Excellent book. Tremendous amount of cutting edge hormone and anti-aging information. A great reference book, won't need to go out looking for other books on bio-identical hormone replacement or anti-aging--this has all the current information you'll need!

This book is an amazing, indepth and comprehensive look at what can be done for both men and women who suffer from hormone imbalance. I am so greatful to my sister for encouraging me to read the book. "Help is on the way."

The title of this book prompts a disclaimer. The word Ageless is clearly an attention getter used to sell books. The definition is "not affected by time or age." In no way do I believe there are as yet any lotions, potions or cutting edge docs who can prevent the aging process.
What I do believe is that we can make use of the latest research to support our bodies to fight off the diseases and complaints of aging. So does the author.

Now on to the book.

Suzanne Somers has pulled together an enormous amount of research and features interviews with sixteen practitioners with different but sometimes overlapping specialties. What we end up with are the key components of healing what ails you now and preventing what lurks in the future.
"I believe it is possible to experience aging without illness, which is the big dream for all of us. We don't fear getting older; we fear getting sick, really sick" says Ms. Somers.

Yes Suzanne is a Bio-Identical Hormone replacement (BHRT) zealot. She is a well educated one and someone who lives what she preaches. Her life is vastly improved through the concepts proposed--detox, healthy lifestyle, sleep!, and BHRT for women and men.

Lest you don't know her story she is a breast cancer survivor. She was diagnosed when she was already well into feeling better than ever through her hormone replacement choices and refused to give them up during her treatment. Bold yes, some might say stupid, but her decision served her.
I mention that bit to get you past the misconception that bio-identical hormone replacement causes to cancer. It does not. The reasons are complex and too long to go into here. Get the book. It speaks to this specifically.

So what can bio-identical hormones do for us? They can turn off, or slow down, the "time to die" signals. Hormones keep us strong and healthy when we are younger so we can breed and care for our young and ensure the success of future generations by doing so. Once we are done with that whole process our hormones start to dry up and the signal that sends to the body is, "time to go, you are no longer a productive."

That's the simplified Greg-speak version. The big point is when hormones decline or are out of balance we are susceptible to the diseases associated with aging. These include Alzheimer's, cancer, and heart disease. Dr. Robert Greene of Specialty Care for Women in Redding, CA has this to say, "Take Alzheimer's disease, for example. Several studies done on both men and women show if someone has an estradiol level of less than 20 pg/mL, they are at highest risk of developing Alzheimer's disease and cognitive disturbances." And we wouldn't want to prevent that why?

It's not just the hormonal decline that's responsible for our poor health and disease rates it's also the toxins we ingest. Exogenous (foreign essentially) hormones--found in dairy products, birth control, and in some instances the water supply-- are toxic since they are not made in our bodies and are said to be responsible for the increase in reproductive organ cancers such as breast, testicular and cervical.

Add to this the toxic load we ingest daily in the form of pesticides, plastics, creams laden with non-cancer causing but non-the-less disturbing chemicals and our bodies begin to break down under the weight. The burden of toxicity causes fatigue, aches, pains, and upsets and we call that "normal for someone my age."

Detox is a big part of the The Ageless prescription for wellbeing.

Sleep is another biggy in this book; an underrated "miracle cure." Sound sleep is hard to come by when your hormones are out of whack though. During deepest sleep our body does its repair work and pumps out restorative hormones. No stages of deep sleep and health decline is inevitable.

This book is far more comprehensive than her first visit to the BHRT world, The Sexy Years. Medicine moves at the speed of light and since her first book there have been many studies, clinical trials come to term, and women with stories of success to draw from. But stories don't guarantee safety and this book backs up all of the successes with science.

If you are currently a woman of a certain age, even if you are "too young" to think about hormone replacement--and if you have PMS, PCO, or other "female" malady you are not too young--you might want to use this book as a primer. Learn what is preventable and then you can figure out how you want to go about preventing it. Or not. It's obviously a personal thing.

Long term care is expensive, far more so than a book with practical information that you can implement now. Ignorance is also expensive. Give yourself the inexpensive gift of an open mind and you just might want to spend some of that insurance money on making your wildest dreams come true.