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| BOOK REVIEW |
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| Year : 2013 | Volume
: 32
| Issue : 4 | Page : 264-265 |
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Healthy at 100
Sujith Eranezhath
Basic and Translational Research, AVP Research Foundation, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
| Date of Web Publication | 6-May-2014 |
Correspondence Address:
Sujith Eranezhath
Basic and Translational Research, AVP Research Foundation, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
How to cite this article:
Eranezhath S. Healthy at 100. Ancient Sci Life 2013;32:264-5 |
 Author: Sujith Eranezhath
Editors: John Robbins
Year: 2007
Pages: 357
Price: Rs. 415
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Healthy at 100 a book by John Robbins is a layman's perspective on studies and scientifically proven secrets of "The World's Healthiest and Longest-Lived people". Living longer has always been a fascinating research topic since time immemorial across civilizations.
The book is divided in five parts as follows:
- Part 1: The World's Healthiest and Longest-Lived People
- Part 2: Our Food, Our Lives
- Part 3: The Body-mind Connection
- Part 4: Why Your Love Matters
- Part 5: The Human Spirit.
The Part 1 titled "The World's Healthiest and Longest-lived People" with four chapter's discusses various civilizations where in people who live long has been reported. The first chapter discusses findings on Abkhasia: Ancients of the Caucasus. The author takes you through interesting research done by Dr. Alexander Leaf and his interactions with humans who are aged more than 100 years and still healthy. The author also narrates the controversies that popped after the said study was published. The chapter also details about, how children are brought up and their diet. The second chapter similarly speaks about Vilcabamba valley. The third chapter deals with people with extraordinary longevity and health in Hunza a region at the northern most tip of Pakistan, where the country meets Russia and China. The people there are said to be extraordinary mountaineers, studies on their extra-ordinary vision even at old age is detailed. The comparisons on diets of these groups are also strikingly similar and interesting.
The fourth chapter is on the centenarians of Okinawa, the southernmost Japanese prefecture. The chapter details the Okinawa centenarian study, a study conducted by Ministry of Health and Welfare of Japan. The people of this region are unlike those of Abkhasia, Vilcabama and Hunza, the study at Okinawa has evidence needed for future studies of longevity and health.
The Part 2 titled "Our Food, Our Lives" introduces to the reader, research available on diets and its recommendations. The "Eat Well, Live Long" chapter deals with diet and in this, bread, sugar, obesity, pros and cons of low and high carbohydrate diets are discussed based on various researches. The subsequent chapter titled "Nutrition and the Health of Humanity" is on studies on food habits and changes in them among civilizations. The variety of traditional diets in native people and emergence of processed foods, implication of changes in diet is discussed here. The chapter titled "Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted" details the studies on Nutrition conducted in China involving 650,000 workers, studies on diseases based on malnutrition, studies on cancer and animal based food, The eighth chapter "The Road to Health and Healing" gives a glimpse of impact of Dr. Dean Ornish's research had made in terms of diet and management of heart disease. Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn's work on similar lines on plant-based diet is also discussed. The chapter then discusses about importance of omega-3s its various sources, pros and cons of each source. The Part 2 closes with a note on 'Steps you can take' to achieve healthy ageing.
The Part 3 on "The Body-Mind Connection" starts with a chapter "Stepping into Life" details the importance of exercise and research on it. The next chapter titled "Born to move" is on healthy ageing and details of factors that affect ageing. The chapter that follows details research conducted on Alzheimers disease this is, titled "Keeping your Marbles." The next chapter "Confident and Clear-thinking" is on people with sharp memory at an advanced age. The session also concludes with a note on "Steps you can take."
"Why your Love Matters" is the Part 4 with following chapters: 13-"What's Love Got to Do with It?,?", 14-"The Strength of the Heart," 15-"How Then Shall We Live." These are on importance of love, relationships and its power on well-being and healing. The final chapter of the part is on research on these aspects of life.
The Part 5, the final part of the book is "The Human Spirit" discusses about culture, wealth and its distribution which affects health. In the chapter "Breaking Free from the Cultural Trance." "Grief and Healing" discusses on current status of the civilizations discussed in Part 1 of the book. The final chapter "Death and Awakening" is a note on the wholesomeness of good food, exercise and healthy mind for a healthy long life
This bestselling book is not only a bird's eye view of the health scenario but also a reflection of many aspects that ancient sciences like Ayurveda have been imparting. Although never mentioned in book, the recommendations that the book puts forward has deep insights of Ayurveda. Indirectly, the book provides a sneak-peek into researches that speak strongly in favour of the recommendations of the classics of Ayurveda.
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