For anyone who is getting older and would like to know if there is anything they can do about it, Dr. Andrew Weils latest book. Healthy Aging, offers some expert advice. America's best-known integrative medicine specialist and popular author has been delving into the growing field of biogerontology as well as the more visible but less conventional realm of antiaging medicine. What he has found may be disappointing to some--namely, that "at present there are no effective anti-aging medicines." This includes the much-hyped and expensive HGH (human growth hormone) treatments that have become a staple of anti-aging practitioners. HGH may provide temporary reversal of metabolic components of aging, Weil writes, but it comes with a significant risk of side effects, and there is a distinct possibility that HGH treatments could end up actually shortening life rather than extending it.

On the other hand, biogerontologists, working away in their laboratories, are reporting some initial successes in the fight against aging. Using various techniques, they have tripled the lifespans of nematodes by altering their genes and increased the lifespan of mice by 50 percent through calorie deprivation. Such research may someday lead to doubling of the human lifespan, but Weil believes widespread significant increases in longevity won't come in time for anyone now reading his book.

On the bright side, Weil focuses on two prominent theories of aging that have "practical import" in that they allow us to do something right now to help reduce our risk of age-related diseases that reduce lifespan. One has to do with the carmelization, or browning reaction, that makes cooked foods turn brown as a result of the interaction between proteins and sugars when heated. This process also takes place in our bodies, where it is called glycation. According to the theory, the waste products of these reactions inside our cells interefere with other proteins and with RNA and DNA, ultimately leading to sagging skin, chronic diseases, and other age-related conditions. Our high sugar and carbohydrate diets are helping feed this aging process.

The other aging theory is that of free radical damage in which oxidation in body cells leads ultimately to chronic disease. Eating a high-antioxidant diet with varied fruits and vegetables and taking multivitamins may help protect us in this regard.

Weil incorporates these theories in his Anti-Inflammatory Diet, which is aimed at countering inflammation that current research indicates may be the culprit in many chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease. The science of nutrition is developing rapidly, he notes, but the new findings are not included in medical school curriculums, "leaving doctors functionally illiterate in this most important field." The Anti-Inflammatory Diet is part of Weirs Twelve-Point Program for Healthy Aging (right) that encompasses nutrition, physical activity, proper rest, and stress avoidance, as well as the preservation of mental ability and acuity as we age.

Weil writes with clarity, skill, and humor, and readers will come away with a real understanding of the biology and genetics that make us age, as well as a fuller appreciation of the contentment and reward that growing older has to offer.