Getting Fit By the Age of 50 Helps Prevent Disease in Your “Golden
Years”
October 19 2012
By Dr. Mercola
Most people intuitively know that the lifestyle choices
they make today impact their future health. But this rather vague
connection has now been quantified by science.
A new study shows your lifestyle choices in middle age have a
direct impact on how you'll spend your Golden Years. If you're fit
at 50, you're much more likely to be healthy into your 70s and 80s.
Never before has it been so readily apparent how important it is
to be fit by mid life!
Americans are living longer but not healthier lives. Although
life expectancy in the U.S. is now above 78, which is up from 74 in
1980, rates of a number of chronic diseases, like diabetes, cancer
and heart disease have steadily risen, and these diseases are
appearing earlier in life.
The red flags are flying high – you reap what you sow when it
comes to your diet and exercise patterns.
Fit 50 Year-Olds have Fewer Diseases as Seniors
Researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical
Center and the Cooper Institute in Dallas followed 18,670 men and
women for almost 40 years in a first-of-its-kind study.1
They compared fitness levels at middle age with overall health
later. The men and women who'd been the least fit in their 40s and
50s developed the most chronic conditions early in the aging
process, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer's,
COPD, kidney disease, and lung or colon cancer.
There are many studies showing physically fit people have a lower
risk of dying than those who are unfit. But this is the first study
to examine the relationship between chronic disease in the elderly
and fitness earlier in life.2
Essentially, being physically fit "compresses the time" you are
likely to spend being debilitated during old age.
It makes a difference in your quality of life. If you
want to spend more of your Golden Years on golf courses than in
hospital rooms, the time to start making better lifestyle choices is
NOW.
In reference to the study, the New York Times writes:3
"The adults who'd been the most fit in their 40s and 50s
often developed many of the same conditions, but notably their
maladies appeared significantly later in life than for the less
fit. Typically, the most aerobically fit people lived with
chronic illnesses in the final five years of their lives,
instead of the final 10, 15 or even 20 years…
Interestingly, the effects of fitness in this study
statistically were greater in terms of delaying illness than in
prolonging life. While those in the fittest group did tend to
live longer than the least fit, perhaps more important was the
fact that they were even more likely to live well during more of
their older years."
Exercise Reduces Inflammation, Improves Your Strength, and Protects
Your Brain as You Age
One of the reasons exercise is so beneficial is that it reduces
inflammation in your body. Persistent low-grade inflammation is
a driving force for many chronic conditions, and this is especially
true in the elderly for whom inflammation is a major cause of
disability and loss of independence. In fact, exercise is considered
an important treatment for chronic inflammation in the elderly.4
There is also increasing evidence that physical activity has a
protective effect on your brain in your later years.5
Clearly, exercising throughout your lifespan is highly
beneficial, and the earlier you start, the more profound the
benefits will be. It makes sense, then, that if you exercise
regularly, you are preventing and reducing chronic disease
processes, which is exactly what this 2009 Finnish meta-analysis6
showed. Aerobic/functional capacity and muscle strength were
improved by exercise training among patients with various diseases,
without detrimental effects.
The authors wrote:
"This is important, as with population aging, exercise
therapy may be an important means of reducing disability and
increasing the number of older people living independently.
Additionally, there is accumulating evidence that in patients
with chronic disease, exercise therapy is effective in improving
the prognostic risk factor profile and, in certain diseases, in
delaying mortality. In some diseases, such as osteoarthritis,
pain symptoms may also be reduced. Severe complications during
the exercise therapy programs were rare."
Why You Really Should Be "Fit by 40"
The older you get, the harder it is to become fit, especially
after "the Big 4-0." Once you enter middle age, it is far easier to
maintain good fitness than to get in shape for the first time. And
this is even truer if you're a woman, as discussed by CNN's diet and
fitness expert, Dr. Melina Jampolis.7
As women enter middle age, their sex hormones begin to change.
If you're a woman over age 40, your body produces less "healthy
estrogen" and more estrone, the type of estrogen produced by your
fat tissue. Estrone contributes to insulin resistance, cravings for
sweets, and loss of muscle mass.
Is blaming your extra flab on your hormones a cop-out? Well,
there is actually some truth to it… but it's not insurmountable.
As you age, your resting metabolic rate tends to decline by about
five percent for every decade of life past age 40, according to
Madelyn Fernstrom, PhD, director of the University of Pittsburgh
Medical Center Weight Management Center and associate director of
the UPMC Nutrition Center.8
Pamela Peeke, MD, a specialist in nutrition and stress at the
University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, lists three
primary factors that control your metabolism:
- Genetics
- Thyroid function (thyroid problems are ten times
more common in women than in men)
- Muscle mass
Recent research suggests women on average will lose muscle mass
twice as fast as men the same age, which can hamper their ability to
lose or maintain their weight. And exercising can become more
challenging for aging men and women due to
AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), a muscle-building process
that declines with age.
But even with these built-in biological saboteurs, it doesn't
mean you're destined to gain weight later in life. Good nutrition
and optimal exercise help counter these biological tendencies.
Exercising – even briefly – can
change your DNA in a way that readies your body for increased
muscle strength and fat burning. In fact, exercise can boost your
metabolism by addressing all three factors listed above.
Additionally, it boosts your natural
human growth hormone production, which is important for
maintaining muscle mass as you age
For more to go:
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