Book excerpt: With a baby boomer turning sixty every ten seconds, we are rapidly becoming an aging society. But cutting edge research on the connection between age and disease shows us that many of the preconceptions we had about how to grow old need a second look. This groundbreaking book is full of take-away prescriptive advice which the nearly seventy-five million boomers in this nation will value. Top gerontologist and Stanford medical school professor Dr. Walter Bortz and co-author Randall Stickrod draw on new science and a thirty-year longitudinal study of centenarians to show that: • Genetics plays a smaller role in aging than previously thought • Senility, dementia, and other diseases of the elderly, are largely preventable and not an inevitable consequence of aging • Engagement, through sexual relationships, social interaction, and professional activity, is a key factor in long, healthy lives • Physical fitness can recover at least 30 years of aging Filled with in-depth insight and practical advice, The Roadmap to 100 gives you the power to control your own destiny and live well beyond 100.