Reviews
Dr. Rosanne Leipzig has been an integral part of the fine work done at the Martha Stewart Centers for Living and the nationally recognized Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at Mount Sinai Health System in New York City. Her new handbook on aging is full of clear, practical advice that will make the second half of your life safer, more productive, and more enjoyable. It is essential reading for anyone who is growing older or whose loved ones are growing older—in other words, for all of us!
This book is excellent, and I would recommend it to my patients. It includes all of the things related to aging in one place.
Building on her lifetime of rich experience and leadership in the field of geriatrics, Rosanne M. Leipzig synthesizes decades of insights into an indispensable guide to one's latter years. Among many valuable contributions, the book is notable in its attention to the diversity of the aging experience, including those who find themselves 'coming out' later in life. As a non-profit executive in the aging space, as an LGBTQ+ community activist, and perhaps most importantly as a human being who recently turned sixty, I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a resource that wisely, frankly, and sensitively approaches the realities and uncertainties of getting older.
Among the many books devoted to helping all of us to understand the aging process, Dr. Leipzig's Honest Aging sets a new standard. Her writing is crisp and readable for all of us who wish to understand these important years of our own lives as well as help us in engaging and working with older adults. I give her my highest praise. I wish I had written this book!
Aging exists in the shadows of the future. It holds promises of fulfillment and possible harvesting of professional and personal gardens. But it also portends failing health, burdensome medical interventions and prospects of debility. How can we successfully navigate the pathways of hope given the challenges to be encountered? This wonderful book highlights what to expect as we age and provides the intellectual and emotional framework for future positive and frightening events.
Professor Leipzig's book is an indispensable guide for us all as we age, packed with actionable, sage advice to help people prepare for and interact with our fragmented healthcare system. At once a masterful refresher of my geriatrics training, and accessible to all, Honest Aging will undoubtedly serve well as a reference to revisit frequently at key times as life progresses.
Dr. Leipzig's sage advice on topics ranging from hearing and vision to sexuality includes a plethora of well-organized medical facts and recommendations but also, most importantly, addresses the personhood and humanity of the older adult. Her calm, wise (and often humorous!) insights help us all to be less afraid of the years ahead and teach us that solutions and adaptations exist for almost any aging-related challenge so we can enjoy life to the fullest, wherever we are on the aging spectrum.
A wonderfully practical and informative guide to help older adults and families learn what geriatricians know about maintaining health, wellbeing, and independence during the later decades of life. Dr. Leipzig explains clearly what changes to expect when it comes to the mind, the body, and one's abilities as one gets older, why they happen, and provides actionable ideas on how to adapt and what types of medical treatments are most likely to be helpful. I would highly recommend this book as a resource for all aging adults and their families.
What I love about this book is its respect for the intelligence of reader. It is full of straight talk. It is clear and practical. I think of it like a travel guide for the aging process, something only the lucky ones who make it there get to experience. Take this book with you.
This book is essential reading for anyone dealing with their own aging or that of family members and friends. It is chock-full of important information delivered in a warm and accessible style. It addresses embarrassing topics head on and provides enormously helpful advice about thinking through difficult decisions. Dr. Leipzig is a wise counselor. I've told all my friends to order Honest Aging the moment it becomes available.
If you want clear, direct, and practical answers to your questions about normal aging and the diseases of aging, Honest Aging: An Insider's Guide to the Second Half of Life by master clinician Dr. Rosanne Leipzig is the book for you.
Wisdom about aging from a master clinician told by a master educator. In Honest Aging, Dr. Leipzig offers sound philosophical and practical advice that includes something for everyone. The book provides both up-to-date recommendations for maintaining health and enduring principles about how to approach changes that lie ahead. Thus, Honest Aging is both timely and timeless.
Dr. Rosanne Leipzig has taught thousands of physicians how to help their patients age better, and I am one of them. With this book, she has created an indispensable guide to better aging, for both health care providers and their patients.
