Customer Reviews

Successful Aging: The MacArthur Foundation Study shows you how the lifestyle choices you make now- -more than heredity--determine your health

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I stumbled upon the book strictly by accident and ended up paying full list price at Barnes and Noble. After seeing the really great prices on Amazon, I reluctently sat down to read a few chapters to try and get my monies worth. Wow. To say the book was enlightening would be to offer a dis-service to the multi-year McArthur Foundation Study. I picked up a few things from the book that most readers will not and that is basic assumptions that Private Foundations and Private Research gathers far more information about a subject than Government sponsored projects. It occured to me that Government has pretty muched screwed up Social Security as well as providing for long term health care in America. Successful Aging gives an alternative to spending your final years in a Nursing Home. The book is very well thought through, well researched and backed up with countless citations that give credit where credit is due. I found the book an enjoyable read, almost a primer. After reading this book, I ordered out about three hundred dollars worth of additional books on aging. That should tell you something. By the way, I ordered another copy of the book in out of print library edition to add to my collection. Great Book! Great Read! Don't get old without it!

The research findings reported in Successful Aging have been supported in a new 20-year study by an independent group of researchers. The study by Becca Levy of Yale Univerisity, et al, was reported in 2002. Simply stated, we can decide now to live longer and better. Having a positive attitude about aging is alone responsible for extending life by 7.5 years, and years of activity and involvment, not suffering. This is a very worthwhile read, despite what some stupid old fools have written before.

The idea behind this book is great, but its information could easily fit into a 3-page article in Woman's Day or a similar popular magazine. I expected to learn much more than I did from this very repetitive book. (It almost made me feel like I was aging on the spot: "Hey, didn't I just read that a few pages ago? Am I forgetting or imagining things?")

While some may object to these "counterintuitive" findings, this book is in line with the vast majority of recent research in the field of gerontology. The notes at the back of the book give plenty of evidence to back up the claims here, too! In other words, it's accurate -- maybe not obvious, or what people want to hear, but accurate. That's what I wanted, and I think it's what most people can use. The extent to which one's own actions are responsible for how one ages is kind of scary, but also a powerful piece of knowledge. Also, it's great to know how *late* you can start doing a lot of things to improve your later life.

This book is also clear, consise and helpful. It's available in large print too - because just because your eyesight is going doesn't mean it's too late to improve your health by gaining and applying knowledge! If you find that you are aging or know someone who is, read this book!

While hiding behind the mantle of saying that the book is based on a many-million dollar study by the MacArthur Foundation, in fact, it is little more than a feel-good book. To so disproportionately minimize the role of genetics in the aging process, while relying only fuzzy, methodologically weak studies to support its contraintuitive notions, renders this book just a step above pop-psych "You can be anything you want" books.

The authors claim it covers the findings of a landmark study funded by the Macarthur Foundation. First of all, only the first 20 pages discuss this study that apparently millions of dollars was spent on. The remaining 180 pages tell us about work done by other people. Their main point, stated blazingly on the cover of the book, is that genes don't matter... what kind of nonsense is that? (And, the Macarthur Foundation had nothing to do with genetics) What makes us who we are anyway??? Who are these guys kidding? I am sure aging can be done well with the right motivation and common sense... but this is not the book to go to for authoritative, well thought through advise.

I am very impressed with the research-based wide-ranging information about how you can enhance your health, your life involvement, your mental skills, and have better years in your life from middle age on. It is not true that genetics determines all and there's nothing you can do about it. The effects of the choices you make about activity, nutrition, social contact, work and other areas are described, with the current data and recommendations. I read a library copy, but I have to own it for reference and re-reading.

Because of the excellent scholarship and substantial funds provided by the MacArthur Foundation over a period of seven years, this book may be considered as the definitive study of the phenomenon of the extension of the life cycle which has taken place in the past forty to fifty years. What it does is to verify and explain what is happening to the millions of people now living out their years after the age of 65. No startling discoveries have been made nor new conclusions arrived at. Thework cannot be faulted for its scholarship nor for the obvious conclusions it reaches. The problems which I have with the book do not lie in the facts it presents but more with the unimaginative and pedantic conclusions which it makes. Such statements as "... In short, successful aging means just what it says - aging well, which is different from not aging at all" or "Talking, touching and relating to others is essential to our well-being" or "Later life is a time in which some men and women attain a degree of wisdom that only the thoughtful assimilation of long experience can confer. May it be so with the readers of this book". Much of the book deals with the physical well-being of older people. It discusses at great length about the avoidance of diseases and a long and scary list of disabilities which afflict many people as they grow older. It recommends that health promotion rather than disease prevention is becoming the important theme in geriatrics. If this is true, and my unscientific observations agree, then such an approach has psychological implications far more dangerous than those diseases it helps prevent or minimize. The number one topic of concern and conversation among older people is their health, what their doctors opinion amy be, and what medications they take. The older generations are fast becoming a group of hypocondriacs. Their every action is influenced by what result can be obtained from the food they eat, the exercise they take and the climate in which they live. Like their ancient ancestors, who believed it necessary to consult the oracle prior to any important decision, today's elders are encouraged to consult their doctors, wait long and boring hours in anterooms and refuse to participate in any meaningful activity whether it be psychological or physical until their doctor has been consulted. The major aspect of aging which this book ignores is how to achieve quality in the extended life which the medical profession has given us. Are these new found years worth living if they are filled with new diseases and disabilities? We have been "successful" in prolonging life but at what cost? It is difficult to discern in what context this book uses this word. It is surely not enough to show how we have solved many of the problems and ailments besetting older people in the past. Most of today's aged need not face the spectre of poverty for example. A strong financial safety net is in place. There is also a remarkable network of institutions, social clubs, educational opportunities, travel groups and housing catering to the needs of the elderly. All of these factors add to the quality of life of the elderly, but little is discussed about this aspect of aging in the book.