UB Pharmacologist’s Book Offers Expert Advice on Optimal Aging
Jerrold C. Winter, PhD
Published June 8, 2015 This content is archived.
story based on news release by ellen goldbaum
In his book, “Optimal Aging: A Guide to Your First Hundred Years,” Jerrold C. Winter, PhD, professor of pharmacology and toxicology, aims to bring a “total perspective” to the topic.
Addresses Drugs, Death and Nutrition
Geared toward the general public, Winter’s book helps people make informed choices to guide them in aging well.
“I hope this book will provide readers a rational framework to minimize disease and disability as well as a means to maximize the probability of a long, happy and healthy life,” he writes in the preface.
Sections cover:
- weight loss
- a program of exercise
- performance enhancement (athletic, cognitive and sexual)
- things we wish to avoid (pain, dementia, cancer, heart disease and stroke)
- death and dignity
According to Kirkus Reviews, “Winter references copious studies and incorporates a good dose of technical material, but his final product is surprisingly readable, conversational and compassionate.”
“He consistently remains an ardent advocate for the individual, whether he’s discussing the need for opiates for pain relief or poignantly calling for the right to die with dignity.”
Drugs: Helpful or Harmful?
Winter shares his expertise about “the chemicals in our lives,” including over-the-counter medications and prescriptions.
Older people often “are prescribed too many medications,” he notes. “Many of these drugs are completely unnecessary and end up compromising, not enhancing, their health.”
He singles out antipsychotic drugs for treating psychiatric problems in the elderly, including anxiety, depression, dementia and hostility. He demonstrates how they often do more harm than good.
He lists major drug companies that have each been fined several hundred million dollars for violating laws related to off-label uses of these drugs. He puts those fines in the context of the companies’ sales figures.
Winter further illuminates the legal landscape governing the regulation and availability of drugs.
He explains the origins of the Food and Drug Administration. He also recounts dramatic historical examples of drugs that were prescribed even when all the science didn’t support their safety. Thalidomide, for example, prescribed for nausea during pregnancy, led to severe birth defects.
Marketing Scams Sell Dietary Supplements
The book examines aspects of good nutrition and provides historical information about individual vitamins and essential fatty acids. Winter also points out possible adverse effects of “too exuberant use of vitamin and mineral supplements.”
He admits his own bias against supplements, discussing what he calls “the fundamental idiocy” of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act.
Winter agrees with columnist and reporter Stephanie Mencimer, who said the act fosters “the freedom to serve as guinea pigs for a multi-billion dollar industry, much of which is built on a foundation of fraudulent claims.”
For example, television advertisements that claim protein supplements can improve brain function are “nonsense,” Winter asserts.
“Any protein we eat, whether it comes from a hot dog or a supplement, is simply digested and in no way can influence specific proteins in our brains.”
Aging is ‘All About Science’
Winter’s 400-page guide dispels myths about aging while providing objective information based on scientific evidence.
“Aging is all about science,” says Winter. “This is true whether one is speaking of nutrition, exercise, disease or any other factor that influences how we age.”
His own scientific research has focused on psychoactive drugs and understanding how certain drugs alter behavior and affect memory.
“The fact that I am a professor of pharmacology and toxicology just means that, when it comes to drugs, I don’t have to work as hard to understand the science,” he says.