The Great Age Reboot Quotes

“Your body tries to remove free radicals via antioxidants, which try to bind the free radicals up (as if they were in handcuffs) and haul them out of your cells and then out of your body. That’s one of the reasons blueberries and exercise are so good for you—they are two very powerful ways to increase your in-cell antioxidants. Regularly drinking black coffee is another.”
― Michael F. Roizen, The Great Age Reboot: Cracking the Longevity Code for a Younger Tomorrow

“Making energy creates waste, like exhaust from a car. That’s the byproduct of running the engine. Your cells work the same way, but this biological exhaust comes in the form of what are called free radicals, which are chemicals that can damage your cells.”
― Michael F. Roizen, The Great Age Reboot: Cracking the Longevity Code for a Younger Tomorrow

“Do not get hung up on the past. Your life is made up of the present and future, and your past helps you navigate.”
― Michael F. Roizen, The Great Age Reboot: Cracking the Longevity Code for a Younger Tomorrow

“Debt is fun—until you have to pay it back at the worst possible time. So, as an alternative, live within your means. Do not count on a bonus or raise to cover your spending. Assume they will not happen—but if they do occur, have a celebratory meal and save most of the rest. People fall into the trap of borrowing from one lender or credit card to pay another. If you are doing that, stop now before it’s too late. Cut your spending. We enjoy, but do not need, much of what we buy. Prioritize spending patterns and say no to yourself and your family. It will reduce financial stress and help you support a comfortable life in retirement.”
― Michael F. Roizen, The Great Age Reboot: Cracking the Longevity Code for a Younger Tomorrow

“Looking younger starts with not smoking and limiting unprotected sun exposure. But try as you might to protect your skin, it is programmed to thin at a rate of one percent per year after age 30.”
― Michael F. Roizen, The Great Age Reboot: Cracking the Longevity Code for a Younger Tomorrow

“use every opportunity to communicate with my friends and family. Anytime I am sitting in the back of a cab, airports, or trains I use the time to send a note to my closest friends and family. I speak with my children and my mother every day. With my sister several times a week. Frequency of communication is important, much more so than duration. These techniques have helped me to stay in touch with my family and friends in Croatia even though I left it 30 years ago.”—Tom, 56”
― Michael F. Roizen, The Great Age Reboot: Cracking the Longevity Code for a Younger Tomorrow

“passion of mine is volunteering in my community. It can be serving the homeless children, reading to shut-ins, or escorting the elderly to medical appointments or going for walks outdoors. I’ve made a great circle of like-minded friends who also enjoy supporting others in need. Volunteering not only helps those we serve but gives those of us in the support roles a great sense of gratitude. I also established years ago with my friends a ‘no gift-giving’ policy for birthdays and Christmas. Instead, I asked those who insisted in gifting me to donate several hours of their time in community service. It’s amazing the number of folks who initially hesitated and now have adopted the same policy. I’ve made a great circle of friends with this practice. Paying it forward. .”
― Michael F. Roizen, The Great Age Reboot: Cracking the Longevity Code for a Younger Tomorrow

“The key to loving relationships, research has found, is what’s called “emotional responsiveness.” This is just what it sounds like: being there for the people around you, not physically, but in an emotionally engaged way. This applies not just to romantic relationships, but to friendships as well.”
― Michael F. Roizen, The Great Age Reboot: Cracking the Longevity Code for a Younger Tomorrow

“Now, take our existing structure and add some 40 years to the average life span. What happens? You have perhaps five generations instead of three as the typical unit: children, parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, great-great-grandparents, and nonbiological family. Add in the fact that people will still have life bumps and changes, divorce will still happen, and blended families will grow. Families will become tribes rather than small units. Most of all, enhanced longevity underscores the importance of strong relationships—romantic, familial, and platonic—as they are a major source of optimum health. Keeping connected as we age is critical, especially for the very old (relationships keep us in the present, not the past).”
― Michael F. Roizen, The Great Age Reboot: Cracking the Longevity Code for a Younger Tomorrow

“The bottom line, when it comes to rebooted retirement, is that it’s not just about a new “length of service.” It’s also a mindset shift, in which you’re only partially defined by what you do. Other criteria include how well you adapt to a variety of careers—ones that will hopefully give you a sense of purpose, satisfaction, and optimism. Some things to consider when it comes to a new approach to retirement: •   Zero in on the aspects of your work that you love and physically can do and focus on those. •   Examine educational opportunities to develop skills in new areas that will allow you to keep pursuing your passions. •   Assuming you’re financially stable, consider a second (or third or fourth) career in new areas in which you’re motivated by passion, rather than money.”
― Michael F. Roizen, The Great Age Reboot: Cracking the Longevity Code for a Younger Tomorrow

