Customer Reviews

RealAge: Are You as Young as You Can Be?

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I had fun taking the test, more fun finding out that I am six years younger than my chronological age, and even more fun telling people that! However, I already know that having a healthy life style, exercising, eating well, relieving stress and a great marriage are all things that keep me feeling and looking younger. I found the rest of the book a little disappointing, because each chapter repeats, although in much more detail, the items on the test. This is a good book for someone who wants a general overview of things to do to be healthy and problems that an unhealthy life style can cause. Practicing what Dr. Roizen suggests takes time, you may need more detail and want to review what you should do with your own advisors. I also suggest you read another new book that will help you understand why it is difficult for some people to change their life habits, called THE 2,000 PERCENT SOLUTION, by Mitchell, Coles and Metz. The first half of the book talks about our bad habits or "stalls", like THE TRADITION STALL (I grew up on lasagna or chicken soup and matzoh balls, or bread and butter - and I like those foods) or The Misconception Stall (I don't have time to exercise or meditate, when you will find that if you do, you begin to do things so much better, you have created the time). The second half shares eight steps to make progress at 20 times the usual rate. If you read REAL AGE and THE 2,000 PERCENT SOLUTION together, you will develop ideas to get "younger and better" faster!

Thanks to this book I've reduced my age from 34 to 29, and have more energy than I have in years. The beauty of Roizen's program is that some of the steps are extremely easy, like just taking an aspirin. Others, such as regular aerobic exercise, are more difficult, but knowing you're buying yourself extra years makes the effort worthwhile. I'm giving this book as a Christmas gift to my future in-laws.

It was this book that opened my eyes on how well I was or wasn't taking care of myself. I was motivated after the first chapter to do things like taking aspirin, limit cell phone calls, taking vitamins, watching diet, etc. I have reduced my realage from my chronological age by 15 years now. If a book can influence people to take care of themselves based on medical science, why not pick up a copy? It's an investment in your life!

Dr. Roizen's approach -- laid out in clear and simple English by co-author Elizabeth Stephenson -- is compelling, easy to understand, and easy to act upon. It gets past a lot of the mumbo jumbo and conflicting health advice we get bombarded with every day, through a startlingly simple concept -- "Real Age" -- that distills the best scientific research available into a comprehensive health program a child of 5 could understand . For the first time, you will see how focusing on two or three key things can really make a significant difference in your overall level of personal health, allowing you to ignore the stuff that is "nice to do", but really not all that important. (And some of it, like flossing your teeth or taking Vitamin B does not require Herculean feats of athleticism). Everyone should take the Real Age test and learn how to start living a healthier life starting tomorrow. One caveat: While I would give the book a 5-star rating, the Real Age web site deserves only 2 stars -- I encountered significant delays getting on to it, and then it took forever to fill out the questionnaire. This part still needs some work. I'm sure there are millions out there who would love to be tracking weekly progress on their Real Age -- but not if takes this long to log on!!

After reading this fabulous book I feel like I'm in my twenties again. Sure, Dr. Roizen uses scientific research, and deals with practical issues of our daily diet, lifestyle, and bad habits such as drinking and smoking that will reduce our life expectancy, but overall he encourages us in a simple way to rearrange our priorities--and that makes all the difference. He shows techniques how you can feel as healthy and young as you'd like to be, seriously! Anyway, another book along these lines with an emphasis on rearranging your priorities and with a spiritual touch to heal your soul and mind, is a book that I must highly recommend, Dietmar Scherf's "I Love Me: Avoiding and Overcoming Depression"--also available at Amazon.

I want to distribute this information to all my friends and clients. Dr. Roizen and the RealAge team have done a great job of compiling current scientific data into an easy to follow list. Who wouldn't want to be younger than their real age? As a gerontologist, I highly recommend it.

Real age takes information most people know (and some that most people don't) and puts in a framework that is easy to understand. While for any individual, certain factors may have more importance (many of the reviewers on this site stressed how important dog ownership is to them), the fact that you can change your health and mortality from your own behaviors, and to this degree, is very motivating.

As a primary care internist, I have found this paradigm very useful in getting my own patients to quit smoking and start exercising!

I found many interesting things in this book that is written for the masses. However, like exercising, everyone needs to decide or get a professionals opinion about what is good for them as an individual. I had followed the recommendations of the book for the last 9 months to a tee besides going to the website to get my "Realage" down. I just experienced a kidney stone that needed to be removed. For anyone that has been through a stone ordeal knows that it is equal in pain to childbirth or more so according to my urologist. A leading contributor of my stone was the increased intake of calcium, vitamin D, and Vitamin C that I took based on the recommendations of this book. Were there other factors? Probably. However, what is good for one person may not be good for all. So proceed with caution. Again, the book did enlighten me in many areas.

This book really makes you think about everything to help you take control of your own aging, from nutrition to lifestyle. I had no idea that aging was so controllable. I had thought that most of it was genetic. It's not, according to Dr. Roizen. It's in how you live and eat. A must reading for everyone who wants to live life to the fullest and longest and healthiest.

Finally a health book that makes sense! The book tells you each strategy you can use to live better, how much effort it takes, and what your payoff is. Did you know, for example, that simple flossing of your teeth may add six years to your life? This is by far the best health book I've ever read - and I've read a bunch.