Defy Aging: A Beginner's Guide to the New Science of Longer Life and Better Health

Shows why and how the body deteriorates as life goes on and offers an easy-read overview of new solutions coming out of current studies of aging. Wrinkles and gray hairs and misplaced keys—the obvious signs of getting older. Surprisingly, all of the miniscule events in our cells and organs that are responsible for aging begin their deterioration in our third decade. This book explains what is going on inside cells and organs that result in the outward appearances of aging. Readers will discover what causes skin to sag, hair to turn gray, blood vessels to stiffen, and other, mostly unwelcome events. Finally, and probably most importantly, the reader will be introduced to what can be done to stop or reverse this process.Beth Bennett provides an easy-to-read introduction to the science of aging: why and how the body deteriorates. She uses real world analogies to explain the chemical and cellular processes taking place in the body, along with newly-discovered solutions emerging from basic research labs. Bennett explores the effects of aging in body systems that are important to all of us as we age: skin, muscle, bone, heart, and brain. In each of these body components, Bennett connects novel, science-based interventions with lifestyle modifications that improve and extend health, as opposed to simply lengthening life.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction. 2. The Why of Aging, or Evolutionary Explanations for Why We Grow Old. 3. The How of Aging. 4. Skin. 5. Muscles. 6. Skeleton. 7. Cardiovascular System. 8. Cognitive Ability and Memory. 9. Interventions Part 1: Lifestyle Changes You Can Make. 10. Interventions Part 2: Drugs and Other Compounds You Can Take Bibliography Notes Index About the Author

About the Author :
Beth Bennett, PhD, is a geneticist, with over 50 publications in peer-reviewed journals and a background in evolutionary genetics and the science of aging. She taught college biology for 30 years at the University of Colorado in Boulder, where she currently produces a radio show on science. She blogs on all things relating to aging.

Review :
Geneticist Bennett lends a scientist’s scrutiny to this accessible and comprehensive “guidebook to the aging of the body.” Rather than advise on ways to slow down aging, Bennett focuses on the mechanics of getting older, with chapters exploring how individual bodily systems—the skin, muscles, skeleton, cardiovascular system, and brain—are affected by aging, such as the how skin loses tautness or why blood vessels eventually stiffen. In the final two chapters, Bennett lays out behavioral and chemical interventions with promising antiaging potential (among them restricting calories, fasting diets, and heat and cold exposure therapies), concluding that “although dying is inevitable, poor health, by and large, is not.” Bennett also expounds on particularly complex topics in “deep dive” sections, and proposes that the reader “treat the book like a smorgasbord of aging information, picking and choosing topics that interest you.” (For instance, “A Deep Dive into the Protein Structure of the Skin” explains how cancer risk and skin care go hand in hand.) Bennett synthesizes mountains of research, carefully weighing the reliability of the available data and explaining dense content with clarity. This explainer packs in a wealth of contemporary insight into an ancient topic. Defy Aging is an interesting and provocative examination of the aging process, the work being done to slow it down, and what we ourselves can do to slow our own aging. We are living longer. Yet, while people are eager to slow the aging process, few people understand what aging is and how it works. This book is a clear and concise explanation of aging that includes helpful and practical tips for increasing one’s health span, not just one’s life span. Aging is inevitable, but are the ills associated with aging preventable? In this book, Beth Bennet provides an understandable explanation of the scientific basis of aging, and of the remarkable scientific advances that may help us to stave off the negative physical and mental consequences of aging and promote health and activity throughout the lifespan.