“How old would you be
If you didn’t know the day you were born.”
Toby Keith’s song is about one way to live: Most of us will outlive our grandparents by a generation. Since most of us will spend decades being old, let’s make the most of it.
Recently, I read about a dozen books on longevity, purpose, legacy, healthy habits, and discovering the right place for the next season of life. I’ll share what I’ve learned in future blog posts. For now, here are pointers to four excellent books.
Regarding personal health, my two favorite books are Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande and Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia.
Atul Gawande
Atul Gawande is a surgeon and public health researcher. Being Mortal is the most recent of his four best-selling books. His compassion and research lean against US medicine’s policy of doing almost anything to delay death, even by a little.
He shares wonderful stories of people committed to noble aging. Gawande favors people making wise choices about what matters, what they want as the end comes, and what they will tolerate to have their outcome. He prefers “hard choices, easy life” to “easy choices, hard life.” He was uncomfortable asking his dying father tough questions, but when dad’s end came near, the family knew their dad’s intent.
Books of this genre tell stories of real people and provide granular details of life, health choices, and the consequences of those decisions. His stories and the people were presented more clearly and compassionately than volumes that won’t be cited. Gawande explains how culture affects systems more than other books. His book has far more endorsements than the others I read.
Peter Attia
Peter Attia is a hard-driving super-achiever. He focuses on what YOU can do with YOUR HEALTH and YOUR BODY to maximize your vigorous years.
His surprise was that “exercise is the best drug.” Maintaining superior fitness provides physical margin and tends to boost emotional health. He challenges patients to identify ten things they will be able to do when they are 100. Lifting a five-year-old to your eye level and making love were among his suggestions. His work helps you understand how to attain those goals.
Thousands of people with the will and $2500 have subscribed to his program to seek an extra five or ten years of mental and physical vigor by applying the strategies he advocates. My wife and I are on his waitlist.
For a good portion of the book, I was intimidated by this superhero. The last two chapters disclosed how his early pain drove him to extremes in accomplishment. I was sorry for his past pain but glad to understand his motivation.
Aging may reveal nobility but won’t always be pleasant. Both authors care about people as individuals and seek to concisely give you enough truth to consider their perspectives.
Two Books That Merit Honorable Mention
Louise Aronson’s Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life is an excellent book that mixes Aronson’s experience and knowledge as a gerontologist with her personal experience caring for her father. However, better editing of her work could make it more concise and smoother in transitions.
In Lifespan: Why We Age and Why We Don’t Have To, David Sinclair argues that thousands of brilliant people are attacking biochemistry, which now ends human lives. He thinks several labs will discover cures for horrible afflictions. Human lifespan may increase another 20 years as some of these killers are stopped or slowed.
Because of his success and connections, he is aware of scores of efforts to push back diseases or find better pharmacology. Some of his critics wish he had disclosed a bit more about his indirect rewards for the not-yet FDA-approved chemistry that he takes and tells the public about.
There’s more to come in future posts.
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Now, it is your turn. What have you learned that might help others? Please share.
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Terry Moore, CCIM, is the author of Building Legacy Wealth: How to Build Wealth and Live a Life Worth Imitating. Read his “Welcome to My Blog.”