“Use a sauna a few times a week. Studies demonstrate reduced dementia in more than 15 percent of those who used one four times a week for 20 minutes or more; whether this benefit is the result of stress reduction or some other property is still unknown. We believe the benefit is due to the high temperature, which releases heat shock proteins, produced by cells in response to stressful conditions. This means a hot bath or an infrared sauna may have the same benefit.”
― Michael F. Roizen, The Great Age Reboot: Cracking the Longevity Code for a Younger Tomorrow

“Eat more food early in the day and less later on. Try to eat only in a seven- or eight-hour window. Eat only when the sun is up and eat 75 percent of your calories seven or more hours before your planned bedtime.”
― Michael F. Roizen, The Great Age Reboot: Cracking the Longevity Code for a Younger Tomorrow

“Train your brain for speed: The basic mantra here is “use it or lose it.” When you’re consistently working your brain, especially in places where you have to make quick decisions, you’re promoting the growth of neurons, connections, and the hippocampus. Two studies found that 70- to 75-year-olds who regularly played speed-of-processing games (games in which you have to think and analyze situations quickly) for just 18 hours over a 10-year period experienced more than a 25 percent decreased risk of dementia over those 10 years, and an increase in acetylcholine (an important neurotransmitter that is key for memory recall) in key brain regions.14 15 (We expect that playing speed games on your phone or Ping-Pong or anything that requires your brain to act fast would also be beneficial.)”
― Michael F. Roizen, The Great Age Reboot: Cracking the Longevity Code for a Younger Tomorrow

“Every little decision adds up, and even more as you live longer. That is what good genetic engineers do! Your lifestyle choices change the functioning of your DNA switches as surely (and in a much cheaper and easier way) than CRISPR.”
― Michael F. Roizen, The Great Age Reboot: Cracking the Longevity Code for a Younger Tomorrow

“science tells us that when you are under the age of six, your genes determine what happens, but by the time you are 55, 80 percent of your health outcomes are determined by your choices, which dictate which of your genes are on and which are off.2 So while your genetic component at birth certainly has some influence on your ultimate health and longevity, life outcomes are much more about engineering via your behaviors, choices, and decisions than they are about genes.”
― Michael F. Roizen, The Great Age Reboot: Cracking the Longevity Code for a Younger Tomorrow

“What’s good for you isn’t necessarily good for others—and vice versa. Consider this story: In 1985, a discovery by a major U.S. pharma firm led to a significant success in breast cancer treatment in two animal species. The phase I human trials showed no major safety concerns, but the study failed in phase II. The problem was with the cohort that was used. Half the patients had a gene that failed to metabolize the drug and they developed toxicity; the other half had a gene that metabolized the drug so quickly that it had no effect. When this problem was finally discovered in 2010 after gene sequencing of humans and of their tumors became more common, researchers realized that this beneficial drug had not helped the hundreds of thousands it could have since 1985. The point: The Human Genome Project has led to a better understanding of why something can be bad for some but good for others. That has led to scientific progress that is letting us live younger for longer.”
― Michael F. Roizen, The Great Age Reboot: Cracking the Longevity Code for a Younger Tomorrow

“Our bodies are wired to react first; that’s why we fall victim to ads from Amazon and goodies from the grocery store, even if we know they’re not best for us long-term. In this way, our brain and our heart (really our executive functioning part of the brain and our reptilian brain) do compete when making decisions. Is there a simple fix for this? Not really, but there is a strategy: indulging in just a little bit of patience. That is, if you can delay your emotional decision—even for just a few minutes in some cases—it will allow you time to let your executive function process the information, weigh the options, and make the very best decision for you.”
― Michael F. Roizen, The Great Age Reboot: Cracking the Longevity Code for a Younger Tomorrow

“The elderly tend to get fewer colds than kids, even though they have a weakened immune system. This happens because our systems develop defenses against antigens; we acquire antibodies to the germs we’ve defeated in the past (stored in plasma cells in your bone marrow, as mentioned earlier in Chapter 6), and destroy those antigens and viruses before they can multiply and cause that illness.”
― Michael F. Roizen, The Great Age Reboot: Cracking the Longevity Code for a Younger Tomorrow

“As you sleep and do not take in water, you become very slightly dehydrated and your brain shrinks a little. Your brain cells shrink more as you sleep longer, making the spaces between your brain cells (your glia-lymphatic pathways) a little bigger, which is key for getting rid of your brain poop. That means the sixth and seventh hours of sleep are key to getting rid of waste and decreasing inflammation that would otherwise destroy brain connections and functioning—including the ability to make new memories.3”
― Michael F. Roizen, The Great Age Reboot: Cracking the Longevity Code for a Younger Tomorrow

