Book review: Saving Your Life – One Day at a Time
Dr Roy Sugarman PhD has published a book focusing on healthy aging…read Ian Stokol’s review.
Although most of us understand that ageing is inevitable, and that great physical strength and health are really the prerogative of the young, this book sets all that aside as a myth.
The first thing we hear is that an accumulation of little things along our life trajectory actually predict how we will age, and that there is likewise an accumulation of little things we can do, that will change all that.
For instance, sitting continuously for most days, either at work, home, or worse, in a motor car, predicts a host of nasty disability as we age, whereas mobilizing our bodies regularly during the day avoids these illnesses, or inoculates us against them completely. People who do Tai Chi most of their lives don’t have to fear Alzheimer’s disease, for instance, the incidence is negligible in those groups.
The book covers seven domains, including movement, nutrition, positive psychology, the need for recovery, and so on, an integrated approach to living that few if any other books have attempted. In this way, flossing your teeth and visiting the dentist prolong your life by controlling the bacteria that attack your heart, and joining a social club or caring for those less fortunate is about as lifesaving as a cardiac bypass.
Watching a video of Mother Theresa’s work boost the immune system by a third, in a few minutes, whilst driving in a car for more than 10 hours a week, is just about suicide.
Although there is much to be afraid of in modern life, so much that begins rotting us early, Dr Sugarman’s strategies, none of which are hard to incorporate into our busy lives, are both doable and comforting: this is good advice you can take, without spending your life in a gym or eating weeds!
Dr Sugarman is an internationally accepted authority on peak performance, and the psychology of vital change. Out of all the books I have seen on the bookshelves, this one both confronts and comforts, and makes perfect sense, while at the same time providing a humerous and face paced read.
It comes highly recommended by experts and laymen alike, worldwide, and deservedly so. The rot starts early, so start now!!”
Saving your life one day at a time: Seven ways to survive the modern world. By Roy Sugarman PhD, Publisher: Heart Space Publications, Melbourne 2013.
