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Lifespan: The Revolutionary Science of Why We Age – and Why We Don’t Have To Hardcover – International Edition, September 10, 2019
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In this paradigm-shifting book from acclaimed Harvard Medical School doctor and one of TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people on earth, Dr. David Sinclair reveals that everything we think we know about ageing is wrong, and shares the surprising, scientifically-proven methods that can help readers live younger, longer.
For decades, the medical community has looked to a variety of reasons for why we age, and the consensus is that no one dies of old age; they die of age-related diseases. That's because ageing is not a disease – it is inevitable.
But what if everything you think you know about ageing is wrong?
What if ageing is a disease? And that disease is curable.
In THE EVOLUTION OF AGEING, Dr. David Sinclair, one of the world’s foremost authorities on genetics and ageing, argues just that. He has dedicated his life’s work to chasing more than a longer lifespan – he wants to enable people to live longer, healthier, and disease-free well into our hundreds. In this book, he reveals a bold new theory of ageing, one that pinpoints a root cause of ageing that lies in an ancient genetic survival circuit. This genetic trick – a circuit designed to halt reproduction in order to repair damage to the genome –has enabled earth’s early microcosms to survive and evolve into more advanced organisms. But this same survival circuit is the reason we age: as genetic damage accumulates over our lifespans from UV rays, environmental toxins, and unhealthy diets, our genome is overwhelmed, causing gray hair, wrinkles, achy joints, heart issues, dementia, and, ultimately, death.
But genes aren’t our destiny; we have more control over them than we’ve been taught to believe. We can’t change our DNA, but we can harness the power of the epigenome to realise the true potential of our genes. Drawing on his cutting-edge findings at the forefront of medical research, Dr. Sinclair will provide a scientifically-proven roadmap to reverse the genetic clock by activating our vitality genes, so we can live younger longer. Readers will discover how a few simple lifestyle changes – like intermittent fasting, avoiding too much animal protein, limiting sugar, avoiding x-rays, exercising with the right intensity, and even trying cold therapy – can activate our vitality genes. Dr. Sinclair ends the book with a look to the near future, exploring what the world might look like – and what will need to change – when we are all living well to 120 or more.
Dr. Sinclair takes what we have long accepted as the limits of human potential and mortality and turns them into choices. THE EVOLUTION OF AGEING is destined to be the biggest book on genes, biology, and longevity of this decade.
- Print length320 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherThorsons
- Publication dateSeptember 10, 2019
- Dimensions6.26 x 1.54 x 9.45 inches
- ISBN-100008353743
- ISBN-13978-0008353742
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Product details
- Publisher : Thorsons (September 10, 2019)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 320 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0008353743
- ISBN-13 : 978-0008353742
- Item Weight : 1.48 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.26 x 1.54 x 9.45 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #158,215 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #135 in Genetics (Books)
- #176 in Longevity
- #2,911 in Alternative Medicine (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

David A. Sinclair, Ph.D., A.O. is one of the world’s most famous and influential scientists, known for his work on controlling the aging process. He is a tenured Professor at Harvard Medical School and TIME magazine named him “one of the 100 most influential people in the world” (2014) and among the “Top 50 People in Healthcare” (2018). His newsletter is at www.lifespanbook.com and you can follow him on Twitter @davidasinclair or IG at davidsinclairphd. He has a top healthcare podcast series called Lifespan.
David is on the board of directors of the American Federation for Aging Research and has received more than thirty-five awards for his research and is an inventor on 40 patents. Dr. Sinclair has been featured on The Joe Rogan Experience, 60 Minutes, a Barbara Walters special, The Today Show, Good Morning America, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Fortune, and Newsweek, among others.
After thirty years of searching for truths about human biology, David is in a unique position. If you were to visit him in Boston, you’d most likely find him hanging out in his lab at Harvard Medical School, where he's a professor in the Department of Genetics and CoDirector of the Paul F. Glenn Center for Biological Mechanisms of Aging Research. He also runs a sister lab at his alma mater, the University of New South Wales in Sydney. In his labs, teams of brilliant students and PhDs have both accelerated and reversed aging in model organisms and have been responsible for some of the most cited research in the field, published in some of the world’s top scientific journals. He is also a cofounder of the journal Aging, which provides space to other scientists to publish their research on one of the most challenging and exciting questions of our time. He's also a cofounder of the Academy for Health and Lifespan Research, a group of the top twenty researchers in aging worldwide.
