Live Younger Longer, Stefan Kopecky, MD. 

The first half of the book is relatively simple and common knowledge on nutrition and health.

The second half of the book covers the six steps to prevent heart disease, cancer,  Alzheimer's, and other diseases.

Chapter 8: The book reiterates the importance of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains in reducing inflammation. It mentions the Mediterranean diet and olive oil that increases our intake of monounsaturated fats, which have anti-inflammatory properties as compared to pro-inflammatory saturated fats. Fish is mentioned as omega-3 fatty acid, which is polyunsaturated fat, and also a potential anti-inflammatory.

The following list is given as potential transition foods from less healthy to more healthy: Butter or Margarine to Olive Oil, Red Meat to Meatless Meals or Baked Grilled Fish, Full Fat Dairy to Low Fat Dairy, Salt to Herbs or Spices, Peanuts to Almonds, Walnuts, Hazelnuts, and Brazil Nuts, White Bread and Pasta Processed Cereals to Whole Grain Breads, Pasta, and Cereal. Cream-Based Sauce to Tomato-Based Sauce Soda, Diet Soda, and Juice to Water, Carbonated Water, Sparkling Water, Unsweetened Tea, and I would add coffee.

Pre-packaged Desserts to Homemade Desserts Beyond Food, a Mediterranean lifestyle is shown to be healthy and includes making and preparing food, sharing food with friends and family, while socializing, enjoying meals at a leisurely pace, being frugal, using moderation in food consumption, having a preference for seasonal food, and an emphasis on local food, participating in plenty of physical activity, and getting adequate sleep. There is a nice ?Do Not Buy? list at the grocery store that includes frozen pizza or frozen snacks, soft drinks, hot dogs, pre-packaged cookies or chips, ice cream, ready mixes, instant noodles, cold cuts, margarine, microwave popcorn, fruit snacks, candy, or french fries.

Chapter 9: All Out Interval Exercise for just 3 minutes, 3 times a week, has been shown to increase VO2 max and reduce belly fat. This is similar to the 4 sets of 4, intense exercise followed by 4 minutes rest to increase VO2 max. More is discussed on interval training, including 6 sessions of repeated 30-second sprints is equal to 90-120 minutes of regular moderate exercise. 11 minutes a day is equal to 45 minutes a day of moderate continuous exercise like jogging when using the interval method. 

Chapter 10: It is about prioritizing sleep. Lack of sleep is associated with chronic inflammation. Less than 5 hours of sleep is associated with increased blood pressure. Lack of sleep makes it more susceptible to infection. Circadian rhythm is driven primarily by blue light from the sun, but smartphones and digital screens emit blue light that can affect our circadian rhythm. Blue light filter glasses will block about half of the blue light.

Recommended sleep checklist is to cut back on caffeine later in the day.  Make sure that some exercise has been done during the day. Avoid any heavy meals before bed.

No use of phone or digital for at least an hour before bed.  Relax with a bedtime routine such as gratitude meditation, journaling, or reading. Use a cooler bedtime temperature. Keep the room dark and comfortable.  Use deep slow breaths when starting to go to sleep. 

Chapter 11: Getting a handle on stress. The chapter reveals fairly common knowledge on the unhealthy effects of stress. As far as the management of stress, when it comes to a stressful situation or problem in life, he suggests a method suggested to him by a priest when he had cancer and was very stressed about not working. The priest recommended that he have a board of directors meeting in his mind with him as the chairman. Around the table would sit the people in his life that had influence. The discussion would be on why he could not work full time but instead needed to focus on curing his cancer.

The author states that this sounded crazy but worked. The next suggestion is to practice positive self-talk daily. Instead of thinking I can't handle this, think I've handled bigger challenges before and I can handle this too.

Instead of thinking this is a huge disaster, think this is a big problem but I can tackle it one step at a time. Instead of thinking something bad about yourself, think everyone messes up sometimes and it's what makes us human.

The next suggestion is practicing optimism. One of the best ways to cultivate optimism is practicing daily gratitude for the events, experiences, and relationships that enrich your life and give it meaning. Practicing gratitude first thing in the morning or before you go to sleep at night is the optimal time as these are times that you tend to worry. The next suggestion to manage stress is to get outside. Spending 20-30 minutes in a natural green space such as a forest or park can be very beneficial for stress. The next suggestion is to appeal to your senses. Having cheerful music playing softly, hanging positive or happy-themed pictures, aroma therapy, or having something tactile that you enjoy such as a very soft blanket can all be helpful for stress.

