Customer Reviews

Gary Null's Ultimate Anti-Aging Program

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(30)

 

 

Gary Null is a very intelligent man. His radio program is fantastic, and he is a walking encyclopedia of information. I am amazed at how much information he has on such a variety of topics from nutrition, to politics, to even sports.

With that said, let's get to the review.. I too purchased this book after seeing his show on PBS. I had already known Gary, and had heard him talk on his radio program for years before the PBS special. I had decided to purchase the book at the local book store upon seeing the special because it was so convincing.

I got home, and dove right into the book. I was greatly disappointed at how disorganized this book is, as I am with a lot of Gary's books. He seems to big a HUGE fan of footnotes, and posting results from various trials and protocols from peer review journals. There is very little information in this book that actually teaches you how to Anti-Age.

Upon completion of the book, and getting nothing out of it, I thought I might have read it wrong, so I read it again. To my dismay, I was incorrect. This book is certainly not a wealth of information by any means, and you can get more out of listening to Gary's radio program for 10 minutes than you can get from reading this book from cover to cover.

Null's book is a complete waste of time and money. Instead of fulfilling the promise of the title with the "Ultimate Anti-Aging Program", Null simply regurgitates old vegetarian homilies. Null waste the entire first half of the book by telling us that he has developed a program, that everyone ages, but that his program will help you defeat the clock. He then fills nearly 80 pages with testimonials.

The second half of the book is supposed to give us the Program. It does nothing of the sort. Null fills page after page with the tired rhetoric of low fat, low sugar, low meat, low salt, low caffeine, and low dairy. When he discusses the specifics of vitamins and supplements, it's done in a form that renders the discussion useless. Null cites studies from various journals, then prints in bold type the particular supplement whose use the study is to have supported. The problem here is that for each supplement Null cites so many studies with so many different dose recommendations that the poor consumer's head is spinning. Under the B-Complex vitamins, Null cites over 30 studies and over a dozen different dose levels for B1 alone. These range from 10 mg/day as supported by a study about the Irish elderly with thiamin deficiency, to 200 mg/day he culled from a study about patients with chronic liver disease. He continues this foolishness for 80 pages!

The bottom line: Don't waste your time or your money with this book. Null simply assembles a warmed over collection of cliches that you've all read before. I only regret that I bought the book at an airport and, therefore, cannot return it until I fly through Detroit again.

Like many of the reviewers, I bought this book after seeing Null on PBS and had really high hopes for it. It is horribly written, disorganized, contradictory and he never really lays out the "program". The actual program section is 8 whole pages long and doesn't go into nearly enough specifics.

A cornerstone of the program is to drink lots of vegatable juice, but he doesn't specify what vegatables. In the program section he says to cook with olive oil and yet three pages later in the detoxification section he says to only cook using macadamia nut oil. His vitamin/mineral/herb recommendation tables are bizarre and difficult to understand, with each table in a different format.

At the back of the book he lists a "general sampling" of the peer review journal articles. Would someone teach Gary how to properly footnote and write a bibliography. Assuming for a second that all the citing he does is actually correct, having a proper footnote would strengthen his claims greatly.

Way too much of this book is spent in listing testimonials, both supposed users of the program as well as Gary himself. He sure likes to write about himself and how healthy he is. By the way, just what marathon did he win a gold medal in, "Mom & Pop Null's Backyard Barbeque and Marathon"?

This book was very poorly organized and seemed to be fraught with inconsistencies. His 'research' seemed to consist of telling us the names of various grains, legumes, vitamins, etc and some of their beneficial properties. I could do that type of 'research' myself, and I don't have a background in nutrition. There is really no set *program*, or at least one I could find. Some segments seemed to be painfully detailed, and other parts seemed to be written in a hurry, without much information. He never mentions where he studied or what his PhD is in....I'm pretty sceptical. Also, I have seen him on PBS and think he looks kind of old. He never reveals his age. But he looks gaunt, his hair seems dyed (!) and it appears as if he's wearing a good deal of make-up. For someone who eats "the equivalent of several hundred pounds of vegetables a day" (come on! who has the time or money to even afford this?) he's not looking too well. Maybe if he's in his 80s, but somehow I doubt it.

