The Most Effective Ways to Live Longer: The Surprising, Unbiased Truth About What You Should Do to Prevent Disease, Feel Great, and Have Optimum Health and Longevity [Paperback]

Author Jonny Bowden looks at what he calls "The Four Horsemen of Aging"--free radicals, inflammation, glycation, and stress--and shows how they can harm your health and shorten your life. Bowden then unveils an arsenal of anti-aging strategies culled from cutting edge research and lessons learned from the longest lived people on the planet. He examines how the major organs, such as the heart and the brain, age and how you can prevent damage to these vital parts of the body. In total, readers learn what they can eat, do, and take to feel great, avoid illness, and live a long life.

It is never to early to start putting healthy habits in place and this book is a wonderful example of just that. Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., C.N.S., is a nationally known expert on weight loss and nutrition. In The Most Effective Ways To Live Longer Jonny focuses on what he calls the four horseman of aging:

* Oxidative Damage
* Inflammation
* Glycation
* Stress

As the book says, the four horseman of aging is anything that's happening to your body that you wish were not happening, from the beginning of disease to the breakdown of systems to the loss of functionality... all this is being driven by the engine of these four processes.

Yes the above paragraph is depressing. This book is all about taking these four steps and through diet and exercise how to keep the horses at bay. And this.... I love.

Foods like wild salmon (a perfect anti aging food) to blueberries (filled with antioxidants and cancer fighters).... we are walked through delicious choices that keep you young and healthy - inside and out. Exercises like crunches for the abdominal muscles, squats for legs and lower body, weight resistance and more. This book is a wealth of knowledge.

The Blue Zone chapter was fascinating! Every so often, a team of researchers will discover a little corner of the globe where- inexplicably- people routinely live to 100 or more. These areas have come to be known as "The Blue Zones" and scientists have spent hundreds of research hours trying to uncover their secrets. Some of these secrets are reveealed within the pages of this book.

This book is a wonderful reference that with slight adjustments to our everyday lives we can apply. Through these steps we can slow even stop the aging process. What is not to like about that? Big bold pictures and written in an easy to follow, even funny tone... page by page you are going to eat up this knowledge and truly be better for it in the end.

The book has over 264 pages of information about living a long, healthy life. The beautiful, colorful pictures accompany easy to read, easy to follow advice on how to slow the aging process by fighting "The Four Housemen of Aging" - Free Radicals or Oxidation, Inflammation, Glycation and Stress. As a 43 year old women with grandparents in their 90's this book is very interesting to me. My mom died before 35 and my dad has always had medical issues but I can look at how my grandparents lived and see that Dr. Jonny Bowden's book is right on target. My grandfather had a triple bypass over 20 years ago but is still going and that has to do with the way he lived.

Dr. Bowden's website can be accessed here. Start your New Year right. Get to know Dr. Jonny Bowden, your heart will be glad you did.

I particularly loved Dr. Bowden's Anti-Aging Action Plan on how to boost your immune system because most of the suggestions simply make for a better life all around:

Learn to relax
Learn to laugh at yourself
Learn to listen
Practice forgiveness
Put yourself in other people's shoes

The quote that sticks with me the most today is: For every 1 pound of weight lost, there is a 4-pound reduction in the load exerted on the knee for each step taken during daily activities. I have terrible knees and will eventually need knee replacement surgery. This is very motivational for me to drop at least 10 pounds over the next year.

I absolutely loved this book. It was written in a way that is easy to understand and follow. There is even some humor thrown in. Even though I've read many books and articles on how to have healthy mind and body, I learned so much from this book and enjoyed every chapter. I loved all the bright colorful photos too. I especially liked Chapter 8, How To Keep Your Brain Sharp. It covered so many topics and I know I will put some, if not all, to use. I recommend this book to anyone who cares about their health, or the health of someone they love. It's a great addition to my self-help books.