Literature: Successful Aging, Part 1

 

Successful Aging by Daniel Levitin. Image source: Goodreads

A friend recommended Successful Aging, by Daniel J. Levitin, to me. Dr. Levitin is a neuroscientist. A neuropsychologist recommended the book to my friend, and she found the content illuminating. 

I've now finished the book, and here's my overall take: 

1. Some useful information, both for general science education and also for some actionable behaviors one can practice to promote successful aging
2. Dr. Levitin really drives home the difference between our life spans and our health spans. Embracing the term "health span" sharpens my focus for actions and decision-making into the future. 
3. Too many of the "facts" that Dr. Levitin presents are anecdotal; they are stories of individuals who are in their 90s or older who are doing this or that magnificent thing. Stories of individuals are engaging, but I want data supported by empirical research. 
4. There are specific strategies from the book that I intend to employ, which I'll get into as I process the book in future posts. 
5. I wish there'd been more editing to reduce the information bloat; more specifically, my interest centered on how our bodies/brains age, but I had to wade through (and, eventually, skip over) so much background information on what our bodies/brains are like as infants, young children, and young adults. In other words, the introduction to every Important Idea was like an inverted pyramid, and the payoff for all that background context didn't feel like a good ROI of my finite resources of time and intellectual interest.  

If I had to score the book on a scale of 0 to 5, with 5 being exemplary, I'd give it a 3.75.  [Edit:... I'd give it a 4.5 ..... I upped my preliminary assessment after I revisited all of the highlighted text I'd marked while reading the book the first time. Also, the author has documented his intel to a faretheewell in his Notes section at the back of the book.]