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Lifespan: Why We Age - and Why We Don't Have To Paperback – 2 June 2021
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For decades, the medical community has looked to a variety of reasons for why we age, and the consensus is that no one dies of old age; they die of age-related diseases. That's because ageing is not a disease – it is inevitable.
But what if everything you think you know about ageing is wrong?
What if ageing is a disease? And that disease is curable.
In THE EVOLUTION OF AGEING, Dr. David Sinclair, one of the world’s foremost authorities on genetics and ageing, argues just that. He has dedicated his life’s work to chasing more than a longer lifespan – he wants to enable people to live longer, healthier, and disease-free well into our hundreds. In this book, he reveals a bold new theory of ageing, one that pinpoints a root cause of ageing that lies in an ancient genetic survival circuit. This genetic trick – a circuit designed to halt reproduction in order to repair damage to the genome –has enabled earth’s early microcosms to survive and evolve into more advanced organisms. But this same survival circuit is the reason we age: as genetic damage accumulates over our lifespans from UV rays, environmental toxins, and unhealthy diets, our genome is overwhelmed, causing gray hair, wrinkles, achy joints, heart issues, dementia, and, ultimately, death.
But genes aren’t our destiny; we have more control over them than we’ve been taught to believe. We can’t change our DNA, but we can harness the power of the epigenome to realise the true potential of our genes. Drawing on his cutting-edge findings at the forefront of medical research, Dr. Sinclair will provide a scientifically-proven roadmap to reverse the genetic clock by activating our vitality genes, so we can live younger longer. Readers will discover how a few simple lifestyle changes – like intermittent fasting, avoiding too much animal protein, limiting sugar, avoiding x-rays, exercising with the right intensity, and even trying cold therapy – can activate our vitality genes. Dr. Sinclair ends the book with a look to the near future, exploring what the world might look like – and what will need to change – when we are all living well to 120 or more.
Dr. Sinclair takes what we have long accepted as the limits of human potential and mortality and turns them into choices. LIFESPAN is destined to be the biggest book on genes, biology, and longevity of this decade.
- Print length416 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherThorsons/Element GB
- Publication date2 June 2021
- Dimensions13 x 2.5 x 20 cm
- ISBN-100008292353
- ISBN-13978-0008292355
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Product description
Review
‘If you ever wondered how we age, if we can slow or even reverse aging, and if we can live a healthy 100 plus years, then David Sinclair’s new book Lifespan, which reads like a detective novel, will guide you through the science and the practical strategies to make your health span equal your lifespan, and make your lifespan long and vibrant.’
– Mark Hyman, MD Director, Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine and #1 New York Times bestselling author
‘This is the most visionary book about aging I have ever read. Seize the day–and seize this book!’
– Dean Ornish, MD, founder & president, Preventive Medicine Research Institute, and New York Times bestselling author of UnDo It!
"In this insightful and provocative book that asks questions about how we age, and whether humans can overcome decay and degeneration, Sinclair grapples with some of the most fundamental questions around the science of aging. The result is an elegant and exciting book that deserves to be read broadly and deeply." Author: Siddhartha Mukherjee, Pulitzer Prize–winning and #1 New York Times bestselling author
“There are few books that have ever made me think about science in a fundamentally new way. David Sinclair’s book did that for me on aging. This is a book that anyone who ages must read.” Author: Leroy Hood, PhD, professor at the California Institute of Technology, inventor, entrepreneur, member of all three US National Academies, and co-author of Code of Codes
About the Author
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Product details
- Publisher : Thorsons/Element GB (2 June 2021)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 416 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0008292353
- ISBN-13 : 978-0008292355
- Dimensions : 13 x 2.5 x 20 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: 175 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 1 in Wheat Free Diets
- 1 in Vegetarian Diets
- 2 in Physiology (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