In trying to make practical use of his discoveries, he has helped start a number of biotechnology companies and sits as chair of the scientific boards of advisers of several others. These companies work with hundreds of leading academics in scientific areas ranging from the origin of life to genomics to pharmaceuticals. He is, of course, aware of his own lab’s discoveries years before they are made public, but through these associations, he is also aware of many other transformational discoveries ahead of time, sometimes a decade ahead.
Having received the equivalent of a knighthood in Australia and taken on the role of an ambassador (hence the AO at the end of his name), he's been spending quite a bit of his time briefing political and business leaders around the world about the ways our understanding of aging is changing—and what that means for humanity going forward.
David is committed to turning key discoveries into medicines and technologies that help the world. He is involved in a variety of activities beyond being an academic including being a founder, equity owner, adviser, member of the board of directors, consultant, investor, collaborator with, and inventor on patents licensed to companies working to improve the human condition or national security. For an updated list of activities, see https://genetics.med.harvard.edu/sinclair/.
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He said he did not take Statins and said they were a danger and killed our Mitochondrial. We definitely cannot live without Mitochondrial so why take a Mitochondrial Poison?? That's crazy. Another thing, ask your Cardiologist which Statin He/She takes. I have asked a dozen and they all answered, "I am allergic to Statins, they cause severe muscle pain and I don't take Statins." No kidding, ask your cardiologist. If you don't know what Mitochondrial is or what it does, you need to buy one of the excellent books on Amazon that explains it to you.
I am 83 years old. Retired Navy Pilot and Retired Airline Pilot. I take 6, 500mcg Vitamin K2 tablets I buy on EBAY from London. They cost so much less than any sold on Amazon. Compare the cost per 100mcg. The difference is HUGE. This information is intended for men and women. Get your Calcium Score. Know how clogged your arteries are. One last thing. Harpers Bazzar magazine and at least two other women's magazines and Oprah have done stories on Vitamin K2. They all say, 'Wrinkles are caused by Calcium in Soft Tissue.' Take the K2 and the wrinkles disappear so do the purple blood vessels in our legs. No kidding it works. I also lost ALL joint pain. It was Calcium in the joints. My hip pain kept me awake. Now, all joint pain is gone. And I feel 30, not 83 and plan to live to 120 playing golf and playing with my grandchildren and great grandchildren. God Bless and Good Luck. Dave Williams
This is one of the most important books that I’ve read in the past decade. I’ve been excited about scientific progress against aging for the past 40 years, and have been taking supplements of various kinds since I was in my 20’s. David Sinclair’s book details most of the real progress in the field, with the best examples coming rather recently – in the past few years. Sinclair exudes optimism, which matches my own natural tendency.
As a narrative, the book succeeds in bringing the reader to an understanding of David’s initial motivation in his field, using the story of his grandmother Vera’s lifelong vitality giving way to decline and, ultimately, death. The reader also gets an historical retracing of the road to knowledge of telomeres, CRSPR, Sirtuins, and cell reprogramming. Did you know that there were sharks that have had life spans measured to have exceeded 500 years?
Twice, while in bed reading the book late at night, I bolted upright when a new fact was revealed. The first wake-up was an anecdote in the book about one of Sinclair’s researchers coming to him for help on an issue with the young man’s mother. Seems she had started having menstrual periods again after starting to take a supplement (NMN, I think) that many on David’s research team were taking themselves. Another shock was hearing of the reprogramming of optic tissue cells, using 3 of the 4 activators known to enable an adult cell to become a pluripotent stem cell. The 3 activators were CRSPR’d into the DNA of the receiving tissue, along with an activation mechanism that depends on receiving a certain antibiotic. So, dosage modulated regeneration of Optic nerve tissue was achieved in rats. That fact opens up the possibility of not only slowing or stopping aging, but actually reversing it.
The first half of this book covers the history and amazing scientific discoveries, but unfortunately the second half oozes with virtue signaling as it reveals David to be an altruistic collectivist with all manner of political prescriptions he thinks are needed to save humanity from itself – from gun control to climate activism. I suppose it is inevitable that the progressive bubble of an academic environment blinds its inhabitants by disallowing any political disagreement. However, it made me come to question Sinclair’s own scientific rigor. If he hasn’t read of the hiding of temperature data, and suspiciously always lower “adjustments” to past temperature records which is central to the global warming hoax, what alternative aging hypotheses might he be ignoring as well?
I dug into this a bit, after remembering that GlaxoSmithKline spent nearly a billion dollars back in 2008 for one of David’s startups working on Sirtuins (Sirtris). Back then, I was hoping that we’d see new anti-aging pharmaceuticals within a decade. Glaxo shut down the unit in 2013. That sounds ominous, right? But, comments on Glaxo’s page say that core researchers were offered positions in other parts of the company, and that Glaxo still thought the Sirtuin drug candidates were valuable.