“In the brain, there’s a similar system called the glia-lymphatic system (really glymphatic but let’s use glia-lymphatic as we think it describes the system better).2 But often we don’t have optimal ability to clear waste from that area. Not surprisingly, this circumstance is largely related to the food we eat, how much exercise we get, and other lifestyle choices we make, especially regarding sleep.”
― Michael F. Roizen, The Great Age Reboot: Cracking the Longevity Code for a Younger Tomorrow

“In the brain, a storm comes in the form of gunk, or plaque, that builds up to interfere with the connection of cells. That plaque comes from brain waste (yes, all organs have waste). Some of it is called tau protein; some is called beta-amyloid, or sometimes limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43.1 Essentially, this cell waste attracts inflammation; the buildup disrupts the brain’s connections by gobbling them up and reducing their size, as a storm tangles tree branches and makes power lines ineffective.”
― Michael F. Roizen, The Great Age Reboot: Cracking the Longevity Code for a Younger Tomorrow

“But the quest to preserve your brain is not just about avoiding something that’s scary. It’s also about preserving and extending youth, and youthful curiosity, learning, playfulness, and relationship building.”
― Michael F. Roizen, The Great Age Reboot: Cracking the Longevity Code for a Younger Tomorrow

“There is, of course, a cloudier side of increased longevity. While the benefits of wise decisions grow, the costs of unwise decisions also grow. This dichotomy will create greater disparities in health, income, and wealth if we do not address it over time. The longer we live, the more the decisions we have made regarding our work, savings, and health compound the advantages and disadvantages we experience in our later years.”
― Michael F. Roizen, The Great Age Reboot: Cracking the Longevity Code for a Younger Tomorrow

“Enhanced longevity is essential for civilization. In every society in the past, the greatest association with societal and personal GDP increases is longevity—even much greater than schooling.”
― Michael F. Roizen, The Great Age Reboot: Cracking the Longevity Code for a Younger Tomorrow

“These numbers demonstrate that we can absolutely afford an aging society. In fact, enhanced longevity is essential for our society. That’s because if longevity increases without better health, it will mean higher costs of medicine and health care as people live longer. And that financial burden can overwhelm a country’s ability to handle an aging and unhealthy demographic.”
― Michael F. Roizen, The Great Age Reboot: Cracking the Longevity Code for a Younger Tomorrow

“The point to stress is that we believe people will work 15 to 20 more highly productive years as the Great Age Reboot kicks in.”
― Michael F. Roizen, The Great Age Reboot: Cracking the Longevity Code for a Younger Tomorrow

“We estimate that by 2050, more than 10 percent of the U.S. population will be 90 years or older—chronologically—and 18 percent will be over age 80.”
― Michael F. Roizen, The Great Age Reboot: Cracking the Longevity Code for a Younger Tomorrow

“Keeping mitochondria healthy (less sugar, less saturated fat, smaller meals, and less white fat promoting inflammation) slows down this aging process as we know it. And you end up with more energy every day. If your cells—via your power source—can become or stay much younger-acting, then your organs and systems will function much more youthfully, decreasing the chances of developing disease.”
― Michael F. Roizen, The Great Age Reboot: Cracking the Longevity Code for a Younger Tomorrow

“Too much glucose and fat overwhelm the body’s ability to have in-cell antioxidants clear all the free radicals—so the free radicals are, well, free to do damage to your DNA. You can probably predict the effect: When the power generator or the switches that control that generator are damaged, you create less energy, and your systems slow down, don’t work as well, and eventually lose their function. Over time, when your mitochondria are fried, you run out of energy. That’s when you become frail and can’t function as well as you once did.”
― Michael F. Roizen, The Great Age Reboot: Cracking the Longevity Code for a Younger Tomorrow

“Mitochondria are small contained units within your cells that function as your body’s power plants.7 When all is said and done, it’s the mitochondria that are responsible for giving you the energy to make your body run. Since everything that happens in your body requires energy—heart beating, stomach digesting, brain thinking, muscles moving—you need a constant supply of juice, which comes in the form of the chemical ATP. The mitochondria in each cell provide that juice by processing the glucose and fat from the food you eat. Those mitochondria convert glucose and fat into ATP, which is the jolt that is sent to your organs and systems to make everything run.”
― Michael F. Roizen, The Great Age Reboot: Cracking the Longevity Code for a Younger Tomorrow