David A. Sinclair, Ph.D., A.O. is one of the world’s most famous and influential scientists. He is a tenured Professor at Harvard Medical School and TIME magazine named him “one of the 100 most influential people in the world” (2014) and among the “Top 50 People in Healthcare” (2018). His newsletter is at www.lifespanbook.com and you can follow him on Twitter @davidasinclair or IG at davidsinclairphd.
David is on the board of directors of the American Federation for Aging Research and has received more than thirty-five awards for his research and is an inventor on 40 patents. Dr. Sinclair has been featured on The Joe Rogan Experience, 60 Minutes, a Barbara Walters special, The Today Show, Good Morning America, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Fortune, and Newsweek, The Rich Roll podcast, among others.
After thirty years of searching for truths about human biology, David is in a unique position. If you were to visit him in Boston, you’d most likely find him hanging out in his lab at Harvard Medical School, where he's a professor in the Department of Genetics and CoDirector of the Paul F. Glenn Center for Biological Mechanisms of Aging Research. He also runs a sister lab at his alma mater, the University of New South Wales in Sydney. In his labs, teams of brilliant students and PhDs have both accelerated and reversed aging in model organisms and have been responsible for some of the most cited research in the field, published in some of the world’s top scientific journals. He is also a cofounder of the journal Aging, which provides space to other scientists to publish their research on one of the most challenging and exciting questions of our time. He's also a cofounder of the Academy for Health and Lifespan Research, a group of the top twenty researchers in aging worldwide.
In trying to make practical use of his discoveries, he has helped start a number of biotechnology companies and sits as chair of the scientific boards of advisers of several others. These companies work with hundreds of leading academics in scientific areas ranging from the origin of life to genomics to pharmaceuticals. He is, of course, aware of his own lab’s discoveries years before they are made public, but through these associations, he is also aware of many other transformational discoveries ahead of time, sometimes a decade ahead.
Having received the equivalent of a knighthood in Australia and taken on the role of an ambassador (hence the AO at the end of his name), he's been spending quite a bit of his time briefing political and business leaders around the world about the ways our understanding of aging is changing—and what that means for humanity going forward.
He's applied many of his scientific findings to his own life, as have many of his family members, friends, and colleagues. The results— which, it should be noted, are completely anecdotal—are encouraging. He's now 50, and he feels like a kid. His wife and kids will tell you he acts like one, too. The all live in Boston and enjoy hiking, kayaking, and traveling to unique places in the world together.
David and his wife Sandra are committed to turning key discoveries into medicines and technologies that help the world. He is involved in a variety of activities beyond being an academic including being a founder, equity owner, adviser, member of the board of directors, consultant, investor, collaborator with, and inventor on patents licensed to companies working to improve the human condition or national security. These include Vium; Jupiter Orphan Therapeutics; CohBar; Galileo Bioscience; Wellomics; EdenRoc Sciences and its affiliates Arc Bio, Dovetail Genomics, Claret Medical, Revere Biosciences, UpRNA, MetroBiotech, and Liberty Biosecurity; and Life Biosciences and its affiliates Selphagy Therapeutics, Senolytic Therapeutics, Spotlight Therapeutics, Immetas Therapeutics, Lua, Animal Biosciences, Iduna, Continuum Innovation, Prana (now Alterity); and Jumpstart Fertility. He is an inventor on over forty patents, most of which are licensed to industry or have been filed by companies, including a patent application filed by Mayo Clinic and Harvard Medical School and licensed to Elysium Health, of which any proceeds to him are donated to research. He gives lectures at conferences, museums, not-for-profit events, and occasionally at companies, and he sits on the boards of not-for-profit organizations, including the American Federation for Aging Research. He also serves as an adviser to the Lorraine Cross Award. For an updated list of activities, see https://genetics.med.harvard.edu/sinclair/.
Customer reviews
Top reviews from Australia
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Having followed Dr Sinclair's research literally for the last seven months, I can attest that my health and fitness have improved dramatically in that time, and I was a professional athlete who has kept reasonably fit for 67 years old.
Upon reading the research that Dr Sinclair and his colleagues throughout the world have completed, you will understand how simple the ageing process is, yet extremely complicated to research. Most great breakthroughs follow the same guidelines.
Enjoy the read and change your life.
Cancer, Alzheimer's, heart disease, and even COVID-19, are all diseases of which aging plays a fundamental role. As a leader in his field of research, David Sinclair articulates why targeting *biological* aging as a 'disease' should be a priority for medicine in the context of an aging population.
Crucially, aging does not just affect the 'elderly'. So many genetic and environmental factors lead to accelerated aging, including depression, stress, chemotherapy, HIV/AIDS, down syndrome, diabetes etc.; aging affects all of us and occurs at a cellular level throughout life...
If COVID-19 didn't make it obvious enough, it is about time we did something about biological aging.
Aging - as cellular damage is also the mechanism behind many "big name" problems like cancer, heart disease, loss of skin plasticity etc. Stopping aging also discourages these conditions for developing in the first place. Interesting read.
Must read to all. If you Love someone , please get this book as a gift.
Top reviews from other countries


I think a typical scientist would and should stop right there; for science does not concern itself with morality but with pure knowledge whether constructive or destructive. Nonetheless, Dr Sinclair goes on to debate the real and political consequences of people living, if not forever, certainly much longer than they do now. To me, this is where the book rapidly goes down hill. Dr Sinclair knows there will be serious repercussions: an increase in population; a greater demand for resources; more pollution; more carbon emissions; etc, etc. He says that alongside the big increase in population in the 1800's was a huge increase in the standard of sanitation and health as though it were causative - more people lead to more benefits. He thinks that GMO and foods modified by other technologies will provide the solution to feeding the ever-increasing numbers of mouths and gets irritated when some people have the temerity to question their safety. Also, because he would be content to work doing his interesting research in his lab for the next 50 years, it does not mean a miner would like to spend another 50 digging coal.
Despite Dr Sinclair's faith in the ingenuity of man, there are times when i sense he is trying to convince himself of his utopian vision rather than the reader. Living to infinity is not the be all and end all; living a healthy life is more important, whether one lives to 70 or 90.
At some point I will re-read the first half of the book - which I enjoyed - but not the second. I must be only part Luddite.

Richard Dawkins touched on why we would inherit genes that fail as we age: essentially we reproduce before we suffer from these age-related ailments, and so natural selection has not filtered it out as it presumably has young man/woman ailments that would kill off the would-be reproducer.
The book uses scientific terms and explanations and so some reading on physiology may be beneficial alongside this book. Note taking is a must if you're wanting to retain and be able to explain the contents.
The reason I've given it 3 out of 5 stars is the completely lack of concern over the animals the author and his colleagues tested on. I know its commonplace (though this doesn't make it right) but there is not even any acknowledgement from the author that this is cruel behaviour. He will talk about how he'll age mice prematurely (yes fascinating but cruel), starve them, dissect them prior to natural death, etc. He does comment on how easy it is to buy mice to test on, though. Well, as long as subjecting unlucky animals to torture is convenient!

