DR. KUGLER'S SEVEN KEYS TO A LONGER LIFE
By
Dr. Kugler is a gerontologist, and his light and lively prescription for a longer life incorporates many of the nostrums on exercise, nutrition, smoking, etc. increasingly familiar these days. He believes there's an aging control center in the brain and that lifestyle choices can improve life expectancies. He provides quizzes--on longevity, nutrition, stress--and skims the research on these and other age-related factors (environmental hazards, alcohol consumption, retirement plans) in addition to considering preventive measures for cancer and heart disease. Although much of this is valid--picking through the contradictory evidence on cholesterol levels, establishing the dangers of polluted air and water supplies--some generalizations are suspect (""In Japan the entire transportation industry is based on biorhythm"") and some make no sense at all (an English survey of smokers' seven-year-old children found them clumsier, spatially impaired, ""and, with few exceptions, . . . in the lower 10 percent of their class""). He's not opposed to laetrile and takes a guarded why-not attitude toward oxygen treatments, vitamin, chelation, and nucleic acid therapies. Seven Keys and a sixth sense for golden opportunities.