Ageless: Take Control of Your Age and Stay Youthful for Life - Hardcover

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Edward L. Schneider, M.D., is one of the country's preeminent experts on aging well. A pioneer in the field of gerontology, he has been researching and writing on the topic of aging for thirty years. He took part in the landmark MacArthur Foundation Study of Successful Aging and has participated in many other important longevity studies of the past three decades. Currently, Dr. Schneider is Dean of the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology and Executive Director of the Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where he is also Professor of Medicine. A highly sought after speaker, Dean Schneider lectures on aging topics nationwide. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and four children.

Elizabeth Miles is a writer specializing in health and peak performance. Her many books include the book and 10-part CD series Tune Your Brain: Using Music to Manage Your Mind, Body, and Mood and Portion Savvy: The 30-Day Smart Plan for Eating Well (with Carrie Latt Wiatt, M.S.). She lives in Northern California.

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Expert praise for AgeLess wisdom ...

"The truth at last! Dr. Ed Schneider knows more about increasing our healthspan than anyone I've interviewed over the years. In AgeLess, he's digested it all into the most comprehensive, least expensive, holistic health plan-- which has the added benefit of inoculating us against anti-aging hype. And it goes down easier than the supplements you can now throw out!"--Gail Sheehy, author of New Passages and The Silent Passage

"AgeLess gets it right! Longevity is about living better, not just longer. Dr. Edward Schneider's practical application of the latest science is a useful guide for maintaining vitality at any age."--John W. Rowe, Chairman and CEO of Aetna Inc. and author of Successful Aging

"AgeLess is a "must read" for everyone who cares about healthy aging-- and that's all of us. There are no shortcuts to longevity-- take this sure road."--James Parkel, President of AARP

"With AgeLess, Dr. Schneider once again makes a significant contribution to the field of aging. Based on the most current and respected research, AgeLess is required reading for everyone who wants a long and healthy life."--Robert N. Butler, M.D., President and CEO of International Longevity Center-USA and author of Why Survive? Being Old in America

"The AgeLess wisdom Dr. Schneider prescribes in this book will keep us healthy and young at heart."--Betty Friedan, author of The Feminine Mystique and The Fountain of Age

Aus dem Klappentext

AgeLess
Take Control of Your Age and Stay Youthful for Life

Are you aging too fast? Edward Schneider, M.D., Dean of the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology and one of the field's leading gerontologists, refutes the myth that age equals loss-- of our health and our physical and mental vigor. You can't live forever. (If people tell you otherwise, says Dr. Schneider, don't believe them!) But you can control your aging to significantly reduce your risk of disability and illness and to feel vital and productive throughout your lifespan. By adopting the simple lifestyle measures outlined here, every one of us can live longer by living well.

In AgeLess, Dr. Schneider has taken the latest and best research findings in each of the key areas known to affect your healthspan-- nutrition, exercise, weight, sleep, social engagement, and hormones-- and developed his easy-to-follow, science-based New Rules of Aging Less. Some of these New Rules may surprise you.

Worried about your weight? Read the science behind New Weight Rule #1-- those few extra pounds may save your life. Or save money with this New Nutrition Rule: Toss out your multivitamins and most of your other supplements-- they may be doing you more harm than good. Do you think a good night's sleep is a relic of lost youth? Read the Dean's AgeLess tips for getting your nightly seven to nine hours-- it's essential to your healthspan.

And if you're determined to look as young as you feel, Dr. Schneider also rates cosmetic interventions-- alpha hydroxy acid skin creams, laser peels, Botox injections, and more-- to reveal which ones really work and those that don't.

To get started, take Dr. Schneider's Longevity Quotient Quizzes. These comprehensive questionnaires will help you rate your current lifestyle habits-- you'll learn the areas in which you're doing okay and where you need to improve. An AgeLess future is within reach-- start living yours today!

Edward L. Schneider, M.D., is one of the country's preeminent experts on aging well. A pioneer in the field of gerontology, he has been researching and writing on the topic of aging for thirty years. He took part in the landmark MacArthur Foundation Study of Successful Aging and has participated in many other important longevity studies of the past three decades. Currently, Dr. Schneider is Dean of the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology and Executive Director of the Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where he is also Professor of Medicine. A highly sought after speaker, Dean Schneider lectures on aging topics nationwide. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and four children.

