I want to start this diet to age better and stay as young as possible, but also to see if it helps me with anxiety and minor autoimmune inflammations, such as rosacea and IBS. If it doesn't, I hope it will help, at least with my binge eating, as I don't see myself going voracious over nuts and veggies; I will update this review with the results in 6-12 months, depending on how I go. The Longevity Diet: Discover the New Science Behind Stem Cell Activation and Regeneration to Slow Aging, Fight Disease, and Optimize Weight by Valter Longo: Another diet book, and recommended as well by David Sinclair, but older than Clement’s The Switch and with possibly troubling recommendations related to Longo’s non-profit fasting supplement company, ProLon. Longevity topic covered: General longevity science and research, theories of aging, diet, personal longevity recommendations I chose them because they came at the topic of longevity from very different directions and I thought having an eclectic mixture of books would be the most interesting approach. They’re all very well written, too. Some books on longevity are completely unreadable, but these are not.

The challenge of treating disease with adult stem cells is that adults have few stems cells in our tissues, and even once those have been harvested and isolated in the lab, growing them isn't easy. The Kaufmann Protocol: Aging Solutions by Dr. Sandra Kaufmann: This no-nonsense life extension book focuses on specific longevity interventions, mainly supplements, that the author has examined and determined hold the most promise based on the science available and her own scoring matrix. This 2022 publication adds on to, but doesn’t replace her original 2018 longevity guide. She discusses the social and psychological impact of growing older as well as biological statistics and biological scientific facts and explanations on why and how we age and what can go wrong and what to watch out for. She gives great tips all along the way to stay healthy.Although the diet includes “virtually no sugar added”, it does allow honey and also allows things such as ready-made pizza crust and cereal, which no doubt have added sugar. It also includes plenty of fruits, including high glycemic fruits. Early in the book, Longo claims that sugar is one of the ingredients responsible for aging fast & dying early. So why does his anti-aging diet include so many sugary foods? We’ve known since the 1930s that one way to make laboratory animals stay healthy longer and live longer is to allow them to eat much less. So if we take a laboratory mouse and feed it 30-40% less than it would like to eat, it will live 20-30% longer and stay healthy longer in just about every way that we can measure. What the authors have come up with is that it’s not so much the amount of food that’s important, but the composition of what’s eaten, and also the continuous availability of the food. I can't help but think that the author published this book as an "elevator pitch" to attract investors to further fund the author's various scientific studies (which is OK, I guess, as these studies all seem to have very promising results).

Professor Fontana is a well-respected researcher and clinician in the longevity space. He’s credited with running the core studies that discovered the anti-aging potential of the 5:2 diet, a popular intermittent fasting regimen where practitioners drastically lower their caloric intake two days each week. His vast array of other research has also been instrumental in helping understand caloric restriction, protein intake, and even potential anti-aging supplements like resveratrol (spoiler: maybe not that great). Here's how the mutations work: within our genome, we have some helpful genes called tumour suppressors that stop us [from] developing cancers. We also have some genes called proto-oncogenes that can promote cancers. In non-cancerous tissue, our genes produce active tumour suppressors and inactive proto-oncogenes (in other words, more of what helps you and less of what hurts you.) If a tumour suppressor gene is inactivated because of mutation, or a pro-oncogene mutates in a way that activates it, that cell can go on to divide uncontrollably, and develop into cancer" (p. 101) Overall, I really liked this book and I would recommend it to others who are aware and try to look after their health. Even others who are making that first step in trying to now make better changes. Young Forever: The Secrets to Living Your Longest, Healthiest Life by Dr. Mark Hyman: A pop-sci anti-aging book with a hyperbolic name, this book, by well-known health guru Mark Hyman, is nevertheless a good overview of what aging is, and some detailed strategies for mitigating it based on the latest science.How much was his pitch about longevity? Was he primarily telling people that the goat testicles would make them more sexually potent, or was the promise of a longer life just as important?