In 2004, Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman, MD, published Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever. Their groundbreaking book marshaled thousands of scientific studies to make the case that new developments in medicine and technology will allow us to radically extend our life expectancies and slow down the aging process. Soon, our notion of what it means to be a 55-year-old will be as outdated as an eight-track tape player.
Amazon Sales Rank: #34396 in Books Published on: 2009-04-28 Released on: 2009-04-28 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Dimensions: .2 pounds Binding: Hardcover 480 pages ISBN13: 9781605299563 Condition: New Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
From Publishers Weekly According to futurist Kurzweil (The Singularity is Near) and homeopathic medical doctor Grossman (The Baby Boomer's Guide to Living Forever), medicine is transforming into an information technology, which by its nature advances at an exponential rate. Thus, those interested in "radical life extension" must make it their immediate goal to live through the next 20 or so years, in order to see advances like DNA reprogramming and submicroscopic, cell-repairing robots. This "guide to Bridge One" outlines nine areas: talking with your doctor, relaxation, assessment, nutrition, supplementation, calorie reduction, exercise, new technologies, and detoxification. Familiar common-sense health advice abounds, but is practical and thorough; along with one to five cups of green tea each day, the authors provide low-cal recipes like Ginger Turkey Burgers and Herbed Zucchini. A detailed exercise routine for aerobic and weight training is also included. Kurzweil and Grossman, who last explored this subject together in 2005's Fantastic Voyage, also look at supplements, medical tests and hormone "optimization"; happily, chapters on calorie reduction and detoxification avoid trendy, potentially dangerous approaches. Whether or not it's true that, within two decades, we'll have the tools to live forever, this is an intelligent, optimistic guide to healthy living, with an intriguing view of medicine's future. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Review "Ray Kurzweil knows more about the future of technology than anyone on the planet. If you want to have the greatest chance of seeing the next century, read TRANSCEND today." —Dean Ornish, MD, founder and president, Preventive Medicine Research Institute; clinical professor of medicine, University of California, San Francisco; author, The Spectrum and Dr. Dean Ornish’s Program for Reversing Heart Disease
Most helpful customer reviews 663 of 668 people found the following review helpful. TRANSCEND IS a good plan for living well... By Bob Blum if not forever. I stressed over what grade to give Transcend and ultimately gave it an Amazon **** grade (say, B+). Why that high? Why only that high? First, I'm an MD, PhD with 30 years of clinical practice and 10 years of medical research. (Google bobblum.com or just "Bob Blum") Ray Kurzweil was a classmate of mine at MIT in the sixties. I just met Terry at the Foresight Convergence Conference in 2008. I had read Fantastic Voyage, their first joint effort, several times and always had a hard time deciding whether to recommend it to friends and colleagues. 80% of Fantastic Voyage was first rate information. 20% was highly controversial, fringe medicine (alkaline water and obscure supplements). I complained to Ray in a letter expressing concern about his personal health - 250 pills a day is just too many, portending too many interactions - and also to Terry. My advice was to please label or rate the scientific evidence that forms a basis for each of their drug recommendations. Terry told me that their forthcoming book TRANSCEND would solve the problem. It DOES. Most of that controversial 20% has been surgically removed. Gone is much of the pseudoscience. What's left follows closely (and expands) the world according to Drs. Dean Ornish, Andrew Weil, and many other admirable health writers. The book summarizes the best of current medical advice on how to stay healthy. If you're not a health professional and have not read many books like this I would strongly recommend it. So, for most of you that's my advice... buy the book (and live by it). Now, I'll be more specific. TRANSCEND is a mnemonic for their health recommendations: Talk to your doctor, Relaxation, Assessment, Nutrition, Supplements, Calorie Reduction, Exercise, New Tech, Detoxification. That's a worthy list. In re: Talk to your doctor and Assessments. Much of this is a list of tests to request, and as they rightly state, many of these tests will not be covered by insurance. This means you will have hundreds of dollars in unreimbursed expenses for tests of unproven efficacy. During my meeting with Terry at Convergence he emphasized the importance of carotid ultrasound and coronary calcium scoring for men over 45 or women over 55. I totally concur. There is nothing like seeing the calcium plaque in your arteries to put the fear of the Lord into you. However, for many of the other tests (neurotransmitter levels, mineral analysis, digestive function, eg) it is unclear how often, if ever, the tests should be done. With the country's economy in tatters and healthcare already climbing toward 20% of GDP some of these tests will always be for the well-to-do, worried well. In re: Nutrition. I bristled when I saw that 66 pages were devoted to low fat recipes, since (IMHO) this is usually a worthless page-filler. However, I've changed my mind on this. In this era when so many foods that are readily available are condemned (most fats, much of animal protein, fast carbs) readers want to know "ok, so what DO I eat?" I actually made their soy yogurt Waldorf Salad, the quinoa, and the zucchini and have lost 3 pounds from my usually cerebrotonic, ectomorphic frame. Basically, folks, this is where to get your vitamins and minerals. As Mark Bittman (NY Times Food Critic) says, "it's the carrot, not the beta carotene." I single out for especial praise their Transcend Food Pyramid - they nailed it - veggies and water are the base. In re: Supplements. This is the arena in which Ray and Terry were particularly on thin ice in Fantasic Voyage. Ray's mammoth daily consumption of supplements to "reprogram his biochemistry" is notorious. I was delighted to see that their public recommendations for supplements have been greatly toned down. Whether this reflects a change in their own personal consumption is not stated. Since I'm a great fan of Ray's