Spring chicken
Subtitle: stay young forever (or die trying)
By: Bill Gifford
Publisher: Oneworld Publications
Published: 2015
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 366
ISBN-13: 9781780748511; 9781780748528
Copyright date: 2015
Subjects: Longevity; Aging; Self-care, Health; Rejuvenation
Description: We've been tantalised by the idea of eternal youth since time immemorial. We're always asking how we can live longer, and better. Or, to put it another way, why can't we all be like Madame Calment who cycled till she was 100, smoked till she was 117 and died at the wonderfully old age of 122? In Spring Chicken, veteran reporter Bill Gifford takes us for a rip-roaring ride along the trail to the fountain of youth. Meet the scientists who have doubled the life-expectancy of mice by knocking out a single gene, and others like Aubrey de Grey who says our children could go on to live for a thousand years or maybe five thousand. Discover why some people live longer than others - one study of London residents even showed that where you get off the Tube can make a huge difference to how long you live. In Spring Chicken, Gifford separates fact and fiction, exposing the hoaxes and scams foisted upon our ageing society, while also revealing what you should do, and what you definitely shouldn't do, to stay younger for longer. An intoxicating mixture of deep reporting and fascinating science, it is an addictive account of our quest to cure ageing and defeat death.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 321-352) and index.
Table of contents: title: Prologue. The elixir; title: Brothers; title: The age of aging; title: The fountain of youthiness; title: Yours sincerely, wasting away; title: How to live to 108 without really trying; title: The heart of the problem; title: Baldness as metaphor; title: The lives of our cells; title: Phil vs. fat; title: Pole vaulting into eternity; title: Starving for immortality; title: What doesn't kill you; title: Fast forward; title: Who moved my keys?; title: Epilogue. The death of death; title: Appendix. Things that might work.