Audiobook recommendation- Lifespan

And who said, ‘nothing in life is free?’

Honestly, who could go past the introduction of this book? Key words being Harvard Medical School, live younger – longer, aging is a disease and is curable, reverse the genetic clock, living well to 120 or more!

Now do I have your attention?

Of course, I have no intentions to live until 2103, as who knows what we as a race have done to our planet by then? But the first thought which came to mind when I read that blurb was my parents. They’re currently in their early 70s, and their starting to show signs of aging. You can hear it in their voice and when I reference tales of the past, it just takes them a little bit longer to remember the event in mention. And like everyone, I’d just like to see my parents live longer and healthier, even if it’s just for my own selfish reasons that I’d just want them to be around forever! You know?

So, before I went and recommended this book to my dad, I just wanted to first vet it, just to make sure that it was legit. And not to mention it’s a much easier gift to give, when the audio book on Audible is FREE of charge! Yes, FREE! If the content in this book could unlock untold vitality, could you possibly place a price on that insight? Obviously not, as it’s freakin’ FREE!

So, the author of the book is a Harvard Medical School Geneticist (Dr David Sinclair), and from the opening moments I was already bought in, when I learned that he’s an Aussie from Sydney who is now world renowned. Dr David has dedicated his life to study aging, to understand why we age, and to slow or reverse the aging process.

In the book he talks of the science, the discoveries, and shares his own practical steps he has taken to slow his own aging. And if I could say so, I think he’s onto something. I’m quite good at judging the age of a person by their voice alone, as when we age our vocal fold muscles weaken which changes our voice over time. And although Dr David was 50 at the time of writing his book (which he self-narrates), but by his voice alone to me he doesn’t sound like a man who has lived half a century already, but he sounded more like a 40-year-old!

The book does get a bit too deep at times, and a bit too philosophical for a non-deep thinker like me. However, at the end of each chapter, there’s a quick podcast like discussion between Dr David and his co-author Matthew Laplante, where Matt asks Dr David to explain some of those more complex concepts, which brings the simple-minded reader like me back into the book, ready for the next chapter!

And what I was really hanging out for, was a dot point list, telling me what I needed to be doing, and what I needed to stop doing! And Dr David does just that, first explaining the science behind each thing or action which could activate our vitality gene. And in the final chapter of the book, Dr David shares his own daily routine, right down to the grammage of medication he takes with his breakfast! Which unfortunately is a prescription drug which we all can’t get our soon wrinkling hands on. Boo!

But I must admit, he might just be right! As unknowingly I’d been taking one of these drugs for at least a dozen of years in my 20s to my early 30s, to off-set the side effects  of another drug which I’d been taking for my immune disorder. And the past 5 years I’ve been completely off both these drugs. And I must admit, these past 5 years I’ve gone from always looking and feeling younger than my chronological age, but these days I feel my age as a late 30 something…….

But would I recommend this book to my parents? I had mentioned it to my dad at the time when I first came across the book, as it was FREE! But I’m not sure if he ever added it to his Audible library though. And if he hasn’t, I probably wouldn’t hassle him about it. As to actively turn back the aging clock like how Dr David has described? It’s quite a big paradigm and lifestyle change, a change which I’m not sure most people would take-up, given that the concept of aging as a disease which is treatable  is still just that, a concept. But could we all eat fewer animal proteins? Yeah, for sure! In general, can we all eat a bit less? Again, for sure! Can we all do with a bit more exercise? Yes, of course! And can we drink a bit more red wine? Hell-yeah! But can we convince our GPs to prescribe us a diabetic treatment drug when we’re not diabetic? Or can we bother taking an aspirin a day? Probably not. So, we’d probably live an extra 5 or so years if we make the diet and behavioural changes, probably we’d end up looking 5 years younger than we are (doesn’t hurt that we’re Asian), but methinks we’re not going to live to 120 years-old though? And thank goodness for that! As who knows how unrecognisable the world might be, by 2103?!

So if you want to check out Lifespan ‘Why we age and why we don’t have to’, for yourself, click HERE! To access your FREE copy, you never know this book might literally change your life!

P.S. In the book, Dr David predicted that we’d might experience a global pandemic in the next 5-10 years, as the book was written in 2018 and published in 2019, I’d say that he ‘nailed’ that prediction. Nailed-it! So only time will tell which other of his predictions will be shown to be true?