade of which as the State Surgeon. His wife, Earlene also resigned that year with the rank of major after serving as State Nurse. Forsythe later became an associate professor of medicine at the University of Nevada's School of Medicine. He also served as the medical director of five northwest Nevada nursing homes.
Disillusioned in the early 1990s by the low cure and remission rates that he was seeing among cancer patients, Forsythe began searching for ways to integrate conventional oncology approaches to cancer treatment with some of the alternative medicine techniques that were emerging. While continuing a standard oncology practice using low-dose chemotherapy, he gave patients the option of also using homeopathy and nutritional supplements as immune system stimulation therapies. He allows his cancer patients to choose among three options:
In the book Knockout, Forsythe described himself as "an integrative medical oncologist" whose integrative treatment approach has produced a 40 percent survivor rate after five years among patients with stage IV cancers, compared to a two percent survival rate for stage IV patients who use only conventional chemotherapy. Another innovation in his practice is his use of chemo-sensitivity testing. Each patient's blood is sent to a laboratory in Germany, where cancer cells are identified genetically to determine which drugs will work most effectively for each patient's particular type of cancer. Forsythe says this blood testing results in fewer side effects for patients, a healthier immune system, and more effective use of low-dose chemotherapy drugs that target specific cancers.
After seeing recoveries by patients who used injectable human growth hormone (HGH) for various medical conditions, Forsythe studied the substance and concluded that it might be useful in treating symptoms associated with the aging process, including arthritis, age spots, wrinkling, and excess body fat. Natural production of HGH declines decade by decade after childhood, and this decline accelerates once people reach their 40s or 50s.
Starting in the 1990s, Forsythe began testing patients for their HGH levels to determine if their pituitary gland still produced an adequate amount of this hormone. If not, he prescribed the use of injectable HGH. As he relates in his book, Anti-Aging Cures, he discovered that replacing the HGH resulted in people aged 50 and beyond experiencing a noticeable reversal in the symptoms of aging. There were no documented side effects from its use at prescribed dosages.
Forsythe was indicted by a federal grand jury on September 27, 2006, and charged with one count of Causing Introduction Into Interstate Commerce Unapproved New Drugs, one count of Distribution of Human Growth Hormone, and Aiding and Abetting. If convicted, Forsythe faced up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the causing introduction count and up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the distribution count.
He became the first and only physician in the U.S. to ever be charged with prescribing HGH to a patient for an off-label use as an anti-aging treatment.
On November 1, 2007, a 12-person jury acquitted Forsythe of all charges. His acquittal cleared the way for medical professionals nationwide to issue legal prescriptions for human growth hormone. The verdict also resulted in Forsythe emerging as a leader in the anti-aging medicine movement.