Baby Boomers’ Guide to Healthy Aging

Bob Murphy
Robert D. Reed Publishing (2006)
ISBN 1931741166
Reviewed by Debra Gaynor for Reader Views (12/06)


“This generation has collectively faced almost all the challenges that the human experience can offer, and is now fifty-ish.”  But we’re not finished; we now face aging and dying.  We never thought we would get “older.”  That was for someone else, like our grandparents.  The fact is we don’t have to become ill and incapacitated.  We can stay active, vital and mentally alert, according to Bob Murphy the author of “Baby Boomers’ Guide to Healthy Aging.” 

“The fact that we do tend to degenerate during our aging is largely connected with our difficulty dealing with the highly reactive element oxygen.”  “Aging is a progressive loss of function, which seems to be inevitable.  The sad truth is that as we progress through adulthood toward old age most of our physiological functions gradually decline.”  Mr. Murphy takes us back to the beginning of life, back before we evolved from a single cell and explains why oxygen and its relatives cause problems for humans.

I was particularly interested in the chapter called “The Aging Brain.”  Alzheimer’s is prevalent in my family.  My father is one of seven children and four have had diagnoses of the dreaded disease.  “Neurodegenerative disorders are increasing in the general population, and not only amongst the aged, and it is becoming obvious that they are caused by other, probably environmental factors, as well as by aging.”  I fear neurological deterioration most of all about aging.  If I am blessed I will not live long enough to suffer through what I have seen others in my family go through, years in a nursing home living in their past and not recognizing anyone that they love.  My family tends to live to be in their mid-nineties; I’ve always thought their body just outlived their brain.

Mr. Murphy explains that the brain shrinks or neurons die, as we age.  “A significant contributor to the symptoms of brain aging and dementia is this oxidant damage.  Brain aging may be slowed to some extent by antioxidant-therapy, in particular those that are especially effective in this neural environment, reduced glutathione, vitamin E, melatonin and a Chinese herb called Gingko Biloba.”

We’ve all heard that a picture paints a thousand words; well the cover of this book says it all.  It illustrates what we all want, to age gracefully.  “Baby Boomers’ Guide to Healthy Aging” contains a glossary.  It is written in terms simple enough for the layman to understand.  This a wonderful book, it is well written.  The subject matter is timely.  In this age when we baby-boomers are facing aging and we may as well age gracefully.  Thank you Mr. Murphy.  Job well done.  I highly recommend this book to all Baby Boomers and anyone else that cares about their health!

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