Dr. Leipzig's book offers a pragmatic, no-nonsense guide to what to expect as we age and how to adapt and thrive in our later years. She provides a refreshing approach—with humor and candor—to understanding what's normal in the aging process and how we can best navigate its challenges and opportunities. A must-read for older adults and caregivers!
Dr. Leipzig does not shy away from the challenges faced by all of us as we age. She discusses the challenges in a straightforward, practical, and often humorous way. She also highlights the less heralded advantages that come with experience and growing older. Dr. Leipzig, a renowned geriatrician, provides a straight-forward, easily read, and fun insider's guide to aging. I highly recommend it for individuals who are aging, loves someone who is aging, or who plan to age at some point.
Dr. Rosanne Leipzig was a geriatrician to my father and stepmother. I cannot imagine a more thoughtful, caring, intelligent person to write on the topic of aging with grace and dignity. A frank book on the topic, written for the lay-person, is long overdue. Her comprehensive guide to self-care will enlighten and empower those facing the later years in life, as well as their children and caregivers.
Honest Aging is a comprehensive and easy-to-read guide to the many changes we face as we age, with practical strategies to prevent decline when we can and adapt to it when we have to. I love the 'Advice for Loved Ones' and 'Resources' sections, and the whole book is absolutely invaluable for navigating growing older. As Dr. Leipzig says, 'how you react to challenges is a choice.' This book ensures that we have the tools to make good ones.
Honest Aging teaches the importance of being flexible and adapting to new situations as we grow older. My late wife, Edie, was a long-time patient and close friend of Dr. Leipzig for years. In fact, just before she passed away unexpectedly in 2017, Edie was scheduled to speak at a seminar, 'Sex in your Eighties' at Rosanne's. Desire for sex and intimacy doesn't disappear when we're older, even if age demands some changes in our habits. Let Honest Aging guide you and your loved ones to achieve new joy and empowerment, not just 'normalcy.'
Reading Honest Aging felt as though Dr. Leipzig was sitting with me in her consulting room, explaining all the predictable things that may happen to us in our aging years, and why they happen, and what to do if they happen, and how to know if they are normal or not. When she was done, I left that meeting feeling safer, smarter, calmer, more competent to help myself stay well in mind and body, and grateful for this invaluable book.
My husband, who died at 101 in January of 2021, and I have both been in the care of the physician who wrote this helpful, thoughtful, truthful, witty book about the later stages of life. I am the fortunate beneficiary of Dr. Leipzig's care and her philosophy, which is embodied in Honest Aging. In every instance, I have found her clinical care and her help in leading me to the best solutions to my particular problems to be unimpeachable.
Book Details
Preface
Part I: Aging 101
Chapter 1. It's Only Aging, Get a Grip!
Chapter 2. What's Normal Aging? Or, 80 Isn't 60
Chapter 3. Better Living through Chemistry?
Chapter 4. More or Less: What's Right for
Preface
Part I: Aging 101
Chapter 1. It's Only Aging, Get a Grip!
Chapter 2. What's Normal Aging? Or, 80 Isn't 60
Chapter 3. Better Living through Chemistry?
Chapter 4. More or Less: What's Right for You When It Comes to Health Care
Chapter 5. An Ounce of Prevention
Part II: What Really Matters As You Grow Older
Chapter 6. Mind Matters
Chapter 7. Energy Cycles
Chapter 8. Ups and Downs
Chapter 9. Balancing Acts
Chapter 10. Sleep Cycles
Chapter 11. Urine Trouble
Chapter 12. All Eyes and Ears
Chapter 13. Aches and Pains
Chapter 14. Gut Feelings
Chapter 15. Weighing In
Chapter 16. Sex Talk
Part III: Difficult Decisions
Chapter 17. Making Difficult Decisions
Chapter 18. To Move or Not to Move
Chapter 19. Do I Need to Stop Driving?
Chapter 20. Who Will Speak for Me?
Appendixes
1. Personal Emergency Response Systems
2. Assistive Devices
3. Getting Ready to Meet with Your Doctor
Index