Anti-Aging Medicine: How We Can Extend Lifespan and Live Longer and Healthier Lives

Aging is a treatable condition! For centuries aging and a particular human lifespan have been widely thought to be an inescapable and fundamental aspect of human existence. However, today there is an increasing understanding that aging is treatable, like a disease, and that therefore anti-aging medicine and lifespan extension are possible.
Why do we age? Although Darwin’s evolution theory explains the vast majority of observations concerning the evolved designs of living organisms including humans, scientists have struggled for more than 160 years to explain why we age in evolutionary terms. Modern theories of biological aging are based on relatively minor modifications to Darwin’s ideas about the nature of the evolution process and there is still no wide scientific agreement on any single aging theory. In addition, these theories have drastically different predictions regarding the treatability of aging and the nature of the biological mechanisms that cause aging and highly age-related diseases like cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s disease. Modern thinking has been greatly affected by relatively recent discoveries especially in the area of biological inheritance (genetics). This book describes the history and current status of aging theories and explains why the newest theories are much more likely to be valid and much more optimistic regarding our ability to treat aging.
What can we personally do to slow aging? This book explores the increasing evidence that personal behaviors including diet and exercise can generally delay aging and age-related diseases. In addition, there is evidence that some pharmaceutical agents can act to delay aging. Major research efforts are now underway to exploit these possibilities.
How does anti-aging medicine relate to current medicine and health care? Current health care systems as they have evolved for centuries are still largely based on the idea that aging is an inevitable unchangeable part of life. However, there are now anti-aging medical practices that can provide guidance for personal efforts to delay aging including diet, exercise, and applicable pharmaceutical agents.

• Key observations about the nature of aging.
• Orally administered substances known to increase longevity in mice.
• Why exercise increases longevity.
• Anti-aging medicine issues with existing health care systems.
• Social, educational, ethical, and economic issues with extending lifespan.
• How lifespan extension concepts add to our ability to devise treatments for age-related diseases.

 

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Anti-Aging Medicine comprehensively presents historical and modern aging theories as a foundation to present methods of lifespan extension.

Summary: Arguments about the nature of aging (now extending for more than a century) are actually arguments over obscure details of evolution theory. Some of these details suggest that we can find treatments for individual symptoms of aging like cancer and heart disease but that aging itself is an untreatable condition, an inescapable fact of life. Medicine as we know it is largely based on this idea. However, recent discoveries especially in genetics now strongly show that aging is itself a treatable condition (like a disease) and even suggest ways in which aging can be delayed.
 
The effects of aging go beyond external physical changes and extend into the physiological impact on the human body and ultimately the quality of life and life expectancy of an individual. Understanding the purpose and progression of aging allows society to address those changes, ultimately making an impact o n the effects of aging.
 
In this book, Goldsmith aptly presents the various theories that address aging, starting with Darwin and continuing with the later theories of biologists such as Peter Brian Medawar and George C. Williams. The author also provides an extensive background of the schism between earlier and more current theories, which is important to lay the groundwork for how to best address aging using evidence-based research.
 
When "treating" aging, Goldsmith points to a variety of methods that have been found to impact aging, reviewing the evidence of certain medicines and exercises, to name a few. More importantly, the information is presented in an objective manner presenting not only the influence on aging but also the feasibility of implementing these measures in the current environment. For example, some medicine that has been found to be effective in lab studies use mice and the application to humans is not yet feasible.
 
The author also provides resources on aging research, which includes an extensive list of research articles, a glossary of terms, and free reading material. After reading this book, the reader will (1) have a clear understanding of aging theories past and present (2) the history of aging theories, which is important to understand aging research (3) the differences between programmed aging(or adaptive aging) and non-programmed (or non-adaptive) and the impact of each theoretical foundation on interventions (4) the stratification of ailments by age groups and (5) evidence-based interventions to address aging.
 
With the amount of research that is presented in this book, along with the theoretical concepts that are expanded upon, this book is recommended for an individual who wants to learn about anti-aging on a higher level. Having a general understanding of research terms, evidence, medical, and scientific terms would also be important to appreciate the breadth of the material presented. I would define Anti-Aging Medicine: How We Can Extend Lifespan and Live Longer and Healthier Lives as a reference book for anti-aging theories and interventions. 
 
Turquessa Francis - Reedsy Discovery