Home > Media > Books > CHRIS CROWLEY and HENRY S. LODGE M.D. - Younger Next Year: A Men's Guide to the New Science of Aging How to Live Like 50 Until You're 80 and Beyond
CHRIS CROWLEY and HENRY S. LODGE M.D. - Younger Next Year: A Men's Guide to the New Science of Aging How to Live Like 50 Until You're 80 and Beyond
Ed.Williamson's Full Review: CHRIS CROWLEY and HENRY S. LODGE M.D. - Younger Ne...
Younger Next Year is by far the most effective book about general health and (sigh!) aging that I have ever read or seen. And it does it in a sort of “stealth” way, too. Written by Chris Crowley, with assistance from a young M.D., Dr. “Harry” Lodge, what you get is a sort of talk-across-the-restaurant-table about what works and what doesn’t work in the area of general health.
A strong premise behind the book is this, as I see it: for about 98% of human history, or up until a very few centuries ago, the normal lifestyle of the average person could be compared to the kind of lifestyle that the average athlete lives today. Throughout 98% of all human history, most people were de-facto athletes.Think that one through. An athlete of today is someone who exercises and keeps strong and fit for their sport. What kept our ancestors so “athletic”, you say? Well, most of them did a whole lot more walking- and running- than the average person of the 21st century, especially in the “advanced” countries, does. In the old days, people were required to lift heavy loads more often so their muscles were in better shape. And they didn’t have foods laden with preservatives like trans-fats and other things which have been linked to cancer.
Today in America, and probably in a lot of other countries, here in this “Golden 2%” of time in human history, we often think that the primary goal of life is to wind up sitting for hours on end in an easy chair, endlessly eating snacks, as we channel-surf the TV or cruise the net. This is why most of us are overweight, out-of-shape, and right on the edge of getting some disease like Type II Diabetes, if we haven’t already. Okay, why do we live longer lives than our ancestors anyway, even if our “long lives” may be really existing from one doctor visit to the next? Medicine has advanced. We have money to eat and keep warm. Inventions have come along. But heart attacks, strokes, cancer, and other “dragons” lie out there in wait for we who are fat, dumb, and happy.
The book is a subtle but effective sermon on Unlocking The Athlete Inside You. After all, if that’s how human beings were hard-wired to live (they did for a long, long time), then maybe it’s time to jettison all the nonsense about “living a comfortable lifestyle” and go back to our more active and athletic roots. Crowley and Lodge’s big answer: Begin exercising one full hour a day, six days a week. That's the heart of their message.
Muscles become strong again. Brain cells are more vibrant. Pounds begin to melt off our bodies. Bone deterioration goes into hibernation. Hot Sex becomes erotic and fun again. Self esteem goes up. You become sociable again. And you might be healthier in the last third of your life than in the first two thirds.
One of the surprising things that these two men tell us over and over is a rebuttal to the Biggest Lie in Health Today. They say flat out that All DIETS are crazy, never work, and will actually make you eventually put on more weight.
Instead, they suggest, along with the exercise, that we (a) learn which foods are actually good for us, and (b) make choices to eat those “right” foods (some will call this "dieting"; the authors say it is just eating- the right way.) The body will thank us and will balance out the difference. For example, they say NEVER EAT FAST FOOD EVER AGAIN, and NEVER DRINK A SUGARED SOFT DRINK EVER AGAIN. As a typical American who grew up on McDonald’s Hamburgers and “real thing” Coca Cola, these guys sound like Columbus telling all the rest of us that the world isn’t flat; it’s a round thing. New Truth for old wrong-thinking minds. I have only to look at my blood sugar level and my scale weight to know these guys are probably telling me the Real Deal.
The really intriguing thing about this book, apart from its common-sense data about health issues, is the style in which that information is presented. It’s not like a “normal” self-improvement book or a “Dr. Phil”- type book. It is guys talking to guys around a restaurant table, or around the water cooler; that sort of thing. I think it was this approach- along with a lot of humor- that kept me going through it non-stop, and made a Believer out of me. I went out and bought a Heart Monitor and I’m back in the gym.
The target audience of this book is (a) men, and (b) men who are in their fifties and would rather not die for another 40 years or so. But my wife read the book and became a Believer (and found out that the two guys have a book out for women, too.) Personally, I think this book ought to be in the hands of the teenagers and twenty-somethings of today, because it will even ramp up their lives, and maybe even get them to avoid the mistakes of their elders. I’m getting the book into the hands of my three kids in their twenties.
There are several other things about the book I won’t go into deeply, such as mental stimulation and building an elder-years social life, but you can read that for yourself. The book came out a year ago (12/04) and it is at B&N, Amazon, and other places for anywhere from $17.00 to $27.00. You can get it in audio, too, which is great because you can hear Chris and Harry talk and they are a lot of fun when you’re listening. They are funny and enthusiastic but deadly serious about what being healthy is really all about, beyond the deceptions and assumptions associated with so much modern life today.
I’m not going to tell you to rush out and buy this book. No, go online and get it. Unless you (of course) need the exercise. But however you do it, you may want to buy or borrow a copy soon. Your younger life next year is waiting.
Drawing on the latest science of revolutionary biology, YOUNGER NEXT YEAR shows men fifty or older how they can become functionally younger every year...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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