The evidence says it all. You are never too old to exercise.

In my last post I wrote about a recent study out of Israel that demonstrated you’re less likely to die if you exercise. Titled the Jerusalem Longitudinal Cohort Study, the researchers also followed 2000 people for 18 years who were studied from age 70 to age 88. What was learned from this age cohort was that seniors who started physical activity between ages 70 and 78 and even between 78 and 85 improved their odds of survival.

The test results also showed that seniors who exercised were more likely to maintain an independent lifestyle than those who didn’t exercise. The researchers also claim that because exercise helps to maintain cardiovascular health, it also improves immunity, and suppresses chronic inflammation.

The Israeli investigators concluded that the difference between physically active and sedentary participants actually increased the older the seniors. Walking appears to me the favorite of physical activities especially because of its low risk of injury.

Walking works even if you’re trying to lose weight. If your weight held fairly steady for some time, but when you hit 55 you started to gain weight, you can gradually increase your physical activity level or eat less and take in less calories. Or you can do both restricting calories and increasing exercise.

You may want to think of taking the stairs rather than the elevator or adding short periods of walking during the day. Once you make your mind up you probably can come up with a few ideas of your own to burn a few more calories.

If you do have some ideas for burning calories, let the rest of us know.  We all could use help when it comes to losing weight especially if exercising is helping us to live longer.

To your successful aging.

Ruthan Brodsky

Fitness to me is being physically and mentally able to work through life’s challenges. It takes work to make it through this life and it doesn’t get easier as you age.  I don’t recall who said it but growing old is not for sissies.
There are definitely lots of challenges.

What it means to be physically fit, and I’ll focus on physical fitness for the next few posts, is different at different stages of life. Let’s face it. No matter what we do it is evident that fitness declines with age. You’re not as speedy and you lose some aerobic capacity. You can’t open the olive jars you once did because your muscular strength decreases. What’s more bones are less dense and metabolism slows.

The good news is that exercise can minimize most of these losses. However, and it’s the same old story, you have to work at it.

There is even new proof that you’re never too old to exercise. A recent Israeli study found that people over age 70 live longer and better if they’re physically active at least four hours a week. Active senior were 31 percent to 58 percent less likely to die during the study than their sedentary peers. The other good news was that if you were among those who didn’t die and you exercised, you were 72 percent to 92 percent more likely to retain your independent lifestyle.

Recommendations encouraging physical activity set no upper age limit, says Jochanan Stessman, MD, of Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center writing in Archives of Internal Medicine.

The battle to lower you LDL or your bad cholesterol continues. Having too much bad cholesterol not only means you’ll have too much plaque in your arteries. It also means that the LDL cholesterol will get into the middle layer of artery. More gunk piles up faster and the inside of your arteries become inflamed. Blood can’t get through the artery and you have a heart attack.

A small research project, focusing on the lowly niacin, a B vitamin, was reported this past November. The report said that niacin did a better job of shrinking artery plaque than the active ingredient in the cholesterol drugs Zetia and Vytorin which are produced by Merck.

It was a small trial sponsored by Abbot Labs with only 208 people involved but it was carefully designed and followed. Allen Taylor of the Medstar Research Institute and John Kastelein, of the University of Amsterdam presented their findings at a meeting of the American Heart Association and the results were published in the The New England Journal of Medicine.

The study pitted ezetimibe against slow release Niaspan, made by Abbot. The result showed that Niaspan reduced artery plaque by 2 percent and Zetia did not. Two people in the Niaspan group had heart attacks while nine did in the Zetia group.

The result was so pronounced that the study stopped in 14 months. Even so there is nothing simple about science. Many people who use niacin report flushing and itching. Most doctors discourage over-the-counter niacin because there’s no evidence that it works and whether its safe.

Merck still stands by its drug. The company says it has enrolled 15,000 patients in a trail designed to show whether ezetimibe works. The trial will probably last for some time because they’re not weighing in the data unless at least 5000 heart attacks are recorded.  That could take years. In the mean time, stay alert and find out as much as you can about the prescription drugs you are taking.
If cholesterol is an issue for you, talk to your doctor and do some research on your own about the different medications that try to lower your LDL and your total cholesterol.

To your healthy aging and the best of holidays.
Ruthan Brodsky

One of the best reasons for using your local library to find medical information is that the reference librarians can help you. Most libraries have medical reference books that you can only read in the library. Often times the books are located close to the reference desk because they keep track of their whereabouts. The librarian knows which books can help you find your information. Take them to a table and either photo copy the pages or take notes or both.

Most libraries also have internet access and a data base that includes medical information. They usually have a collection of basic medical references which may include medical dictionaries or encyclopedias, drug information handbooks, basic medical and nursing textbooks, and directories of physicians and medical specialists. You may also want to find magazine articles on a certain topic. Look in the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature for articles on health and medicine that were published in consumer magazines. Be sure to ask the librarian which of these resources is available on line and open to the public because life on the internet changes quickly.

