The Longevity Bible: 8 Essential Strategies for Keeping Your Mind Sharp and Your Body Young

What a delight. I was expecting yet another book on diet and exercise. Dr. Small, however, gives balance with only one chapter on diet and one on fitness. His other six essentials are mental and lifestyle. As Dr. Small put it, "Fix your brain and the rest will follow." The emphasis on a sharp mind, optimism, healthy relationships, finessing stress, environment, and using medicine well is right on. The advice is solidly based on research and clinical experience. The book is very practical and the writing has a wonderfully positive and upbeat tone. Well done! Michael Brickey, Ph.D., anti-aging psychologist and author of Defy Aging and 52 baby steps to Grow Young.

Dr Gary Small is the director of the UCLA center on aging. His opinion is that happiness and positivity will actually increase and add years to your life expectancy. This is an optimistic book that essentially says you can get smarter. We can do crossword puzzles and other challenging mental tasks will keep our brains sharp and young. He talks about 8 lifestyle stratagies that can dramatically reverse the ageing process. One is to sharpen the mind and apply the P's and Q's (perserverance, presense and quality - he goes into detail in the book). He talks about attitude. Optimism is better than pessimism. We need to mantain possitive outloks. We have to stay connected socially - if you are social you'll live longer rather than being a recluse. All these things can keep our immune stronger just by being happy. We have to reduce stress and say No (how many times do you say Yes to someone to please them and then upset yourself), and we have to cut loose toxic relationships that bring us down. These are just some of the things he talks about and he does go in depth. When you read it right through, you can actually see how it makes sense and how you can incorporate these ideas into your life. It's a good read and eye-opening. It makes you want to go out and get into the best health (he talks about exercising too) we can get into. I want to try more Soduko's etc. I highly recommend this book.

I bought this book for my mother to help her learn ways to live long and healthy, but now I can't put it down. I love the diet chapter, and the exercise chapter is great -- it's easy to follow and has pictures that show every exercise. Written by a doctor who's spent his career helping people keep their brains healthy and thier bodies young, this is a book for all generations. I'm really glad I bought it and I guess I'll have to buy my Mom a copy of her own.

The Longevity Bible is full of wonderful information to keep our minds sharp and our bodies feeling young. I love the mental exercises and, as a baby boomer myself, I am thrilled to learn there is so much I can do to help keep myself as young as I feel inside. The chapters on adapting to our environment can effect our longevity, as well as healthy relationships, have never been done anywhere before, and I loved reading that a belief in God or spirituality can help keep you living longer. I love this book. Rachel Shintell, New York, NY

At first I laughed when I read the title of this book. The authors promise everything, short of showing up at your home and aging for you. My cynicism quickly turned to relief, though, as I read it contents. This book is a quick enjoyable read, and it answered honestly just about every question I had with respect to living a long healthy life. I highly recommend it to all of you who wish to live, at the very least, as long as your healthiest friend.