Aging in Good Health: A Medical Guide for Men and Women Over Fifty and Their Families

As much as people would like to forget about it, we all age, and this is one volume that explains how and why with grace. In what could have been a gloomy read, the authors emphasize preserving good health as well as preventing bad. Still, a good many words address specific medical conditions that trouble people as they grow older, including arthritis, impotence, diabetes, stroke, heart disease and insomnia. Helpful, informative sections discuss avoiding medication problems as the ``window of safety'' shrinks in people over 65; accessible tables show the types of medications that can cause urinary incontinence and sexual impotence. Also beneficial are tables explaining how various body systems age. And in what may seem to some like a departure from the usual, Beers and Urice confront medical/legal issues relevant to the aging population, including living wills. Theirs is an excellent sourcebook for graying Americans and those who care for and about them. Illustrations not seen by PW. (Jan.)