Alex Zhavoronkov

While the science of aging itself is not of prime interest to me, the biomedical field and its impact on our lives is so. The Ageless Generation is a clumsy book based on an interesting subject. The writing is alright but the presentation is muddled at best, often becoming less a scholarly treatment of a fascinating subject and instead a hastily patched-together set of thoughts which reflect the still-wet adhesive between. Very little new was presented here which isn't better delivered in other treatments.… (meer)

This is ultimately a lackluster book limited insight into the aging challenge. This might be a good first book for someone not familiar with the science and economics of an aging population and who is interested in getting a broad summary of the topic.
The book focuses on two major areas of 'the aging generation'--the scientific and the economic/social aspects. The scientific portions of the book were valid summaries of recent research, though they were not as in-depth as I would have expected from a book-length treatment on the subject. The book then discusses these advances in the societal context, but in a rather broad fashion. Many of the economic solutions proffered are extreme. The author certainly has vision, rightly so as a leader in his field, but does not connect this vision with reality in any concrete way. In recommending extreme solutions, the author whitewashes over any difficulties politicians, health professionals, and scientists may experience when implementing these changes. Similar to the scientific discussions in the book, the societal portions could have been shortened drastically. Ultimately this book falls into a too-long journal article or a too-short monograph.… (meer)

The Ageless Generation attempts to be a useful book that will influence public policy in terms of providing funding for age research. However, it's not a very interesting read, and maybe I'm just too well read, but I felt like the book was just taking a bunch of stuff I already knew, clumsily repackaging it, and presenting it back to me under the guise of some special new theory. The author could have summed up his point much more concisely; I see no reason why this was stretched out to a full book. I did enjoy the chapter on the origins of "retirement," but that was about it.… (meer)

I've read a few books about the possibilities of expanding the human lifespan, but most give you the science portion of how we might do it and what current discoveries contribute to this end goal. Alex Zhavoronkov's book is the first to talk passionately about why it is important to bring about breakthroughs that prolong human life.

His basic argument throughout the book is that expanding healthy human lifespan can help us overcome the current economic issues we have in our health care and retirement benefits. Current medical practices have already impacted peoples lives such that the average lifespan has already been extended, but in doing so it has only prolonged life, not solved some of the medical issues that arise with older age. This leaves us in the current situation where we are having trouble covering the expenses found in combating the age related illnesses. Alex is saying we need to fund the research to make breakthroughs the don't just extend our lives, but that extend them such that we are healthier and more productive in our old age.

Along the way the book covers everything from where the current research and science is now, to how we will need to extend retirement age (a key point for solving the retirement benefits issues), to how current practices in the drug industry only seek to solve the symptoms of diseases, not find cures. I was particularly fond of how he points out several times that retirement is actually a new phenomena. He also shows how the United States actually ranks very low on the average human lifespan (so much for our oh-so-top-notch medical capabilities) and shows how we have cut our budgets for this kind of research while China has expanded theirs. In fact, a lot of advances seems to come out of Chinese research, something our current politicians in the United States should take note of.

This is a great book and if you have an opportunity to read it you should. It's not a very long read and I'm sure other books cover portions of the topic in more detail, but I felt this gave a good overview to our current state of affairs in health and medicine and shows how we could do much better.… (meer)