Aging Well by George Vaillant, Little, Brown, $24.95, ISBN
0316989363
“TRY and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and
then, get some walking in and try and live together in peace and harmony…”
That was Monty Python’s advice in The Meaning of Life. Most books that
claim to reveal the secret of successful living could be summarised in as few
words, but there can’t be many that are based on more than 60 years tracking the
lifestyle, mental and physical health of hundreds of people as they aged.
In Aging Well, Harvard professor George Vaillant describes the
findings of the longest ever prospective study of ageing, the Landmark Harvard
Study of Adult Development, which followed 824 teenagers from privileged and
deprived backgrounds through to old age. As well as reviewing the data, Vaillant
provides lengthy case histories of individuals who attained health and
happiness, and those who did not. Inevitably, the tales of reckless drinking,
social isolation and spectacularly failing marriages are far more entertaining
than those of the worthy, sober do-gooders in excruciatingly happy
relationships—the folks whom as Vaillant says, “sure squeezed that
Dz”.
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But the prescription Vaillant hands to the under-50s for a cheerful, healthy
old age is irrefutable, if dull. Work on your relationships, keep the pounds
off, go easy on the G & Ts, give up the fags, take some exercise and, erm .
. . read a good book every now and then.
