The Art and Science of Aging Well: A Physician's Guide to a Healthy Body, Mind, and Spirit

Many negative aging myths are busted in this lucid book by one of the first trained geriatricians. For instance, being slightly overweight may be protective for aging heart patients (if after contracting heart disease). But the blow-by-blow account of many inescapably negative aspects of aging that follows may have some dropping the book mid-read to bolt for the gym. A full 50 percent of cognitive deficits in a study of aging nuns were genetic. Half of all women are no longer sexually active after age 65. Thought processes slow considerably with age; many aspects of sight, hearing, strength, and immunity degenerate. Still, wisdom and creativity can even burn brighter: the list of great artists, composers, and thinkers who did some of their best work in old age includes Sophocles, Galileo, Beethoven, Monteverdi, Bach, Stravinsky, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Frank Lloyd Wright. Ben Franklin invented bifocals at 79. The Pietà carved by Michelangelo in his 80s is far more nuanced than the Pietà he carved in his 20s. The science of fighting old age marches on, with exercise proving more critical than ever. Mental exercises rewire brains and improve memory of 65-year-olds "substantially." Also key: intergenerational living, multiple projects, love (of people or pets), and laughter. Some may dispute the book's (brief) emphasis on oxygen free radical damage in light of more recent studies than those cited. Still, the author correctly and carefully notes the jury is out on the degree to which extra antioxidants help or harm in that regard.