According to gerontologist (aging expert) David J. Demko, PhD, genes play a minor role in the aging process. Maintaining your youth is all about staying fit, both inside and out. Making these 2006 resolutions could add ten (or more) years to your life (without a minute of physical exercise or diet modification):

1. Have an annual physical exam
2. Volunteer on a weekly basis
3. Laugh and learn from your mistakes
4. Have a confidant who listens to your concerns
5. Engage in a daily mental exercise such as a puzzle or game
6. Get a pet
7. Join a religious group
8. Stop being afraid of growing old
9. Make friends of different ages
10. Open your windows and let in some fresh air

Demko outlines a simple, easy-to-follow strategy incorporating physical, mental, nutritional and environmental modifications that will slow the aging process. As Demko states, He offers no miracle cures or dietary supplements, just pure common sense combined with scientific proof.

Demko, a Florida professor and aging researcher claims to have developed the Original Death Calculator while completing his PhD from the University of Michigan in the mid-70s, just prior to receiving a US Administration on Aging scholarship for advanced studies in aging. Since then, he has refined his calculator and presented his findings to the National Council for the Aging, the American Society on Aging and two Presidential White House Conferences. According to Demko, The key to a long a healthy life is more than smart genes and dumb luck.

His readers and their ilk may well be the beneficiaries of a newly elastic attitude about what defines age and attractiveness.- The New York Times