Healthy Aging: A Lifelong Guide to Your Well-Being Paperback – January 2, 2007

This may be Doctor Weil's best book. With clear understand he gives the readers the most honest view on the subject of aging. and death. This clearly stated honesty is (surprisingly) comforting. He starts Healthy Aging . . . with thoughts about immortality and the fallacy of seeking a fountain of youth.Dr. Weil is quick to debunk bogus remedies that claim to reverse the aging process. The focus of this book is to help readers gleam the most from life as it is. As he points out, life is only desirable when accompanied by some measure of health and happiness. While it is possible to extend the period of healthy life, living forever, even with youth preserved, would eventually become intolerable.Doctor Weil explains the science of aging and makes many suggestions for healthfully slowing down this process. He covers prevention, diet, healthful exercise, lifestyle, as well as the most recent information on dietary supplements. He does this with his usual inspired clarity. I think that his philosophy is of equal importance. His chapter on growing old gracefully is also helpful.As the book ends it is summarized with a brief twelve point plan for healthy aging.I'm glad I read this book and I believe most people, young and old, would benefit from reading it and applying it to their own lives.

Please forgive the play on words in the title of this review. I had almost given up on Medical Doctors until reading Dr. Weil's superb book. I'm 64 years old, a tenured Professor of Education at a California State University, and I've just started studying Aikido (which is also all about mind, body and spirit). That study has proven to be catalytic in the development of my awareness of the healthy aging that Dr. Weil writes about with such insightfulness and clarity. I have already posted my recommendation of this excellent book on my own web site for benefit of my students and fellow faculty and staff at the university where I teach. Perhaps I am biased in favor of this book because I already embrace the underlying philosophy, but I believe that anyone who takes the time to read and carefully consider what Dr. Weil has written will find it to be of great value. In fact, I liked it so much that I recommended it to the Naturopathic Doctor who is my own personal physician! Special thanks to Dr. Weil for including his own ethical will. I wish more people in the helping professions would write ethical wills and include information about themselves on personal web sites to help the people who need their services make informed decisions.

I got this book after years of denying that I was getting past the point where I could subsist on caffeine, occasional (very occasional) exercise and a diet which wasn't particularly healthy.Still, I remained in denial, even though I wasn't sleeping well, my body ached all night and I got tired very easily. The breaking point was when a major attack of heartburn scared me so badly that I ended up in the emergeny room, convinced I was having a heart attack. After a battery of tests, including an overnight stay and a MASSIVE bill, I knew I had to do something differently.Heart attack or not, my choesterol was dangerously high, my thryoid wasn't working effectively and my weight was going up. I had frequent bouts of heartburn and my skin looked pasty.Buying this book really changed my life -and my attitude. If you are a Botox addict, your views may not jive with Dr. Weil's focus on leaving well enough alone and accepting the natural progression of aging, including the crow's feet, frown lines nd sagging skin that comes when the body starts to give in to gravity.But Weil makes a convincing argument for the view that aging can be a natural part of life which leads to great wisdom and spiritual growth - IF one pays attention to the habits that lead to optimum health, making the kind of changes that not only optimize your physical and mental well-being but keep you from having health problems which are DIRECTLY related to poor lifestyle choices.And let's face it...in a world where medical costs are skyrocketing, making such changes can not only improve your health but save money as you minimize problems related DIRECTLY to poor nutrition and lack of exercise. Luckily, Dr. Weil is an advocate of moderation and even shows over OVER-exercising can put one at possible risk...so the time and energy you expend is not overwhelming.Speaking only from personal experience, after following much of his advice, I lost 25 pounds, my cholesterol went down, I stopped snoring and slept well at night and my mood improved significantly. The tiredness? Gone. My baggy clothes? Gone.Even better, I found that I didn't have to spend massive amounts of time and energy to get major benefits. I started taking the supplements he recommended, followed a good exercise program (nothing too extreme but enough to break a good sweat), changed my diet - AND my attitude.I admit that I still use plenty of face creams and I may give in and have Botox someday (sorry, Dr. Weil) but so far, so good. And even if I do some things differently than recommended in the book, I'll stick with much of the habits I've formed...because they work.This isn't the ONLY book I have which explores ways to improve one's diet and exercise plan. But it is an excellent supplement to what I already have, especially the focus on a holistic and balanced approach.

Healthy Aging is an oasis of sage advice in the raucous marketplace of alternative health care literature. I appreciate that Dr. Weil's approach is science and evidence based, but isn't stuck to the Western medical model.This book is very accessible--for the general reader, it strikes the right balance between "technical" and conversational. For me, the chapter discussing the relation between diet and inflammatory processes in the body, and the relation between these processes and age related diseases such as Alzheimer's, cancer and heart disease, was a revelation. I had been vaguely aware of the dangers of poorly regulated inflammation, but Dr. Weil brings the issue into sharp focus.Healthy Aging reinforces my admiration for Dr. Weil's work. If you want to take responsibility for your own health, read this book.The 15 pages of Notes in the back are a gold mine.

Great book learned a lot about my body