Table of Contents
Introduction 13
1 One Hundred Years Young 23
The Mysteries of Aging 28
What Makes SuperAgers Stay Healthy? 33
Studying Centenarians 37
Designing a Study Without a Control Group 48
Meeting Our First AJ Centenarians and Their Offspring 52
A Perfect Genome? 56
Centenarians' Interactions with Their Environments 58
Do as I Say, Not as I Do 70
2 Why We Age 74
Recent Theories 83
The Search for Protection from Aging 90
Eating Less May Lead to More Healthy Years 97
Unlocking the Secrets in Fat 99
Caloric Restriction: A Mixed Bag of Effects 109
Aging Begins Before We're Born 114
SuperAgers' Top Secrets 115
3 Cholesterol: Is More Better? 119
Unlocking Cholesterol's Longevity Secrets 124
Are There Really Good Gene Mutations? 129
Solving the Mystery of Helpful Gene Mutations 132
The Benefits of CETP Personified 140
A Mutation That Adds Years to Life Span? 146
4 Growth Hormone: Less Is More 149
Less Growth May Lead to an Exceptionally Long Life 151
Growth Hormone Clues from Our Centenarians 154
Epigenetic Mechanisms Can Increase Longevity 163
Making the Most of Our Findings 169
Growth Hormones Don't "Grow" Life Span 173
5 Unraveling the Longevity Mystery Deep Inside Our Cells 177
A Match Made on Earth 178
Mitochondria's Hidden Purpose 180
Resilient to the End 187
A CohBar Is Born 198
Searching for Promising Peptides 204
6 The Quest to Prove Aging Can Be Targeted 209
Choosing an Existing Drug to Prove Our Point 220
Getting the FDA on Board 225
How the TAME Study Works 228
Who's Going to Pay for All of This? 235
Metformin Is the Tool, Not the Goal 241
7 Making Eighty the New Sixty 245
The Price of Progress 253
Collaboration Is the Key to Speed 254
Long, Healthy Life Span Versus Immortality 258
The Gap Between Making Drugs and Making Drugs Available 265
8 Stop the Clock 268
How Old Is Old? 271
Use It or Lose It 275
Antioxidants and Hormesis 279
Thriving in the Shadow of Stress 282
Preventing the Loss of Muscle Mass as We Age 288
Exercise Plus Metformin 289
Feeding Our Longevity 291
Hydrating Wisely 297
Prevent Obesity 299
Nutraceuticals Are in the Works 305
The Magic Pills We've Been Wishing For 310
When We Eat Matters 313
Our DNA Has Something to Say 321
Stay Mentally Sharp 326
Other Promising Practices 336
How to Decide What's Good for You 341
9 Bright Horizons 343
The Unparalleled Power of Omics 344
Personalized Medicine 350
Advances in Early Detection 352
Pioneering Explorations 354
Reversing Cellular Age 358
Genetic Engineering 360
Acknowledgments 363
