cover image Ageless Ageing: The Natural Way to Stay Young

Ageless Ageing: The Natural Way to Stay Young

Leslie Kenton. Grove Press, $17.95 (374pp) ISBN 978-0-394-55552-2

Inspired by her own developing wrinkles, Kenton (The Joy of Beauty, etc.), a health-and-beauty editor in England, investigates ways to prevent premature aging, but her entertaining prescription offers more old hype than new help. Her suggestions include megadoses of vitamins and minerals; the wonders of bee pollen, ginseng and fasting; and a smattering of ideas for improving diet, exercise and health habits. She presents a popular update of current medical researchknowledge about the immune system and the biological dangers of oxygen molecules called ""free radicals,'' textbook-style illustrations of the brain, connective tissue, a typical human cell, the carbon cycle of life, etc.but she uncritically utilizes the research to validate unproven and possibly dangerous therapies, or to provide quasi-scientific explanations for some questionable anti-aging formulas. (September 25)