David B. Agus > Quotes

“one must first know the rules to break them,”
― David B. Agus, The End of Illness

“The term vitamin was derived from vitamine, a word invented by Polish scientist Casimir Funk, who combined vital and amine to create “amine of life.”
― David B. Agus, The End of Illness

“Be wary of headlines that tell you what’s good or bad for you. Scrutinize data before accepting it as dogma.”
― David B. Agus, The End of Illness

“Top 10 Actions to Reduce Your Risk for Illness Taking these actions today can reduce your risk of becoming sick, especially for the two most dreaded diseases in later life: cancer and dementia. 1. Eat real food on a regular schedule. 2. Avoid vitamins and supplements. 3. Discuss aspirin and statins with your doctor when you are staring at age forty. 4. Follow the prescribed cancer screening schedules. 5. Exercise regularly and move during the day. 6. Maintain a healthy weight. 7. Avoid tobacco products. 8. Avoid direct sun exposure without sunscreen. 9. Avoid sources of inflammation. 10. Get a yearly flu shot.”
― David B. Agus, A Short Guide to a Long Life

“Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being, while movement and methodical physical exercise save it and preserve it. —Plato”
― David B. Agus, The Lucky Years: How to Thrive in the Brave New World of Health

“when we start living strong, robust lives, we’ll lessen our need for health care, causing the demand to decrease and costs to go down. Simple as that.”
― David B. Agus, A Short Guide to a Long Life

“Keep a strict, predictable schedule 365 days a year that has you eating, sleeping, and exercising at about the same times day in and day out. Avoid napping unless you nap every single day at the same time. Respect regularity. Schedule downtime. Share this knowledge with your children.”
― David B. Agus, The End of Illness

“What NFL Football Players and Nuns Can Teach Us about Deadly Inflammation—and How to Control It”
― David B. Agus, The End of Illness

“The part can never be well unless the whole is well.”
― David B. Agus, The End of Illness

“most diseases are delayable or preventable,”
― David B. Agus, The End of Illness

“Landry used the tools of the engineering profession to lead his team to twenty consecutive winning seasons, an NFL record. Landry was the first coach to use a computer.”
― David B. Agus, The End of Illness

“the 1997 movie Gattaca”
― David B. Agus, The End of Illness

“People can get well for any number of reasons, none of which may be due to any prescribed treatment or “elixir.” Indeed, there is something to be said for doing nothing.”
― David B. Agus, The End of Illness

“It should come as no surprise that a healthy weight corresponds to a healthy body. When the body is saddled with too many pounds (or, on the other end of the spectrum, too few pounds), it cannot function optimally. Here’s another way to look at it: each pound of weight lost equals a four-pound reduction in the knee load for every step you take. So if you take ten thousand steps a day, that translates to a twenty-ton reduction in the pressure on your knees. Think of that cumulative effect over a whole year! Even a small weight loss makes a big difference in the long run.”
― David B. Agus, A Short Guide to a Long Life

“If your employer offers an interactive corporate wellness program, sign up!”
― David B. Agus, The End of Illness

“29 Smile (Hint: Smiling will boost your mood no matter what. The act itself will trigger the release of pain-killing, brain-happy endorphins and serotonin. Besides, it’s easier to smile; it takes seventeen muscles to smile and forty-three to frown.) Maybe laugh a little, too.”
― David B. Agus, A Short Guide to a Long Life

“The benefits of exercise begin to diminish when you exceed an hour,”
― David B. Agus, The End of Illness

“Life is a marathon rather than an all-out sprint, and your workouts should reflect that.”
― David B. Agus, The End of Illness

“Cancer, for instance, isn’t something the body “has” or “gets”; it’s something that the body does.”
― David B. Agus, The End of Illness

“So not only do we lack true downtime, but we also miss true thinking time,”
― David B. Agus, The End of Illness

“DNA governs probabilities more than it dictates destinies,”
― David B. Agus, The End of Illness

“red wine (one glass a night) five nights per week—unless you’re at high risk for breast cancer.”
― David B. Agus, The End of Illness

“What’s “good” for one thing might not be for another.”
― David B. Agus, The End of Illness

“Instead of saying, “You know, my house has water,” we say, “My plumbing is leaking.” Instead of saying, “Somebody has cancer,” we should say, “They are cancering.”
― David B. Agus, The End of Illness

“According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, children need to sleep: Infants: 14 to 15 hours Toddlers: 12 to 14 hours Preschoolers: 11 to 13 hours School-age kids: 10 to 11 hours Teenagers: 9 to 10 hours”
― David B. Agus, The End of Illness

“heavy video-game playing may release dopamine, which is thought to be involved with addictive behaviors.”
― David B. Agus, The End of Illness

“A mere two weeks of an inflammatory storm can harm us in ways that increase our lifetime risk of myriad illnesses, including obesity, heart attack, stroke, and cancer. Such an inflammatory storm could just be the result of recovering from a bad seasonal cold or flu.”
― David B. Agus, The End of Illness

“If you look at all the vitamin studies done on more than a thousand people in the last few decades, almost all of them have shown an increased risk of cancer. Some of these results were statistical, but some were not. The body likes to create free radicals to attack bad cells, including cancerous ones. If you block that mechanism by taking copious vitamins, especially those touted as antioxidants, you block your body’s natural ability to control itself. You block a physiological process. You disrupt a system we don’t fully understand yet.”
― David B. Agus, The End of Illness

“To be healthy, you must respect and maintain that ideal, rhythmic state.”
― David B. Agus, The End of Illness

“Medicine will shift from being heavily trafficked on the treatment side to the prevention side,”
― David B. Agus, The End of Illness