Description
Book SynopsisWe’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?
Join veteran reporter Bill Gifford 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 claims that we are on the cusp of achieving ‘longevity escape velocity’, and who predicts that our children could live for a thousand years. An intoxicating mixture of deep reporting, fascinating science and sound advice, Spring Chicken will reveal the extraordinary breakthroughs that may yet bring us eternal youth, while exposing the dangerous deceptions that prey on the innocent and ignorant.
Trade Review'Startling...warm, delightfully curious'.
* Sunday Times *
'An intoxicating mixture of deep reporting, fascinating science and sound advice'.
* Press Association *
“Spring Chicken is an utterly marvelous book — a guided tour of a fantastic, counterintuitive landscape (that happens to be your body), and also a whip-smart guide to living a longer and healthier life.”
-- Daniel Coyle,
New York Times bestselling author of
The Talent Code“Spring Chicken is a masterful exploration of the fantasy and fact surrounding one of the most fundamental questions of humankind: why do we age?"
-- David Perlmutter, MD, #1
New York Times bestselling author of
Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth About Wheat, Carbs and Sugar—Your Brain's Silent Killers“Bill Gifford’s terrific Spring Chicken gives us a riveting account of the most important change of the last century—the doubling of our lifespans—and an intimate vision of what it will take to not only keep that trend going, but keep ourselves healthy and vibrant as we age.”
-- Steven Johnson,
New York Times bestseller of
How We Got to Now“Gifford skilfully navigates the many strands of aging research to create an entertaining narrative of the perils of getting old.”
* Kirkus Reviews *
"You need this book. I grabbed it like a life preserver, and that’s exactly what it is. Spring Chicken demolishes the worst hoaxes in anti-aging treatments — like crushed dog testicles, human growth hormone, and Suzanne Somers — and leaves you with the good news: by adopting a few easy-to-understand, easy-to- follow discoveries, you might just deactivate the time bombs in your fat cells and learn to follow in the springy, “successfully aging" footsteps of a 92-year-old pole vaulter."
-- Christopher McDougall, New York Times bestselling author of
Born to Run and
Natural Born Heroes
