A Doctor’s Journey into the Heart of Growing Old
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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – “I stopped counting my age years ago,” remarked a one-hundred-plus resident at Miami Jewish Health Systems, while another centenarian patient teased she didn’t feel a day over eighty. In the face of aching joints and memory loss, the residents held onto their passions and dreams. Inside the nursing home, often dismissed by some as “God’s Waiting Room,” geriatric psychiatrist Marc Agronin discovered the truth about what it means to grow old.
Agronin began to think about aging when his four-year-old son asked, “What is old?” Some measure in years and others measure in ailments. Agronin ultimately found that the true scales of aging are not one-sided: You can’t list the problems and complications of aging without also tallying the possibilities and memories. In How We Age, Agronin presents an account of his experiences counseling the residents of Miami Jewish Health Systems and shows how his view of aging has been transformed by his work.
In addition to drawing on personal experience, Agronin conducted in-depth interviews with pioneers in the field and read countless works of literature in order to explore what aging means today and how well we do—or don’t—understand it. How We Age shows that aging is more than an inevitable decline—that it can also be a period of vitality, wisdom, creativity and, ultimately, hope.
Marc Agronin, M.D., is a board-certified adult and geriatric psychiatrist currently serving as the Medical Director for Mental Health and Clinical Research at Miami Jewish Health Systems. A Harvard University graduate with a degree in psychology and philosophy, Dr. Agronin received his medical degree from Yale University. His articles have appeared in the New York Times and many other publications. He lives in Cooper City, Florida.
February 15, 2011 Hardcover $25.00 302 Pages Psychology / Health ISBN: 978-0-306-81853-0
“The profound understanding and depth of knowledge in this beautifully written book could come only from a physician who has devoted his career—indeed, his life—to the empathetic care of the aging. Marc Agronin’s daily work is the Art of medicine at its finest, and his descriptive powers are a gift to readers.”—Sherwin B. Nuland, M.D., author of the best-selling, and National Book Award-winning, How We Die
“Literate, generous, and compassionate, Agronin’s ground-level view of aging…opposes the current spate of books attempting to turn back the clock and preserve physical youth. Rather, Agronin argues for accepting, understanding, and appreciating aging as a nonreversible, frequently debilitating, but valuable condition…Referencing poetry, plays and parables, he makes an art of caring for the aged by restoring dignity to a dehumanized but growing segment of the population.”—Publishers Weekly
“A successful explication of how ‘aging equals vitality, wisdom, creativity, spirit, and, ultimately, hope.’”—Kirkus Reviews
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