Elizabeth Miles is a writer specializing in health and peak performance. Her many books include the book and 10-part CD series Tune Your Brain: Using Music to Manage Your Mind, Body, and Mood and Portion Savvy: The 30-Day Smart Plan for Eating Well (with Carrie Latt Wiatt, M.S.). She lives in Northern California.

AgeLess
Take Control of Your Age and Stay Youthful for Life

Are you aging too fast? Edward Schneider, M.D., Dean of the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology and one of the field's leading gerontologists, refutes the myth thatage equals loss-- of our health and our physical and mental vigor. You can't live forever. (If people tell you otherwise, says Dr. Schneider, don't believe them!) But you can control your aging to significantly reduce your risk of disability and illness and to feel vital and productive throughout your lifespan. By adopting the simple lifestyle measures outlined here, every one of us can live longer by living well.

In AgeLess, Dr. Schneider has taken the latest and best research findings in each of the key areas known to affect your healthspan-- nutrition, exercise, weight, sleep, social engagement, and hormones-- and developed his easy-to-follow, science-based New Rules of Aging Less. Some of these New Rules may surprise you.

Worried about your weight? Read the science behind New Weight Rule #1-- those few extra pounds may save your life. Or save money with this New Nutrition Rule: Toss out your multivitamins and most of your other supplements-- they may be doing you more harm than good. Do you think a good night's sleep is a relic of lost youth? Read the Dean's AgeLess tips for getting your nightly seven to nine hours-- it's essential to your healthspan.

And if you're determined to look as young as you feel, Dr. Schneider also rates cosmetic interventions-- alpha hydroxy acid skin creams, laser peels, Botox injections, and more-- to reveal which ones really work and those that don't.

To get started, take Dr. Schneider's Longevity Quotient Quizzes. These comprehensive questionnaires will help you rate your current lifestyle habits-- you'll learn the areas in which you're doing okay and where you need to improve. An AgeLess future is within reach-- start living yours today!

Edward L. Schneider, M.D., is one of the country's preeminent experts on aging well. A pioneer in the field of gerontology, he has been researching and writing on the topic of aging for thirty years. He took part in the landmark MacArthur Foundation Study of Successful Aging and has participated in many other important longevity studies of the past three decades. Currently, Dr. Schneider is Dean of the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology and Executive Director of the Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where he is also Professor of Medicine. A highly sought after speaker, Dean Schneider lectures on aging topics nationwide. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and four children.

Elizabeth Miles is a writer specializing in health and peak performance. Her many books include the book and 10-part CD seriesTune Your Brain: Using Music to Manage Your Mind, Body, and Mood and Portion Savvy: The 30-Day Smart Plan for Eating Well (with Carrie Latt Wiatt, M.S.). She lives in Northern California.

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CHAPTER 1

AGELESS

AS THE DEAN of the nation's only School of Gerontology, I am devoted to increasing health and vitality through aging research and education. For three decades, I've participated in a radical shift in our understanding of the aging process. While scientists once thought that the secret to longevity was to choose healthy grandparents who lived to a ripe old age-- not an easy proposition--we now have the evidence to prove that it's not all in your genes. In fact, your daily actions and attitudes are the strongest influence on how well you age, via specific biochemical and neurological effects on your biological clock. This means that the ability to increase your health and longevity is in your hands.

Leading these advances was the landmark MacArthur Foundation Study of Successful Aging, a pivotal investigation that changed how we view the aging process. I was part of the MacArthur research team, which looked at data from the Swedish Twin Study. The study followed 20,000 identical and nonidentical twins, raised together and apart, for over 40 years--an ideal situation for studying genetic and environmental factors for health and disease. We specifically focused on how much genes and the environment each contributed to how well people aged.

The results were astounding. We found that while genes can play an important role in health during the early decades of life, from there on out (most of adulthood) your behaviors and lifestyle account for a full 70 percent of how well you age. In other words, genetic influences on your longevity diminish substantially as you move down life's path. Your own behaviors take their place.

The MacArthur study went on to identify the top habits of highly successful agers. As one example, we found that people who stayed the most mentally sharp exercised more, achieved higher levels of education, and had better self-efficacy--belief in one's ability to organize and execute actions to achieve specific goals. Similar blueprints emerged for the many aspects of aging--or more aptly, aging less.

