THE BOOMER SURVIVOR KIT

Physician and Boomer Institute founder Courter, in his debut, offers a general self-help book for seniors.

The author crafted this guide, he writes, in order to help enhance the quality of life of millions of aging baby boomers. Drawing on years of medical experience, he addresses several key areas, including emotional and physical health and activity; mental focus and spirituality; and new habits to redefine and revitalize the self. Many people see one’s golden years as a time of deteriorating health and alienation from society, and some retirees with depleted pensions have been forced to return to work to make ends meet. However, the author views life’s last trimester as an opportunity to embrace a holistic lifestyle. His suggestions include exercising with weights, eating more plant-based foods and avoiding genetically modified organisms, taking probiotics to improve one’s mood, and drinking hot water or tea to cleanse one’s system. He even suggests expanding one’s vocabulary and writing a memoir. Establishing new habits, and thus creating new neural pathways, he asserts, can lead to greater happiness and a renewed sense of purpose. Although self-help books for the elderly abound, few comprehensively cover their myriad concerns as well as Courter’s guide does. Informative, user-friendly and brimming with advice, its tone is neither preachy nor condescending. Appropriately, the author relates his own experiences, including a notable golf story, with compassion and humility, and his upbeat, enthusiastic approach may persuade many readers to see their circumstances in a more positive light. However, although the book briefly mentions the subject of sexual dysfunction, it doesn’t adequately explore sexuality in the senior years. It also occasionally provides unclear statistics, as when it claims that two-thirds of the U.S. population is overweight and one-third is obese; is no one underweight or at the ideal weight? However, these are minor quibbles given the abundance of worthwhile information here.

An inspirational manual designed to make seniors’ last years their best ones.