Libraries also have computer databases indexing hundreds of popular magazines and newspapers as well as some medical journals such as the Journal of the American Medical Association or the New England Journal of Medicine. In these journals you have free access to some of the articles but not to everything without a paid subscription. However, many of the databases or indexes have abstracts that provide a summary of each journal article. Although most community libraries don’t have a large collection of medical and nursing journals, your librarian may be able to get copies of the articles you want through Interlibrary loans. You may have to pay for this service.

Again, the reference librarian will be able to walk you through all this and help you organize that information. Again, some of that information may not be available to you at home because you need to be a member of this or that organization. Copy the url addresses that are open to the public so you can look at those sites at home and on your own time.

Do you use your community library when looking for information? Do you combine that with online searches? Or do you only use internet searches to find the information you want? It appears that  I am taking a survey.

To your success at healthy aging.

Ruthan Brodsky

Finding medical information about all the health problems and concerns you collect as you get older is no easy task. Have you ever read the printed information that comes with a prescription? Is that sheet of paper a reminder to you that you need to expand your vocabulary because you do not understand the message?  When you read the list of your medical risks taking this medication do you ask yourself why anyone would take it in the first place?

Now you are in a quandary because your doctor gave you this prescription and wants you to take the medication. You want to find out if the risk of taking it is worse than the condition you have that your doctor is treating. You can call the office and ask the doctor or his assistant but you want more information about your condition before you even do that. So where do you go to find medical information that is reliable?

You could watch all the news broadcasts of all the TV stations because just about everyone has a health segment of some kind. You could wait for the Oprah program to see who she promotes as a medical specialist. Or you could devise a plan and find out as much information as you can and at your own pace.

I recommend this last solution as the place where you should start looking for medical information.  More in my next post.

If you have a system for finding reliable medical information let us know.  We are always looking for better ideas.  Just write your ideas  under Comment.

To your success at healthy aging.

Ruthan Brodsky

In my previous post I wrote about my first observations about the cookie diets after researching the topic.  Keep in mind that single food diets are not new. Remember the grapefruit diet? The notion of removing choice and temptation by eating a preplanned meal substitute does work for many. What about all those meals in a can?

The key to the popularity of these diets is in the marketing. Read the rest of this entry

The headline for the front page of the Personal Journal section of the Wall Street Journal, no less, reads “How the Cookie Diet Crumbles”. This was Tuesday, just 3 days ago.

First you need to know I have nothing against cookies. The fact is I love cookies; I’d rather have a good cookie than a piece of pie or cake. My first thought, however, was how significant this article should be given this is the holiday season and everyone is making cookies. Read the rest of this entry

You can actually lose weight by eating more food and still consume fewer calories while still getting plenty of key nutrients. Sounds impossible but it is doable. The answer are low energy density foods. These foods, such as fruits, vegetables and high fiber grains, have greater volume so they tend to fill you up more. However, they contain fewer calories per ounce than sugary or fatty foods such as snacks or colas.

A second benefit of eating the low energy density foods is that you consume more fiber, and have higher than normal intake of important micronutrients including vitamins A, C and B6, folate, iron, calcium, and potassium.

Unfortunately our bodies are not like gas tanks. They don’t tell us to stop now, you’ve eaten 400 calories. Eating is often less determined by biology than my psychology.  For instance, the size of the portions you eat and with whom you eat often determine how much you eat.  Research shows, for example, that if you are served larger portions, you will likely finish them. Presentation also impacts how much you eat.  Just visit any buffet and you will see much larger portions put on a plate than if you were served by a waiter.

Here are tips for reducing your diet’s energy density:

• Eat a large salad before the rest of your meal to fill up on greens but you must limit the fatty salad dressing.

• Change the proportions on your plate, giving more space to vegetables and whole grains and less to meat.

• Substitute low fat dairy foods, lean meat and fish for cheese and fatty cuts of meat.

• Drink water and tea or coffee without sugar rather than colas and other sugary drinks.

• Look for foods high in water or fiber content, but low in sugar and fat.

• Check out those energy bars for sucrose and fats before you start snacking on them.

Hope these tips help.  Do you have any you might give us? Send them thru the comments and we’ll share them with the rest of the readers.

To your success at healthy aging.
Ruthan Brodsky

Most of us are wise enough to know that it’s not good to be too thin or too heavy. We also know that all other things being equal, if someone smokes or if they have a chronic disease such as diabetes, that’s just going to complicate things.

There was a study in 2006 and another more recent Canadian study that reported overweight people lived longer than normal-weight people. Read the rest of this entry

There is no rule that says getting older means getting sick, being weak and frail, and not having your wits about you. The fact is we are living longer than ever because of advances in medicine and technology. Even so, it still takes some effort on our part to make choices about how we live, what we eat, and what we do to be productive and meaningful and live with good health as we age.

I’ve written these 18 best tips to healthy aging for 2009 because I am participating in a group writing project, “2009 in Review” for Daniel Scocco at http://DailyBlogTips.com and will post them for his project.

1.    Choose a produce rainbow because brightly colored fruits and vegetables contain more nutrients than paler ones.  I suggest dark-colored spinach for a salad rather than iceberg lettuce. Read the rest of this entry