In the book’s “Cast of Characters”, it is stated that Elizabeth Blackburn was “controversially dismissed” from Bush’s Council on Bioethics “allegedly for her advocacy of stem cell research and politics-free scientific inquiry.” What’s missing from this statement is that said advocacy was for “embryonic stem cell research”.
Bush’s constituency believed that this meant using human lives (albeit very young lives) for research, and this constituency did not want their tax money to pay for what they considered an immoral act. Again, the book seems to be using the material to make political jabs. Perhaps Dr Sinclair doesn’t realize this, perhaps he does.
Much is also made in the book’s second half about trying to guarantee that anti-aging therapies would be made available to all, regardless of cost. I would hope that the examples of pricing in the space, auto, and computer industries show how capitalist countries succeed in bringing costs down for everyone, without government mandates. Space Shuttles used to cost roughly $20,000/kg for orbital flights. SpaceX has brought that cost down to around $2,000/kg. It is still way too expensive for the average American tourist. However, cars were once only affordable to the wealthy. Henry Ford employed capital to force down prices, extending affordability to the middle class.
Prices start out high, which enables start-ups to raise capital. Then as volume goes up, unit costs are driven lower by competition. That’s how we got to 256GB USB sticks for $32. I once paid $10,000 for 0.004% of that much space. Drug prices would be driven down faster if the FDA only mandated safety testing, instead of both safety and efficacy. If drugs are guaranteed by the FDA to be safe, then we consumers should be allowed to try anything we want. Companies that want more market share would pay for efficacy trials, the results of which could be used in advertising. Drug development costs/prices might drop by 90% in that kind of market. Sure would cut the wait time for anti-aging therapies.
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I think a typical scientist would and should stop right there; for science does not concern itself with morality but with pure knowledge whether constructive or destructive. Nonetheless, Dr Sinclair goes on to debate the real and political consequences of people living, if not forever, certainly much longer than they do now. To me, this is where the book rapidly goes down hill. Dr Sinclair knows there will be serious repercussions: an increase in population; a greater demand for resources; more pollution; more carbon emissions; etc, etc. He says that alongside the big increase in population in the 1800's was a huge increase in the standard of sanitation and health as though it were causative - more people lead to more benefits. He thinks that GMO and foods modified by other technologies will provide the solution to feeding the ever-increasing numbers of mouths and gets irritated when some people have the temerity to question their safety. Also, because he would be content to work doing his interesting research in his lab for the next 50 years, it does not mean a miner would like to spend another 50 digging coal.
Despite Dr Sinclair's faith in the ingenuity of man, there are times when i sense he is trying to convince himself of his utopian vision rather than the reader. Living to infinity is not the be all and end all; living a healthy life is more important, whether one lives to 70 or 90.
At some point I will re-read the first half of the book - which I enjoyed - but not the second. I must be only part Luddite.
Richard Dawkins touched on why we would inherit genes that fail as we age: essentially we reproduce before we suffer from these age-related ailments, and so natural selection has not filtered it out as it presumably has young man/woman ailments that would kill off the would-be reproducer.
The book uses scientific terms and explanations and so some reading on physiology may be beneficial alongside this book. Note taking is a must if you're wanting to retain and be able to explain the contents.
The reason I've given it 3 out of 5 stars is the completely lack of concern over the animals the author and his colleagues tested on. I know its commonplace (though this doesn't make it right) but there is not even any acknowledgement from the author that this is cruel behaviour. He will talk about how he'll age mice prematurely (yes fascinating but cruel), starve them, dissect them prior to natural death, etc. He does comment on how easy it is to buy mice to test on, though. Well, as long as subjecting unlucky animals to torture is convenient!
Basically, it puts forwards a disease model of aging. This is a controversial and certainly a lot of people would not agree with it, but the evidence is reviewed in a scientific manner which I found quite compelling. However, I would say the narrative goes considerably beyond the evidence, and states things as fact which are yet to be established. The problem is that as yet there are no examples of individuals adding huge amounts of years to their lives, and it will take a long time to generate the kind of evidence required for that.
So although I enjoyed this book immensely, and the author is a published scientist rather than a journalist (or an influencer), I am deducting one star from the rating because I do not think we quite have the evidence base to back up some of the claims made. I also found the book trailed off badly as it went on, where the author started speculating about the social and political impact of increased life spans which of course may not happen. No problem with a little bit of this, but it takes up most of the second half of the book, which was far too much and I found it a bit of a slog to get to the end. Like one of the other reviewers, I will most likely re-read the first half, but definitely not the second.




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