Gary Null talks over and over in this book about how much more energy people have after drinking vegetable juice regularly. He cites his own case, where he can work "22 hours a day". Gary, I think you need to get some more sleep! This book seems like it was hammered out in two fevered days of talking into a tape recorder, with the majority of the remaining work being done by assistants. There's no real order to any of the topics; he feels free to jump from one item to another, then come back to the first one 50 pages later. I'm EXTREMELY angry because I waited a month for this book to arrive, and I believe in his program -- the problem is that despite the title, there is no program anywhere to be found in this book. Yes, there's a lot of info on vitamins, minerals, fruits, vegetables, etc., but reading this book and expecting someone to really change their life from it is like throwing a Spanish-English dictionary at someone and expecting them to learn Spanish. The book really deserves three stars because there *is* a good deal of information here, but I'm giving it only one star because Dr. Null (sounds like a James Bond villian!) commits the unforgivable sin of making a promise in the title, and not delivering on it. There's not a single meal recipe in here. Not a single juice recipe either. Not even a hint. It really makes me wonder about his motives in writing this book. How can you possibly write a book that spends hundreds of pages talking about how great juicing is, and not include a single juice recipe????? It's absolutely maddening.

Just an update for those of you who had problems with this book. Gary has revised the Ultimate Anti-Aging Program.He's gone into detail on the protocals and attempted to fix those complaints about the first book.Most of the people having reviewed this book seem to be unfamiliar with the author beyond his PBS fund raiser.Perhaps tuning in to his daily radio show "Natural Living" via his website garynull.com might just show his critics a dedicated and passionate man who believes what he says and says what he believes.This book may be flawed in "some" eyes but I can't see attacking the messenger.Maybe we are all too jaded.Maybe we've earned the right to be.But this guy is for real.I'd trust his advice before I would most orthodox physicians using cook book medicine from Eli Lilly pharmaceuticals

I obtained the book through a PBS TV pledge drive. I have had some experience with such alternative therapies as chiropractic, acupuncture, and particularly, the amazing effect of a correctly selected homeopathic remedy. In the last few years, as I approach 50, I have begun to experience some undesirable changes in my constitution, and I want to do something about it. The ideas presented in Gary Null's TV video and passionate live appearance sold me. (I have not heard his radio program.)

My biggest disappointment - a small one - was the delay in delivery due to the hot-off-the-press status of the book in December. I am just beginning to work with the book.

This book is not the latest best-selling pop fad, easily swallowed as this week's diversion. Null has assembled a wealth of data from scientific studies and his own observations of people experimenting on themselves.

The book has a clearly organized table of contents, and an alphabetical index. Between these is a 480 page mine of information. Skipping a preface or introduction, Part I (Chapters 1 and 2) immediately gets to the idea that your health and life can be different - altogether better. He alerts you to the necessity of being sensitive to yourself: What are my body and mental processes telling me? Included in Part I are the first practical (mental) exercises.

Nearly 80 pages of personal testimonials are properly placed near the beginning of the book as Part II (Chapter 3). These illustrate what it is, and what it takes to change. This section provides the success of others as a motivator, and reminds that everybody is different.

Part III (Chapters 4 through 6) discusses the theories of aging and its prevention. Included here are discussions of specific drugs, nutrients, and amino acids which bear on the problem.

Most of the remaining half of the book deals with the program: Part IV, the "protocol" and detoxification; Part V, exercise; Part VI, food; Part VII, psychology.

