"Longevity Made Simple"
is the title of a new book I picked up at the library. It's written by Drs. Richard Flanigan and Kate Flanigan Sawyer, a father-daughter team. The subtitle is "How to add 20 good years to your life: Lessons from decades of research". It nicely summarizes the current state of our understanding of longevity. As they explain, there are 100,000 diseases listed in the doctors' handbook, but if what most of have to worry about is the top 5 killers (data as of 2003):
- Heart disease: 28% of deaths
- Cancer: 23%
- Stroke: 6%
- Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD; almost always due to smoking tobacco): 5%
- Accidents: 4%
With heart disease as the #1 cause of death, it is not surprising that they focus a lot on managing cholesterol. Here are their cholesterol benchmarks:
- Total cholesterol: under 200; optimal under 150
- HDL: more than 45; optimal more than 50
- LDL: less than 100; optimal under 70 if you have a history of heart attack, stroke, other vascular disease or diabetes
- Triglycerides: under 150; optimal under 100
- Total cholesterol/HDL ratio: less than 3.5; optimally less than 3
They highly recommend statins as the miracle drug to lower cholesterol. In fact, Dr. Roberts, MD, Editor-in-Chief, The American Hournal of Cardiology, makes a strong statement in his Foreword:
"Statins are to atherosclerosis what penicillin was to infectious disease."
The other parts of their recommendations are to eat better, exercise more (and get your BMI under 25), manage your blood-pressure to under 120/80 and keep on top of your checkups. Nothing most of us have not heard before! And yet, they state in the Preface:
Only 3 percent of the population practices the four standard healthy habits: they do not smoke, they follow a nutritious diet, they exercise regularly, and they keep their weight under control.
Overall an interesting book with lots of data. A good primer.
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