arts & entertainment

A New Perspective On Health

The End Of Illness author Dr. David B. Agus shares his views
in a new Detroit Public Television special.

Esther Allweiss Ingber

Contributing Writer

I s it possible to live a robust and
healthy life well into our 90s?
"Of course," says David B. Agus,
M.D., one of the world's leading cancer
doctors and a pioneering biomedical
researcher and professor of medicine and
engineering at University of Southern
California.
An oncologist whose celebrity patients
have included U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy and
Apple founder/CEO Steve Jobs, Agus pres-
ents an occasionally controversial approach
to understanding cancer and other diseases
in his bestselling book, The End of Illness
(Free Press), written with Kristin Loberg.
Charting for 12 weeks — including the
No. 1 position — on the New York Times
bestsellers list, Agus' book is focused on
reducing illness through prevention of
unhealthy lifestyles and tailoring medical
treatment to each individual.
Dr. Agus, 47, is a rising media star who
has appeared in the last several months on
the Daily Show, World News Tonight, Good
Morning America, Morning Joe, the Charlie

4ew s

Nate Bloom

Special to the Jewish News

i s2

Brooklyn Bits

For those visiting Brooklyn after a
4:111 long time away, as I recently did, the
111 11 •1 changes are astonishing. All over this
borough of New York City, neighbor-
hoods are thriving.
Many new, large buildings, including
Barclays Center, a $5-billion project
that includes a sports arena, have
transformed the downtown area near
the Brooklyn Bridge. On Oct. 11-12,
the Brooklyn-born and raised legend
Barbra Streisand, 70, will take the
stage at the center – her first time
performing in Brooklyn.
Meanwhile, Streisand's ex-husband,
Elliot Gould, 73, the father of her only
child (Jason Gould,
45), is the co-star
of a new, three-part
Aish.com online
series, Listen to

CU

Grandpa, Andy Ling.

Andy, the son of a
Jewish mother and
Gould
Chinese father, loses
all his money and
alienates his parents. He turns to a
religious grandfather (Gould) he really
doesn't know for help. The series is

58

May 31 • 2012

Rose Show, CBS This Morning and Nightline.
He spoke to the Jewish News ahead of the
June 5 debut of The End of Illness, a locally
produced, three-part program running
8-11 p.m. Tuesday, June 5, on Detroit Public
Television-Channel 56.

JN: What did you hope to accomplish in

writing your book?
DA: We need to be incentivized toward

prevention to make an impact on health
care in the United States. Each of us must
realize that we've all got the ability to live
longer and better, and the best way is to be
armed with all of the data and all of the
strategies to fight disease in our own life.
I'm passionate about this because of my
work with cancer patients and, unfortu-
nately, losing the battle with a few of them
every week.
Additionally, we can delay the onset of
most diseases by many years through tak-
ing advantage of technology. If individuals
can control symptoms of a disease now, the
next "magic" discovery will come along in
time to cure them. I am an optimist.

JN: What works for preventing cancer

full of humor and Yiddish references
as it addresses many of the concerns
of young Jews. Gould, himself, studied
at an Orthodox Aish HaTorah yeshivah
when he was young.
The New Jersey
Nets NBA basketball
team has just relocat-
ed from New Jersey
to Brooklyn and will
start playing in the
Barclays Center next
September. Playing
Farmar
for the Brooklyn
Nets, as they are now
called, is point guard Jordan Farmar,
24, one of two Jews in the NBA. The
son of an African-American father and
a Jewish mother, Farmar was raised
by his mother and Israeli stepfather
and, during the NBA strike last season,
played for the Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv
team for about two months.
Farmar is the first Brooklyn-based
Jewish player on a professional team
since the Dodgers left for Los Angeles
in 1958, taking Brooklyn-born and
raised pitcher Sandy Koufax, now 76,
with them.

Wedding

Hung, the HBO series set in Metro

Detroit, and filmed in locations in

and other disease?
DA: Every one of us has the potential

to get cancer, but most cancer is prevent-
able. Genetics are a component, but the
environment we can control is responsible
for much of it.
Our goal with patients with cancer has
always been to treat the cancer and shrink
it. To me, cancer is a verb, not a noun. I
want to change a person from "cancering"
to "healthing."
Another key is simple preventive strate-
gies. For example, taking a baby aspirin
(81 mg.) daily reduces the cancer death
rate by 35 percent and guards against
heart disease and stroke.
Where indicated for individuals over
age 40, I recommend taking statins, which
cost about $9 for a 90-day supply at super-
stores. Statins lower bad cholesterol and
control inflammation. They help people to
live much longer.
In a study with more than 20,000 people
having low cholesterol (under 175) and
inflammatory factors, the incidence of can-
cer in those taking statins was reduced by
more than 20 percent — that's dramatic.

Oakland County, ended a three-season
run in December. Actress Rebecca
Creskoff, 41, co-starred as Lenore, a
female procurer of women for star
character Ray, a public school teacher
who slept with women for money. •
Creskoff was the subject of a feature
in the May 20 "Styles" section of the
New York Times. It's a lovely profile
that should be read in full, but here
are a few highlights:
A year ago spring, Creskoff, a 6-foot
tall, very attractive redhead, returned
to her family home in a Philly suburb
to help care for her ailing mother.
Her sister, who lived
near their mother,
urged her to go out
on a date with Dr.
Michael Glassner, 51,
a divorced fertility
specialist.
The never-married
Creskoff
actress told the Times
their relationship
shouldn't have worked: The doctor was
older, shorter and had four kids. But he
won her over with his empathy.
The couple had already set their
wedding date when Creskoff found out
she was pregnant the "old-fashioned
way, without really trying."
They couple wed on May 3 at a

Advice from Dr.
Agus: Forget the

multivitamin, take

a daily aspirin and
keep moving.

Why are you against taking multi-
vitamins?
DA: No study has shown that taking a

multivitamin is beneficial for preventing
heart disease or cancer. For example, one
study followed 30,000 healthy women for
several decades. Those taking a multi-
vitamin had a higher death rate than those
who did not.
Juicing doesn't help either. As soon as

Perspective on page 61

Philly synagogue.

Stoner Comedy

High School, which opens on Friday,

June 1, seems like a pastiche of mov-
ies – Fast Times at Ridgemont High,
Seth Rogen's Pineapple Express, any
Harold and Kumar movie – with similar
plot elements.
In this one, Henry Burke (Matt Bush)
is about to graduate with a college
scholarship in hand. But he stands
to lose the scholarship when, for the
first time, he smokes marijuana and
then finds out the school's principal
(Michael Chiklis) is going to drug-test
the entire student body. He teams up
with a buddy to get the whole school
stoned at once, thus rendering his test
meaningless.
The students steal a big stash from
"Psycho Ed" (Adrien Brody, 39), a
drug dealer, and spike the school's
bake sale brownies with the pot.
Things go awry when Psycho Ed learns
who stole his ganja and goes after
Henry and his buddy.
Chiklis, best known as the star of
The Commish and The Shield, is of
mostly Greek, non-Jewish ancestry.
His wife of 20 years is Jewish, and
their two daughters have been raised
in their mother's faith. E