Reversal
Science, Medicine, and a Future Beyond Aging
Published on 29. January 2026
Book
Hardback
292 pages
979-8-9945486-4-6 (ISBN)
Description
Aging is not inevitable: it can be reversed.
In Reversal, Dr. Michael Fossel proposes a radical shift: we must stop treating aging as a decline to be managed, and start treating it as a problem to be solved.
The book challenges the idea that aging is simple "wear-and-tear." Instead, it is a specific failure of cellular maintenance. As telomeres (the ends of our chromosomes) shorten, they signal our genes to slow down molecular repair. Our cells accumulate damage not because it's an inevitable outcome of entropy, but because our cellular cleaning crews fall behind.
The bookexplains how this central mechanism drives not only aging, but downstream diseases from Alzheimer's to heart disease and cancer. The solution lies in resetting the aging process at its most fundamental level. Telomerase can relengthen telomeres, resetting gene expression, and restoring the rapid, pristine self-repair of youth. Reversal explains the evidence-from human cells to animal models-showing that we can turn back the biological clock to cure aging and age-related disease at the root. Current approaches to aging and longevity are like treating polio with an iron lung: brilliant technology that manages symptoms but fails to cure the disease.
Reversal offers a vision of true longevity-a future where extended health grants us a "dividend of wisdom," allowing us to deepen relationships and master life without the fear of aging and disease
More details
Person
Dr. Michael Fossel serves as chairman of the board of Telocyte, a biotech company developing telomerase therapy for Alzheimer's disease, with FDA-sponsored human trials planned to target the underlying disease process. His invited lecture at Harvard Business School discussed Telocyte, age-related disease, and biotechnology.A recognized expert in aging and telomere biology, Dr. Fossel has authored over 100 scientific articles, book chapters, and books, and has lectured internationally, including at the National Institutes of Health. His 2020 article, A Unified Model of Dementias and Age-related Neurodegeneration, generated significant global interest with more than 1,000 reprint requests, presenting both a comprehensive understanding of dementia causation and novel therapeutic approaches. His companion work, A Unified Model of Age-Related Cardiovascular Disease, similarly explores potential interventions in cardiovascular disease.Dr. Fossel earned his BA and MA from Wesleyan University before completing his PhD in Neurobiology (1978) and MD (1981) at Stanford University, where he taught neuroanatomy and experimental design. He subsequently focused on aging, particularly premature aging syndromes and the experimental testing of aging theories. For nearly three decades, he served as Clinical Professor of Medicine and held leadership roles, including director of the American Aging Association and editor of several medical journals.His first book, Reversing Human Aging (1996), became an international bestseller. His comprehensive academic textbook, Cells, Aging, and Human Disease (Oxford University Press, 2004), features over 4,000 references and examines telomere biology and cellular senescence across multiple age-related diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, atherosclerosis, osteoporosis, and cancer. The Telomerase Revolution (2015) explores telomerase therapy as an intervention for age-related diseases and was recognized by both The London Times and Wall Street Journal as among the year's best science books. The work has been published in eight languages across eleven global editions. Most recently, Dr. Fossel served as editor and senior author of the Academic Press medical textbook Aging: Aging: How Aging Works, How We Can Reverse Aging, and Prospects for Curing Aging Diseases (2024), developed with distinguished co-authors from leading institutions including UCSF, Mayo Clinic, Harvard Medical School, and universities across three continents. He is also the editor and senior author of an upcoming 2027 text by World Scientific: Aging and Age-Reversal: The Prospects for Curing Age-Related Diseases.