I enjoyed reading this book. It supported much of what I have already read about the importance of eating healthy and exercising in order to turn back the clock. Dr. Willix seems knowledgeable about his subject and gets quite technical at times, but I felt like the facts helped me understand more about the importance of making the changes he suggests. Although there is no way I can follow all of his advice, many of the stories inspired me to make changes in my diet and exercise more. His comment about how the body can't distinguish between real or imagined stress really struck a chord. It made me begin to understand that by focusing on my problems I was using my imagination to make things worse. If you are looking for information about what you can do to help you live longer, this is the book for you.

This is a long, very thorough book by a former surgeon and practicing physician with many decades of experience. He has a lot of case histories about people whom he's healed through lifestyle changes even when they needed things like heart surgery, and clearly has quite a lot of experience. I was familiar with most of what he writes about like telomeres, antioxidants and the relationship between stress and health, though he includes quite a lot of information about cutting edge supplements. He also gets a little new age at times, especially towards the end, with information about spontaneous healing and what he calls the Apollo Factor.

Basically, he advocates switching mostly to a whole foods, vegan diet other than possibly including a few seafoods like salmon. He is against refined, processed foods like pasta, white rice, sugar (especially sugar), etc. and also considers gluten detrimental. He strongly recommends daily exercise and goes into what types are important (aerobic, flexibility, strength, etc.). Daily movement of at least 30 minutes is important for a long life and health no matter what your age or situation. He advocates for stress relief, meditation, yoga, etc., unplugging, slowing down, and taking quite a few supplements. He also recommends a lot of testing of various levels and some of the tests are rather new and expensive (measure the lengths of your telomeres to see your biologic age for about $300 for instance). He is also one of the many experts who is sounding the alarm about our overeating and the link between calorie restriction (fasting and also just lower calorie intake) and long life.

The author is in his 70's and still very healthy and active, running marathons and so on. He clearly is knowledgeable about this topic but his regimen may be difficult for many to follow. If you follow his advice it's pretty likely that you can reverse disease, get stronger and healthier, reduce chronic pain, lose weight and live longer (and delay "old age" for much longer). That said, few folks these days are probably willing to make all of his changes or live this lifestyle. I will probably adopt some of his recommendations and work harder at more daily exercise and more healthy foods, especially the 10 he recommends most. I already live by about 75% of his advice and have a very healthy lifestyle, but I do not plan to invest in all the supplements he recommends or to transition to the diet he recommends in full.

Another reviewer said Willix gives all the standard advice and I disagree with this. He goes into quite a lot of information that is not typical in health books like peptides, telomerase and geroprotectors. Many of the supplements he recommends are new to me. His core advice about diet, movement, sleep and stress are universal, though. He also provides a 90 day plan and also a very detailed 7 day plan with hour-by-hour recommendations for foods, exercise and activities.

I read a digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.

This book is interesting,but nothing earth shattering that you will learn. Some ideas are the same as in every book,but a couple ideas everyday people are unable to do.

There aren't many new ideas in here -- eat right, exercise, sleep, stress less -- and the ones that are new are really too scientific / medically-advanced to be things that the average person is going to be able to implement. How many regular people are going to go get vitamin infusions? The information is applicable, but written above most laymen's heads.