David Niven Miller, MA

Longevity writer and researcher David Niven Miller unites traditional wisdom, common sense and unbiased scientific research

David is a creative and innovative cook, whose experience includes working in a large vegetarian kitchen in India (though he is not a vegetarian today). He has lived in several countries and travelled extensively.

David is a talented researcher whose gift is being able to apply a large dose of common sense to a complex subject, and produce a book that everyone can easily understand

"For most of my life I have tried to take good care of my body. I exercised almost every day, had a diet for ten years based on muesli and soy milk, and avoided animal fats as if they would kill me. I was passionately interested in health, and read every popular article in the media.

Frustratingly, I was not well. 1997 was a low point in my life as I was stressed, unhappy and ageing fast. My doctor was of little help. For the first time, I visited a naturopath and she told me that I was on the fast track to serious illness if I did not change. I joined a meditation class, cut back on my level of exercise, completely changed my diet including dropping the soy products, and began a fascinating search for the truth in health and longevity.

In 1998 I went to India and lived in an ashram for a couple of months. The experience was a rigorous challenge to my conservative beliefs formed in my childhood in Zimbabwe, Africa.

In the last few years, I have deliberately challenged most of my major beliefs, looking at where they came from, and the evidence to support them. Many of the most important beliefs were completely untrue. This is an ongoing exercise in clarifying my current reality. I now feel my integrity and my love for others and myself. I accept my being and life “as is”. I have faced the fear of letting go of what I previously thought defined me.

My experience now is that good health and happiness start in the mind and come from attitude.

Grow Youthful took eighteen months to write and has been constantly refined over a further four years. I have interviewed many people who are younger than their chronological age, and have avidly followed up many new scientific studies on ageing. I have also investigated why some cultures and traditions enjoy exceptional health and longevity. This book picks through all the self-serving misinformation and unnecessary complexity in the media and innumerable studies, and presents it in a simple and understandable way. My strength and gift to you is clarity.

The rewards from this work are blatantly obvious to my friends, including my two adult children. Biologically, I am years younger than when I started the project, and many people remark that I have an amazing vitality and a clear energy.

I hope that the health, philosophical and spiritual traditions in this book will help you create a life that is so long and satisfying that few people would believe it is possible.