Stanford Researcher and Founding Father of Active Geriatrics Claims that a Healthy Human Body is Designed to Last 100 Years in Groundbreaking Work on Longevity

New York , NY—Over a decade ago Dr. Walter M. Bortz laid the foundations for his remarkable claim that we are not only biologically programmed to live well beyond the conventional life expectancy, but that our very approach to aging is grounded in misconceptions and wrong-headedness. Now available in a newly revised and expanded edition, We Live Too Short and Die Too Long: How to Achieve and Enjoy Your Natural 100-Year-Plus Life Span (SelectBooks 2007) reaches out to the now (or soon to be) graying generation of baby boomers and their families to discuss both the keys to unlocking this innate longevity and how to cope with it in context of the 21 st century.

Controversial? Perhaps, but Dr. Bortz is the leading figure in the field of active geriatrics and has the credentials to give serious weight to his ideas. In addition to his position as Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine, Dr. Bortz has written well over 130 articles on aging for both august medical journals (JAMA, The New England Journal of Medicine) and high-profile general interest periodicals (New York Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Town & Country), a number of which are available at walterbortz.com, his informative and extensive public website. To date, he has authored or co-authored five previous books on aging and health issues, including Dare To Be 100 (Fireside 1996) and Living Longer for Dummies (Wiley 2001), and conducted one of the largest ever scientific studies on sex and aging. In fact, some say that it is largely Dr. Bortz’s work that has led to the redefinition of aging in contemporary culture, as encapsulated in the popular catchphrase “60 is the new 40.”

In explaining how and why the human body has a natural life expectancy of 100 years-or 15 years beyond the conventionally accepted number-Dr. Bortz posits that though science and society have made great advances that allow us to live longer than our ancestors, it is our views of and approaches to aging that still prevent us from living as long as our biology will allow, and as enjoyably as we possibly can. We Live Too Short… lays out in concrete language how the general view of the aging process as something to be combated, and modern medicine’s reliance on modes of cure rather than prevention, keep us from approaching aging as a natural part of the overall life experience. Less a health regimen than an examination of the science of aging and an exposition on the “emergence” philosophy that sees late life as just another in a series of stages of the human experience, this book steers the reader through volumes of research that persuasively demonstrate the astonishingly simple tools needed to break the longevity barrier and achieve what Dr. Bortz calls “gift of found lifetime.”

Rather than offering a catch-all miracle cure, Dr. Bortz offers sound advice – including a frank yet elegant discussion of death – to show what needs to be done and how to do it. In this updated and revised edition, We Live Too Short and Die Too Long addresses Americans’ increased life expectancies and confronts the questions and fears that many have about the quality of life in the later years: coping strategies to deal with inevitable physical changes, the fallacy of panaceas like human growth hormone and gene therapy, how the intangibles of satisfaction and self-efficacy are just as important as health in successful aging, and new material on aging and sexual activity in this age of Viagra.

Though the figure of 100 years has sparked controversy, the tools and skills required to attain this advanced age are not so controversial, requiring little more than focus and understanding. The individual who adopts Dr. Bortz’s approach can expect not only to live longer, but also extend his or her youthful vigor across a much greater relative period within the scope of his or her lifetime. Thus this title is not simply about increasing the quantity of years in the lifetime, but increasing the quality of those years. According to Dr. Bortz, the two go hand in hand.