How We Age: A Doctor's Journey into the Heart of Growing Old [Hardcover]

Dr Marc Agronin, who specialises in geriatric psychology in Miami, has written a memoir about his medical practice. It's a small book, with many short chapters of personal anecdotes, about how the mind ages and how different sorts of dementia, including Alzheimers', can be treated. This is not a "how-to" book, giving exercises that may postpone the advent of aging, but rather a look at how aging proceeds in the brain and how caregivers and medical professionals can best care for the aged, who are, of course, our parents, our siblings, our friends, and, eventually, ourselves.

Aging is rather like death-and-taxes, a part of life. We're all aging but Dr Agronin writes about good ways to adjust to the process in ourselves and our loved ones. In many cases, with the aid of new diagnoses and medication, Dr Agronin and his staff, have been able to help many patients who he has treated. And with others, Dr Agronin has helped to ease what are the emotional pains of aging - the remembrances that have been locked into their minds for many years. In one case cited by Dr Agronin, a music therapist worked through uncommunicative woman's only method of communication - verbal "clicks" - to recognise that she was "clicking" to a song that she and her late husband had loved. Her mind, almost totally closed by Alzheimers', had retained that song and that connection to a much-loved husband.

Dr Agronin's book is also a loving testimony to his family. Marc Agronin is a third-generation doctor and he writes that the memories he shared of his grandfather have helped him to be able to feel the compassion he does for his elderly patients. He also cites other professionals in his field, including Erik and Joan Erikson and Sophia Freud, with whom he has worked and studied.

A very good book, written for the lay person.

This book is a thoughtful, in depth look into the heart of old age. Dr. Agronin pulls together his experiences in dealing with elderly patients, as well as their families, creating a masterful work and a poignant read.
Readers will come to have a better understanding of the aging process, compassion,and a general sense of how to lead a better life now...knowing we all tread into the same water in the future.
Dramatic, touching, heartfelt, thought-provoking, informative, and sincere...
Each chapter brings a new dimension as we journey through life!
BRAVO! Tugged on my heart-strings!
Dr. Marc Agronin...You are a credit to your profession!

This author is a doctor specializing in geriatric psychiatry who writes about his experiences with his patients. These patients are all old and have the various maladies that result when the body and mind start to fall apart. Pretty depressing, huh....well, maybe....but maybe not. Somehow, the empathetic Agronin manages to make his stories build into a crescendo of hope by the time you turn the last page.

*Francine said bugs were crawling out of her newspaper. The nurses told the doctor Francine was starting to hallucinate and needed to be medicated. Turned out, between the spilled jelly on the newspaper that attracted the ants and the lost glasses that made them look bigger and fuzzier, Francine's treatment plan called for insecticide, not Thorazine.

*Emma had been on the giving rather than receiving end all her life, yet, like Job, had been dealt far more than her share of misfortunes - 60 years of being traumatized, including the holocaust. She ended up in an assisted living facility alone, depressed, and ready to die - that is, until Rachel showed up, who couldn't speak English but had a lot in common with Emma. Emma became Rachel's caregiver, her escort to appointments, and her personal translator. "In turn," says Agronin, "Rachel brought great comfort to Emma. She no longer asked for death."

*Hannah's identity revolved around her beauty, her exile from Poland and then Cuba, and her dedication to social service. Unfortunately, this dignified woman was losing her memory and with it her identity. Then a generous neighbor offered to help Hannah organize her keepsakes into an elaborate scrapbook, her portable memory. "It was astounding to see the restorative transformation in Hannah as she proudly showed the book to others."

*An unnamed 93 year-old severely demented woman sat in a wheelchair all day, making repetitive clicks with her tongue - bothering everyone. But the music therapist listened more carefully, thought he heard a pattern, and began to work it out on the keyboard - eventually finding "Let Me Call You Sweetheart." Agronin says, "Her clicking suddenly ceased, her eyes opened wide, she took a deep breath, and began to sing....the first words anyone had ever heard her speak." Turns out that was the song she and her late husband had held special - sung during their wedding some 60 years ago.

*98 year-old Rose lost her mind to jealousy and eventually her will to live when her elderly boyfriend dropped her for the new 88 year-old admit to the nursing home. Dr Agronin comments, "Rose's last days might seem tragic, expressions of all the wretched indignities of old age, but I marvel not at the life lost but at the love lost. Even at 98 she had been able to love so deeply that the loss of that love broke her heart."

While maneuvering through these human interest stories, Agronin's respect and appreciation for the elderly rubbed off on this reader - perhaps that alone is a good reason for anyone who has grandparents to read this book. I was pretty sad about not being able to communicate more effectively with my own dad during his final days but I just didn't have the skills. That's the reason I bought "How We Age." With a little insight from guys like Agronin, I'm hoping to do better next time around.

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