Chasing Life
Sarfaraz K. Niazi, Ph.D.
Niazi@niazi.com

Chasing Life by Sanjay Gupta, the famed chief medical correspondent of CNN whose face was plastered all over our tube when the US armed forces entered Iraq. Certainly a very charming surgeon out of Atlanta, he has decided to follow the path taken by folks like Dr Weil and Dr Chopra. His new book, Chasing Life (Warner Wellness $24.99) declares that it reports “new discoveries in the search for immortality to help you age less today.” You have two choices; read the 45 tips given in his book and listed below or buy the book and read more about these tips. Whereas Gupta is well-connected with the new world of science, there is absolutely nothing in here that can be called new. I will deconstruct this book by first questioning the concept of  longevity. Around the beginning of the 20^th century, the average life expectancy of Americans was around 65 years if we exclude those early childhood totally preventable diseases; those diseases gone today, the average American lives about 10-12 years longer, a full century later. These data are a gold mine for statisticians; if we take out accidental deaths (due to poor quality of home designs or tools or whatever) and a few other factors (like lack of sewerage system), we will surprise ourselves that there has been no real increase in the life expectancy over the past century. If wearing seat belt reduced traffic deaths and added to average life expectancy, this is not a tribute to a healthy body, perhaps to a healthy brain that pays attention.