E-Book Overview
With a baby boomer turning sixty every ten seconds, we are rapidly becoming an aging society. But cutting edge research on the connection between age and disease shows us that many of the preconceptions we had about how to grow old need a second look. This groundbreaking book is full of take-away prescriptive advice which the nearly seventy-five million boomers in this nation will value. Top gerontologist and Stanford medical school professor Dr. Walter Bortz and co-author Randall Stickrod draw on new science and a thirty-year longitudinal study of centenarians to show that:• Genetics plays a smaller role in aging than previously thought• Senility, dementia, and other diseases of the elderly, are largely preventable and not an inevitable consequence of aging• Engagement, through sexual relationships, social interaction, and professional activity, is a key factor in long, healthy lives• Physical fitness can recover at least 30 years of aging Filled with in-depth insight and practical advice, The Roadmap to 100 gives you the power to control your own destiny and live well beyond 100.
E-Book Content
Fur t he r praise for The Roadmap to 100 “More and more people are living well into their eighties and nineties today and they are continuing to thrive and participate fully in life. Renowned physician and aging researcher, Dr. Wally Bortz from the Stanford Medical School makes a solid case for how we can dramatically impact our own lifelong health through vigorous and sustained exercise. He draws on cutting edge science that shows that we get weaker as the decades pass, not necessarily due to aging, but rather because we don’t challenge our bodies enough. The Roadmap to 100 shows how staying engaged cuts across all fields—exercising, socializing, keeping sexuality alive—can prolong your life for many decades. This is a fantastic book and Bortz is a true trailblazer.” —Ken Dychtwald, Ph.D., author of The Age Wave and A New Purpose: RedefiningMoney, Family, Work, Retirement, and Success “At 80 years young, Doctor Walter Bortz brings an energy to his work that exceeds most 20 year olds. He challenges us with an uplifting message: we are each ultimately responsible for our own health, and that by remaining fully engaged—community, fitness, intellectual, creative— we extend a life worth living.” —Jim Collins, author of Good to Great “Unlike the generalizations with which doctors usually instruct their patients, this book outlines in clear, concise prose what we can do to remain fully function as we age. Moreover, it explains exactly how the interventions recommended work to preserve health and competence. The book is a welcome aid to helping people live better as well as longer.” —Marianne Legato, author of Why Men Die First
“With his enthusiasm and insight, Walter Bortz makes us want to go further and explore all the options of aging. The Roadmap to 100 is a spirited romp through the process of gaining wisdom and pleasure as we continue on and on.” —Bonnie Matheson, author of Ahead of the Curve “Here is a fast paced and lively guide on how to live longer. Wally Bortz’s clear and direct message emphasizes the importance of action, motion, and engagement in maintaining ‘vim and vigor’.” —Seth Landefeld, MD, Professor of Medicine, Chief, Division of Geriatrics, University of California at San Francisco “Ever since I learned that Jeanne Calment said at 120 she had only one wrinkle, and she was sitting on it, I figured that humor must be the key to longevity. Since then I met Walter M. Bortz—marathoner, thinker, and former head of the American Geriatrics Association. No one has been a more avid gatherer and popularizer of data on the importance of exercise to the project of happiness and longevity. But Bortz’s vision extends further, to a whole new medicine based on empowerment and prevention, and informed by evolution and energy science.