an engaging look at the science of aging for an audience who tends to be able & prefer taking its science in small digestible doses--Armstrong is a skilled communicator making this work of popular science satisfying

Borrowed Time is a informative read on aging. This book covers many topics about aging and the process we all face.

If you are interested in the how and why behind aging, Borrowed Time: The Science of How and Why We Age will explain current aging research in an easily understandable manner while opening up a whole new frontier of science to lay readers.

Borrowed Time: The Science of How and Why We Age is definitely a popular science book. The definitions of terms and especially acronyms are written in plain English. The science is clearly explained. However, it is the conclusions drawn that are stunning. Experiments in worms have shown it is possible to extend life tenfold. However, it appears that “ageing is the price we pay for protection against cancer.” Unfortunately, many of the proposed aging solutions caused similar issues. Just a note on the worms: the roundworms carried on the space shuttle Columbia for experimentation were the only survivors of the explosion that killed everything else. Some of their descendants were carried eight years later to the International Space Station on the Endeavor.

I found this book to be really interesting because I didn’t know anything about how the aging process works or any of the multitude of research projects trying to stop it. I would recommend not talking to your 20-something daughter about the importance of the FOXO gene variant, where you basically won the old age lottery. My daughter’s eyes glazed over sometime during the first sentence. I should have started with the fact that fruit flies share 60% of our genes and the worms mentioned above only share 33%. I just have to give this book 4.5 stars rounded up to 5 stars! I couldn’t put it down!

Thanks to Bloomsbury Sigma and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Interesting read but if you don't have a medical or science background it can be hard to follow. It's very heavy on research and references to other works on aging. Still solid work on understanding why cells breakdown over time and the possibility of minimizing that process.

This book has a split personality. The first roughly 60% is about aging and this initial portion is excellent (5 stars). Sadly, what follows is a discussion of Alzheimer's (about 40%) which is awful (1 star).
Buy this book and read the chapters on aging and when you get to the part on dementia throw it in the waste basket.
five stars plus one star totals six stars and averages out to three stars.

I read an advance reader copy of Sue Armstrong’s Borrowed Time: Science Takes a New Look at Old Age in PDF ebook, provided to me by Bloomsbury Publishing through netgalley, in return for promising to write an honest review. The book is scheduled for release on February 26, 2019. Sue Armstrong is a Scottish (UK) medical science writer who has published books on medical biology as well as fantasy fiction. Among her prior works is P53: The Gene that Cracked the Cancer Code (which I have not read). This is not a book to keep for reference, as it is not organized in an order that would be accessible for that purpose, but rather to create fascination, tell the stories of some of the researchers, and give the reader a deeper perspective on science and health news that will break out in the future.

Gerontology is the study of a broad grouping of many specific degenerative diseases. However, it is also a study of some fundamental changes that take place in the cells as we age. Armstrong’s new book takes a fascinating look at the state of the science of cellular aging – telomeres and the Hayflick limit to cell division, prioritization of cellular functions under nutrition shortfalls, senescence as an evolutionarily successful method to shut down potentially cancerous cells, immune system function and degeneration.

The book moves on to cover some of the degenerative diseases which accompany aging, and how they relate to the fundamental cellular changes. Armstrong looks at cancer, HIV, the flu, Parkinson’s Disease, Huntington’s Disease, pneumonia, and others. Being a 63-year-old lifelong cyclist who would qualify for the study group, I was personally heartened to hear about the study showing the effect of that on my thymus and immune system!

In the final third of the book, Armstrong focuses on Alzheimer’s Disease, in particular. Accumulation of amyloid beta protein in the cortex of the brain is the trigger. The genetic mutations associated familial Alzheimer’s show the strongest correlation, but familial is only 2-3% of the cases. A number of genetic mutations have been found to associate with sporadic Alzheimer’s, but none of them alone are as strong a correlation. There is also a significant environmental contributor – smoking and air pollution may account for 20% of cases.

No successful drug remedy based on the amyloid beta protein has been found after 20 years of experiments and trials. In response Armstrong suggests that the best therapeutic program may actually lie in wholistic treatment rather than a combination of treatments for degenerative diseases as each appears. She seems to advocate for broad gerontology research, over isolated disease research – but the few examples cited in the last chapter seem more a sign of desperate resignation, rather a direction led from prior work. It is conducting tests of hopeful magic bullets like metformin to alleviate aging as a medical condition itself, rather the continuing the painstaking process of identifying the foundational science of the mechanisms.

So, I felt the strength of the work was in the microbiology of the first section, but then it concentrated overly on Alzheimer’s Disease. I am not in agreement with some of the proposed alternative directions given near the end, although it is hard to argue much with the need for lifestyle and dietary change in modern human lifestyles. And of course, the ultimate criterion of popular science writing is “Did I learn something?” The answer is a definite yes.

In a breezy narrative in the first two-thirds of the book, Armstrong provides a succinct summary of the key hypotheses associated with ageing. Starting from "pay later theory", free radicals, epigenetic alterations, calorie restriction, stem cell exhaustion, oxidative damage theory and somewhat more recent hypotheses centered on telomerase, tumor suppressors, and recent discoveries from genetic studies are well summarized. For each key school of thought, the key basis, experiments leading to the conclusions, contra-evidence and how it set the stage for the next set of hypotheses are well presented.

As one reads through these sections, one can easily grasp not only the sheer complexity of the topic but also how science builds on generations of experimentation. One gets some intriguing information on the role of animal models and experimental methods involving fruit flies, rats, worms, and primates. As the book starts dealing with more deeper topics such as gene mutations, it does assume a basic understanding of genetics.

The last few chapters take a much sharper focus on Alzheimers disease - though the transition from the core hypotheses on aging to Alzheimers is somewhat abrupt. Nevertheless one gets an excellent understanding of the ongoing drug trials and the key hypotheses driving them.

Overall, the book provides a very informative look into the process of ageing, ongoing efforts in converting promising lab results to something more directly applicable to humans. A fascinating read. 4.5*

Thank you Net Galley for the free ARC
Our struggle with mortality and aging has forever obsessed our human minds and it is mesmerizing to learn more in depth why we eventually fall to the ravages of time. Alas, we have few answers and only suspicions. Fun read.