My grandfather used to say that man would never walk on the moon. I remember him sitting in his favorite green chair in the living room, grumbling about all the tax dollars we were wasting on what he thought was an arrogant and futile attempt to achieve the impossible. Before long, millions of Boomers were crowding around their television sets to watch Neil Armstrong take his first tentative step onto that beautiful orb we had only observed from afar. We experienced the impossible that day, and it was one of the first signs that we Baby Boomers were in for an exciting journey.

Since then, our generation has experienced an avalanche of change. We’ve seen the emergence of thousands of new technologies, from microwave ovens and VCRs to cell phones and the Internet. We’ve witnessed the first successful heart transplants, and lasers that correct eye defects. In the early ’70s, physicians began using MRI and CAT scan technology to detect brain abnormalities. We now have prosthetics that enable formerly wheelchair-bound athletes to break world records, and scientists are currently developing handheld sensing devices that will “sniff out” lung and breast cancers in the same amazingly accurate way dogs are now trained to do. And doctors are now able to repair holes in the diaphragms of fetuses, a genetic defect, while they are still in the womb.

In 1953, Watson and Crick discovered the double-stranded DNA in our chromosomes and were later awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine. This meant that we had literally discovered the “recipe book” for how to create a living form. And with the advent of computers, teams of scientists all around the world began competing with each other to actually read these recipes, with an eye to manipulating and fixing genetic problems.

Of equal importance, the new developments on the frontiers of stem-cell research will allow us to heal many damaged areas of the body. Because it is imminent, Boomers can also expect to see doctors doing gene-transfer procedures on fetuses in utero and curing babies of genetic conditions using stem cells.

We are a generation that rises to new health challenges with commitment and invention. Epidemics such as autism and AIDS have given us an important opportunity to study and understand the immune system. They have provided new insights into cellular intelligence and the important role our inner ecosystem plays in the prevention of disease. Autism, in particular, allows us to look at the connection between the gut and the brain . . . and we now know that pesticides; chemicals; and heavy metals such as mercury, lead, and aluminum are dangerous neurotoxins that weaken our children before they are even born.

Out of much pain and uncertainty have come enlightenment and discovery, and there are more world-changing breakthroughs ahead. I believe that a whole new level of science will emerge because of our desire to know and harness the positive forces of nature to create health and longevity. Baby Boomers can help bring about a revolution in how we heal ourselves and in how we address, and even defy, aging.

Consider this: had you been born in the late 1800s, your life expectancy would have been about 45. That doesn’t seem like much time to live a full life. As many of us Baby Boomers are just now hitting our mid-40s, it might seem inconceivable that had we lived a little more than a century ago, life might almost be over.

We’ve come so far! It is a brilliant time to be alive, because there is so much more that we know today about how to stay young and healthy. Baby Boomers are the first generation to truly reap the benefits of medical breakthroughs—and also holistic and nutritional advances—that make agelessness not just conceivable, but a reality. We will live longer than any previous generation, and we have the potential to live better— with the opportunity to reinvent what it means to be in our “golden years.”