What is aging? Aging is not a mysterious metaphysical phenomenon. Aging happens in the particulars. Your arteries become clogged. Your arthritis flares up. Age is not just a chronological measurement; it's the rate at which the primary internal guardians of health--your cardiovascular and immune systems--decline.

While your chronological age is fixed, your biological age may be years older--or younger--depending on a combination of factors. RealAge offers a revolutionary, systematic program that calculates the aging effect of more than 100 different health behaviors--ranging from diet and medication to stress control and chronic smoking--and enables you to assess your own biological age. Most important, it shows you how to design a specific path to improving or reversing your own aging trajectory.

Developed by Dr. Michael F. Roizen, chair of anesthesia and critical care at the University of Chicago and preventive gerontologist, along with four other scientists, the RealAge program is based on cutting-edge scientific research. Dr. Roizen and his team have pored over 25,000 medical studies, evaluating what they tell us about aging and what they tell us about the prevention of aging.In RealAge, they present the complete results of their analysis for the first time.

Each chapter covers a broad health topic--for example, how the right vitamins and supplements, exercise, or diet can be used to control how your genes affect you--and calculates the RealAge advantage you will gain by adopting a specific behavior. Charts, fact sheets, and tests give you specific choices to make and describe benefits to be gained so you can measure your success.

Suggested behavior changes are rated in order of difficulty so you can decide whether the result is worth the effort.

Ultimately, this program is about maintaining your health. The better condition you are in, the better prepared you will be to fight the factors that age you. RealAge demonstrates that you can have more control over the aging process. It makes science simple and its promise is irresistible: You may live as young at seventy as you did at forty-four.

Remeber your high school reunion?

Even though everyone was the same chronological age, people no longer looked the same. Some wore the years well, staying young and exuberant despite the passage of time, whereas others looked as if they had aged ten years more than everyone else--and probably had.

Did you know that:

• Financial stress can make your RealAge two to thirty-two years older?

• The difference between having the ideal blood pressure 115/76--and high blood pressure--higher than 140/90--can make a RealAge difference of more than twenty years?

• A tablet of aspirin a day can make your RealAge 1.9 years younger?

• Flossing daily and seeing a dentist and dental hygienist every six months can make your RealAge 6.4 years younger?

In RealAge you will discover many other easy-to-institute Age Reduction Strategies that will enable you to live longer and younger.

"...The book will be a major contribution to the public health of all countries whose people read it..." (-- E.M. Papper, M.D., Professor, University of Miami)

"...RealAge--Are You as Young as You Could Be? is a welcome 'how to' guide to doing what we all want, live longer and more healthy lives..." (-- J.G. Reeves, M.D., Professor and Chairman of the Dept. of Anesthesiology,Duke University Medical Center)

"...This is a different method - based on some real science...the program's characteristics provide improved communication to an increasing number of people...I am only sorry that it comes at this late date when so many opportunities to delay my aging have passed me by..." (-- William K. Hamilton, M.D., Associate Dean, University of California San Francisco)

"...I like the RealAge concept for what it might do for motivation...the intergration of risks and switch to the positive might make prevention more palatable..." (-- Arthur S. Keats, M.D., Section Chief Division of Cardio Anesthesiology,Texas Heart Institute)

"...Dr. Mike Roizen champions the use of RealAge to encourage each of us to make decisions on our health needs based on the best available scientific evidence...each patient can weigh the benefits to their own well-being and develop a course of action that best suits their lifestyle..." (-- Paul G. Barash, M.D., Attending Anesthesiologist, Yale-New Haven Hospital)

Remember your high school reunion? Even though everyone was the same chronological age, people no longer looked the same. Some stayed young and exuberant, whereas others looked as if they had aged ten years more than everyone else. Did you know that:

• Financial stress can make your RealAge two to thirty-two years older?
• A tablet of aspirin a day can make your RealAge 1.9 years younger?
• Flossing daily and seeing a dentist and dental hygienist every six months can make your RealAge 6.4 years younger?

RealAge offers a revolutionary program that calculates the aging effect of different health behaviors ranging from diet and medication to stress control and chronic smoking, and enables you to assess your own biological age. Most important, it shows you how to design a specific path to improving or reversing your own aging trajectory, and it's easier than you think. The RealAge program is based on cutting-edge scientific research. Dr. Michael F. Roizen and his team have pored over 25,000 medical studies, evaluating what they tell us about aging and the prevention of aging.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [309]-323) and index.

Michael Roizen, M.D., is an internist who chairs the Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care at the University of Chicago. He has been listed in The Best Doctors in America for the last twelve years. He is the author of the number one New York Times bestseller RealAge. Dr. Roizen lives in Chicago, Illinois.