What does middle age mean these days? Noted nutritionist and anti-aging expert Oz Garcia provides strategies on how to redefine the concept of age and live healthier longer in "Redesigning 50." An excerpt.

“How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you was?”

— SATCHEL PAIGE, BASEBALL HALL OF FAMER

Are you fifty or thereabouts? Chances are you don’t look, act, or feel the way your parents did at fifty. It’s a whole new era in the art and science of aging, and that’s what this book is about: redesigning the rest of your life to slow down your biological clock and keep you looking and feeling as young as possible for as long as possible. It’s also about redefining what it means to get chronologically older even as you keep the energy, vitality, and appearance of youth.

This book is about healthy aging — staying active physically and mentally, looking your best whatever your age, and knowing what you need to keep yourself in the best possible shape for years to come. So welcome to Redesigning 50. In this book, we’re going to introduce you to what fifty looks like in the twenty-first century and help you take advantage of the finest that science and artistry have to offer to make “middle age” the best it’s ever been, without going under the knife. Although plastic surgery might be appropriate for some people in certain circumstances, there are now many far more enlightened anti-aging options to bring you to what I like to call the New 50: a fitter, healthier, better-looking middle age than you ever imagined possible.

Do we even know what middle age means anymore? If you’re anywhere near the age of fifty, you probably remember that the mantra of the 1960s was “Don’t trust anyone over the age of thirty.” When we were teenagers, we thought that thirty marked the beginning of middle age. I know I did. But now, having passed the thirty-year marker many years ago, I’m no longer sure how to define middle age. Old definitions no longer apply. Middle-aged women are now having babies. Men and women in their sixties and seventies are climbing mountains, traveling into outer space, and making greater achievements than are many of their more youthful counterparts. In today’s world, middle age is no longer a stage of life to be dreaded or feared, but one that we can fully enjoy and embrace.

Aging takes most of us by surprise. We look in the mirror one day, or get up out of a chair, or try to do something we used to do effortlessly — and suddenly we realize that we’ve actually gotten older. That’s what happened to me. Even though I don’t always want to admit it, I have started to experience the universal signs of reaching a certain ... maturity. I need reading glasses. I can’t run at the same pace or with the same stamina I used to. It’s become a little more difficult to regulate my weight.

I’ve started to ask myself questions. What can I do now and for the rest of my life to make the coming years as good as those that have passed? Do I need to worry about health concerns that some have called the diseases of aging? And how do I not only remain healthy but feel good — and look good, too?

Fortunately, I have a privileged perspective from which to explore and answer these concerns. For the past twenty years, I’ve been a successful nutritional consultant in New York City, the head of health and nutritional services for Equinox Fitness Clubs worldwide, a consultant to the East Coast Alliance of Trainers and to the world-renowned Life Extension Foundation, and the author of The Balance and Look and Feel Fabulous Forever. Over the course of my professional and personal experience, I’ve come to grasp the true importance of everything from managing our hormones to how much sleep we get (yes, we really do need eight hours) to the most advanced diagnostic testing available today to gauge every aspect of our health, and the full range of products we can now put to use.

Using the latest information and most innovative means available, I aim to help you experience the highest levels of well-being so that you can be more productive, have better relationships, reduce needless suffering, manage your moods, reduce the use of medication when appropriate, and overcome infirmity more quickly. Ultimately, I want you to stay in the game as long as possible, playing at peak performance.

I’m not foolish enough to promise that you won’t get old, but I am saying that anti-aging techniques have come a long, long way in recent years. I’m not saying you can stop all deterioration of the body as you get older, but I am saying you can lay down speed bumps to slow the process and in many ways even reverse the signs and symptoms of aging.

Middle age represents more than a number; it marks a hormonal shift that appears as menopause in women and andropause in men. Even if our appearance doesn’t give away our age, our hormones do. Some people feel that these hormonal shifts mean the end of their youth and vitality. I’m here to say that this is just not true and that with the knowledge and scientific advances we have today, middle age can be the best part of your life. You can modify your diet and lifestyle to lead a longer, happier, and healthier life. You can have a vibrant sex life. You can reduce and even reverse much of the damage done to your skin from dietary and environmental abuse. You can look and feel young again.

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