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Edited by David M. Cutler and David A. Wise
512 pp, $115
Chicago, IL, University of Chicago Press, 2009
ISBN-13: 978-0-2261-3231-0

JAMA. 2009;302(9):1005-1006.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Since 1980, when James Fries published his seminal work on the squaring of mortality and compression of morbidity, a garrulous gaggle of geriatricians and gerontologists has been divided into 2 opposing intellectual camps. The optimists welcome the news that the best of all possible worlds is now here and that things are only going to get even better. They aver that via a simple strategy of eating a healthy diet, breathing in a smoke-free environment, and participating in regular exercise—not to mention enjoying a high educational attainment, along with a dollop of money—all can live to a healthy and ripe old age. Living in this way, one could expect to drop dead in excellent health shortly after reaching the 120-year mark.

The pessimists have been more skeptical, pointing to the possibility that Fries' reasoning was flawed, that evidence in favor of this optimistic scenario was fatally biased, or both. This . . . [Full Text of this Article]

A. Mark Clarfield, MD, FRCPC, Reviewer
Department of Geriatrics
Soroka Hospital Centre and the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Beersheva, Israel
markclar@bgu.ac.il

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