There are other simple ways to fight inflammation. Agus explains that it's better to walk a lot than to do an intense burst of exercise and then sit behind a desk all day. (The rhythmic part of walking helps your lymphatics function, part of the system that controls your immune system.) Wear comfortable shoes, which lowers stress on joints. (Walking barefoot or in high heels can cause damage to the joints and thus inflame your feet.)
His approach has its detractors. Dr. Rita Redberg, a professor of medicine at UCSF, argues that the evidence doesn't support the widespread use of statins. "I prescribe medicine to make people feel better or live longer, and statins do neither," she says. Not only that, statins can have side effects ranging from muscle aches to diabetes.
Of course, Agus thinks statins in many cases do more good than harm and, anyway, are just one tool in his arsenal. The nice thing about his approach is that nothing requires a superhuman effort -- a lot of it is just commonsense, healthy living.
Agus also believes we need new tools to really understand our bodies. He suggests that each of us get genetically profiled. This won't tell us whether we'll contract a certain disease but will tell us the probability of getting it, allowing us to make the proper adjustments. A few years ago he co-founded Navigenics, a company that does genetic screening at $400 a pop and is backed by venture capitalist John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins, an early investor in Google (GOOG). When Agus had his own DNA profiled -- the results are in the book for all to see -- he found he was at risk of having a heart attack. This was strange because his cholesterol had always been low. Nonetheless, it was enough to persuade him to go on a healthier diet and start taking statins.
New tools may also make it possible to detect diseases at a much earlier stage. The key is understanding how proteins -- which are the building blocks of life -- operate. Faulty proteins can be early indicators of a disease. The trouble is, tracing proteins is incredibly hard to do -- they are the size of a single neutron. About eight years ago Agus started another company called Applied Proteomics. He joined up with supercomputer guru Danny Hillis to create a system with the horsepower to catalogue hundreds of thousands of protein levels. The company is still a work in progress, but if it succeeds, it will provide an important diagnostic tool.
When Agus's book was reviewed by the Daily Mirror in England last month, he says he got 7,000 angry blog and e-mail responses. Some accused him of trying to cash in on his DNA-profiling firm. Agus's response? That he has only a small stake in the DNA firm.
Agus, however, has a bigger challenge ahead. He needs to get his ideas widely accepted by the medical community. Maybe then he can turn those hisses into cheers.