AgeLess living is a comprehensive concept. Following from the MacArthur study and the wealth of other good research now available, I've grounded this book not just on a single theory of aging, destined to pass into history with the next trend, but on an integrated model that covers every aspect of your daily life that influences the aging process. From what you eat and how well you sleep to the type and length of your exercise routine, weight management issues, how you cope with stress, and your hormonal profile, you can acquire the AgeLess practices that will enable you to live longer with more zest and vitality. This book will show you how.

Take Control of Your Age

We all age differently. If you've ever been to a high school or college reunion, you've seen the proof up close. The prom king might look decades older than the calendar says, while the formerly mousy math whiz radiates youthful vitality and dances the night away. Though the chronological clock ticks at the same rate for all of us, everyone's biological clock has its own speed. To a great extent, you can control that rate. Though you can't stop aging, as some people and products might claim, you can age less.

The essential part of ourselves, whether you call it soul, self, or spirit, is ageless. This ageless self enables us to identify with the youthful protagonists in coming-of-age films and books because, internally, we feel eternally young. This book offers you tools to minimize the toll of time and maximize the correspondence between your ageless self and the face that meets the world. By adopting AgeLess principles, you can increase your vitality today, prevent or postpone the diseases of aging, and add healthy years to your time on earth.

Live Well to Age Well

The goal of an AgeLess lifestyle is a longer healthspan, my term for the healthy and active part of lifespan. Aging is a lifelong process: Soon after conception, as the human embryo grows, certain cells start to age and die. As our lives grow longer, so does the drama of age. At present, it is not possible to stop or reverse aging. If you're alive, you're getting older, and anyone who claims otherwise is misleading you. However, you can significantly slow the age-related processes that clog arteries and raise blood pressure, impair sugar metabolism, turn firm muscles to flab, sap energy, weaken and wrinkle the skin, and attack memory and mental functions. AgeLess habits can alter the course of countless biological reactions to help prevent many of the disorders and diseases associated with aging: heart disease, stroke, adult-onset diabetes, most cancers, disability, memory loss, and more. They can also address the myriad cosmetic concerns that mount with the years--weight gain, wrinkles, sagging flesh, and fading glow. In short, the way you live can largely determine your youthfulness today and how long and healthy your later life will be. An AgeLess lifestyle can optimize your chance of becoming a centenarian and still having plenty of juice left when you get there.

My own grandparents were AgeLess role models for me. Though I knew them for 40 years, I never saw these two dynamos grow old. Their joie de vivre communicated an agelessness that would one day become the elixir that I now offer to all of you. My grandmother lived life to the fullest throughout her eighties, doing her own housekeeping and shopping, cooking for her grandchildren, running out to have fun with her friends at the senior center, and still having time left over to volunteer at the local nursing home. My grandfather was equally active, managing his apartment building and playing vigorously with his grandchildren. He never lost his energy or gusto for life.

During my medical training, I didn't understand what the doctors meant when they discussed old age in a negative way. These vital, engaged, and energetic people were proof to me that aging didn't mean the inevitable decline that my medical teachers described. My grandparents inspired me to make the study of aging my life's work.

We live at a time of unprecedented opportunity to maximize our AgeLess potential. In the United States, average life expectancy at birth has increased from 49 years in 1900 to over 77 today. Most readers of this book will make it to age 85, and many of you have a good shot at celebrating your 100th birthday. But with current trends, half of our future 85-year- olds will need help with simple daily tasks due to age-related infirmities acquired along the way. Which will you be--independent, vigorous, and active, or needy, disabled, and sick? Now is the time to decide.

Healthspan Matters at Any Age

This is an all-ages book. If you don't think aging less is your concern yet, you're in good company. Ethel Percy Andrus, a dedicated educator a few decades ago, couldn't be bothered with aging or its negative stereotypes until she unexpectedly received her retirement notice from the Los Angeles Unified School District. One of the first women high school principals during the Depression and after, Ethel rejected the district's measly fixed $100 monthly pension and instead took a step that would transform the face of aging in America. Ethel cofounded AARP to lead the battle for the right of people of all ages to enjoy life to its peak potential.

AARP is now one of the largest and most powerful organizations in the world, 35 million members strong and regularly ranked the nation's leading lobbying group. Since Ethel Andrus was an educator committed to the empowering nature of knowledge, it was fitting that the AARP should decide to found a research center in her name to study the science of aging. They chose the University of Southern California as the site and invited the association's members to contribute to the center's construction and...