Part VIII (Chapter 18), Null's closing thoughts on the current state of affairs, is followed by a section on how vitamins, nutrients, and herbs may be applied to specific problems, with data reference citations. Finally, there is a bibliography as a starting point for your own research. (However, a less scientifically-oriented bibliography would be more practical for most people: The Complete Book of Homeopathy, by Michael Weiner and Kathleen Goss; Juicing for Life, by Cherie Calbom and Maureen Keane; The Psychology of Freedom, by Peter R. Breggin, etc.)

This is a first edition. There are errors. He addresses bicycle safety equipment, yet neglects to mention a helmet. Is it than/that, affect/effect, 200/220, olive/macadamia? ... Just shake the pebble out of your shoe and keep on going.

Or give up now. You don't need to read the book to get the program. It's on the dust jacket. Don't even pick up the book - here it is for free: 1. Detoxify your body. 2. Strengthen your immune system (through optimal nutrition). 3. Strengthen your physical body. 4. Strengthen and detoxify your mind.

It might be work to read the book and listen to what Null is saying. A worse obstacle can be finding a way to make the information work in your life. The ultimate obstacles are laziness and fear of change. The ultimate anti-aging program is the one you build through your own effort, for your own individual, unique self.

Gary Null is excited about the information he has gathered, and wants to share it beyond the people he has guided in his personally organized groups. On TV, Null held up the book and said that all the information needed was inside. The book is a rich resource, and is a worthy tool for the improvement of your physical and mental self. Should you buy this book? It is simple to throw stones, but it takes mind and muscle to stack them. Null states that "About 98 percent of the people who listen to my radio show, attend my lectures, or read my books don't actualize what I talk about." How determined are you to improve your chances?

One of the worst edited and proofread books I've ever read, credited to "Sally Burton, general text editor". How can you trust a book full of spelling errors, grammatical mistakes, and nonsense like, "Beta-carotene administered by itself and in conjunction with selenium has been shown to enhance natural killer activity in elderly subjects."? Someone tell Oliver Stone and Micky and Mallory... In my 500 page paperback, there are 81 pages of Testimonials, 102 pages of References, 11 pages of Index, 104 pages of lists of drugs and nutrients, and not much more advice than: Eat Vegetarian, Drink Water, and Exercise. Oh yeah, plus "As far as I'm concerned, coffee, tea, sodas, and anything else that contains caffeine are toxic and should never be consumed." No evidence for the toxicity of caffeine is offered... I'm sending this book back for a refund.

I bought this book after seeing Gary Null speaking on a PBS TV program. I was so impressed with his knowledge and the hope he offered in the anti-aging remedies he discussed and other valuable information he was offering in this book. I just couldn't wait to read it. Unfortunately, after I purchased this book, I was very disappointed. My strongest impression about the book was the very disorganized way it was prepared. There is a serious lack of appropriate catagorization and sequential arrangement of subject matter, topics, etc. It was hard for me to believe that Gary Null had anything to do with the preparation of the book. I thought he had just mistakenly designated an unprofessional, inexperienced person to take on that responsibility for him. After approximately 3 years, I'm still trying to understand his anti-aging program/s and the approach of implementing them. Its hard to make sense of a bunch of information randomly thrown together. Since then I have found valuable books with practicle approaches for emplementing the anti-aging programs in them. I recommend The Perricone Prescription, and The Wrinkle Cure by Nicholas Perricone M.D.. He has recently published additional anti-aging books, as well.

I was very disappointed with this book. For example, he talks about juicing and how he got his hair to grow back again, because of it. He said he used vegetables and fruits that repair your DNA. He said to also take Aloe vera and chlorophyll with the juices. What confuses me is that he doesn't say how much chlorophyll to take or how much aloe vera to take. He doesn't tell you which vegetables and fruits that he used to repair his DNA. He doesn't even mention what to look for in a good aloe vera product. I guess we are supposed to guess which vegetables and fruits we are supposed to use. I thought the purpose of a book such as this is supposed instruct us on how to do such things, especially if it's a program.