The next suggestion is to help others.  When helping others we take the focus off of ourselves and that helps with stress. There are many opportunities to volunteer if you look for them.

Other relaxation techniques for stress include relaxed breathing such as laying down and inhaling through your nose not your mouth, progressive muscle relaxation in which you sit or lie in a comfortable position and think about each body part one by one relaxing, guided imagery where you think about a pleasant place and imagine what you hear, see and smell, and lastly, biofeedback which is a medical approach in which your pulse rate is connected to a computer while you learn to relax and slow the heart rate.

Social media is a mixed bag with the social support and like portion of social media being negative for stress levels but connecting with others and meeting new friends being potentially positive.

Other than volunteering and social networking, finding other ways to expand your social network is positive for stress. Even simple things like getting to know the names of people at stores that you interact with frequently or starting a conversation in the line of a grocery store can be helpful for social networking.

Extending and accepting invitations to events is important. Participate in community events or take classes at a nearby college or community ed program.

Chapter 12: Avoiding Smoking and Other Pollutants. The majority of the chapter talks about the dangers of smoking and how you may consider quitting.

Vaping is discussed as well as the use of vape for weaning smoking. The studies are mixed as to how well vaping is effective for smoking cessation but when combined with face-to-face counseling it seems to be helpful. As far as environmental pollution, there is a website called Air Now that lets you know when pollutant levels are high outside. That is www.airnow.gov

Chapter 14 Unimportance of Weight  BMI is not necessarily an accurate measure as it can't tell the difference between body fat, bone density, and muscle mass. A 2019 study in the Journal of American Medical Association found that postmenopausal women with normal BMI but higher levels of body fat had an increased risk of developing invasive breast cancer over those with lesser percentages of body fat.

For men, a waist-to-hip ratio is useful and if 0.9 or less this would be considered healthy. In other words, the waist should be a bit smaller than the hip's circumference.

Many diets have been utilized but without an effect on the prevalence of obesity. The author does discuss intermittent fasting and fasting briefly but states that fasting may not be any better than other diets if someone is unable to utilize the system long-term.

Basic discussions of obesity including eating a healthy diet, being physically active, getting enough sleep, and keeping stress under control are discussed. Lastly, a table for estimating cardiovascular and strength fitness is provided.

Being able to do a 10-minute 1.5-mile run puts you in the excellent category. Being able to do 30 push-ups puts you in the excellent category if you're over 40 and 40 push-ups if you're under 40.

A stress table was included to again transition from unhealthy to healthy. If having angry outbursts he suggests taking time for exercise.

If increasing alcohol, tobacco, or drug use, use relaxation techniques.  If increasing eating or shopping focus on getting adequate sleep. If neglecting responsibilities learn to prioritize. Focus on prioritizing. If excessively worrying transition to setting realistic goals.  And if procrastinating start by caring for yourself first. For stress, he recommends putting it into a four-block pattern with the importance and control going from less to more.

So in other words things we have control of should be things you focus on more. Especially high importance, high control things like relationships and being able to make healthy food choices.

Lastly is a diet inventory for general scoring of your diet. Each yes answer counts as one point and 11 or more points are considered healthy dietary screening per this author.

The questions are:

Do you use olive oil as your main cooking fat?

Do you use an olive oil-based sauce at least twice a week?

Do you consume four tablespoons or more of olive oil?

Do you eat four or more servings a day of vegetables?

Do you eat three or more servings a day of fruit?

Do you eat three or more servings a week of beans?

Do you eat four or more servings a week of nuts?

Do you eat three or more servings a week of fish or shellfish?

Do you typically eat chicken or turkey?

Do you eat one serving or less of red meat?

Do you eat one serving or less of butter, margarine, or cream?

Do you drink one can or less of carbonated cola?

Do you eat three servings or less of sweets a week?

Do you drink one glass of wine or one drink a day or less?

Overall, I would not recommend this book as much of the knowledge is common knowledge. Some of the information such as the questions in the diet inventory are not evidence-based