Obviously, not many people have the time or money to follow our recipe—including us—but we have little doubt that it would work. The catch, of course, is that our recipe may not actually make anyone live much longer; but it will certainly go a long way toward enhancing their enjoyment and quality of life. There are no gimmicks or sugarcoated lies in this book. Flossing teeth will not add years to life for most people, injecting hormones will not stop or reverse the aging process, ingesting vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants will not eliminate aging and disease, you cannot think your way to a 100-year lifespan, a caloric restricted diet will not make anyone live to 120 years who does not already have the potential to live that long anyway, meditating and eating fresh fruits and vegetables will not achieve an ageless body and timeless mind, and taking any of the other remedies currently being peddled by the advocates of extreme prolongevity cannot stop, reverse, or eliminate aging. Short of medical interventions that manufacture survival time, there is very little you can do as an individual to extend the latent potential for longevity that was present at your conception. However, the existence of loopholes within the biological contract of life does mean that there are many things you can do as an individual to reduce your risk of disease, enhance your health and level of fitness, and improve the odds of achieving your longevity potential. You can avoid aging accelerators, exercise throughout life, and adopt dietary habits based on moderation and general nutritional guidelines. By accepting and pursuing a responsibility for personal health, you will receive another benefit whose value is beyond measure—the quality of your life will be dramatically enhanced.

In the Hollywood film Dead Poets Society (1989), the new English teacher, played by Robin Williams, gathers his poetry class in the hallway of a prep school and leads them to a glass case containing old photographs of students who attended the school long ago. One of the students reads the Robert Herrick quote that begins this chapter:

Like images in a mirror, the young students staring at the old photographs are surprised to see faces that resemble their own. A moment of silence follows as the students gaze at long-gone teenagers just like them—young, full of hormones, and with no sense whatsoever of their own mortality. Tension in the air, Williams with his usual dramatic flair says: “Carpe diem (live for the day), gather ye rosebuds while ye may . . . seize the day, boys, make your lives extraordinary”. The teacher was encouraging his young students to recognize their own mortality and, like Lucretius, live life not as a losing battle against death, but as a never-ending search for new ways to make the most of life. Morrie Schwartz perhaps said it best in Mitch Albom's book Tuesdays with Morrie: “If you're always battling against getting older, you're always going to be unhappy, because it will happen anyhow”.

Today, we are faced with tabloid science containing false hope and misleading promises doled out by the modern prophets of prolongevity—most of whom are suffering from aging denial. The advocates of extreme prolongevity are selling slick versions of three-thousand-year-old potions and elixirs to people who, like billions before them, yearn to believe it is all true. At the same time, the genuine science of aging is leading us down a path that is more promising and exciting than any of us can possibly imagine. Those of us alive today are the subjects in this great experiment in biology called aging. Within limits imposed on us by nature, how healthy we are as we age—and perhaps more important, how happy we are during each of our days—is a matter of choice and how determined we are to pursue that choice. With that in mind, our parting advice to you is Carpe diem—seize the day.