March 26, 2020
Volume 50 - No. 13
Get more Living out of Life
(
It’s Not A Dirty Word
)
Exercise!
By Pete Peterson
You’ve heard the jokes: “Whenever I think about exercising, I lay down until the obsession passes.”
And: “I didn’t make it to the gym yesterday. That makes 5 years in a row.” How about this one:
Senior Citizen: “Doctor, I have to stop exercising.” Doctor: “Why so?”
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Senior Citizen: “Because every time I do it, my face gets flushed, my heart beats faster, I sweat profusely and can hardly breathe.”
Funny, right? Lifestyle authorities say joke all you want, but it’s a fact that as we age, our muscle mass begins to decrease. In some of us, this deterioration begins in our thirties; for others it’s the early forties. The fact is, we lose 3-5% of vital muscle mass with each subsequent decade of living. Why is this a bad thing?
Simple. Strong muscles are essential to one’s ability to maintain balance. Plus, bone strength helps with mobility. It’s no surprise that injuries sustained in falls are a major hazard to senior citizens, a leading cause to compromised independence. Inability to remember dates, times and faces, also arise with lack of exercise. The good news is that scientists have found that brain neurons, those special cells that perform the necessary functions to keep us alive and help us think and remember, increase after just a few short weeks of reg-
Exercise! See Page 2
ular exercise. In fact, some researchers found that when individuals walk at least five blocks three or more times a week, dementia was 35% lower than those seniors who performed no physical activity. Dr. Ben Kaiden of KaiserPermanente says, “The ‘Magic Bullet’ regarding longevity seems to be exercise. A minimum of two and a half hours – ninety minutes each week of moderate activity reduces high blood pressure, strengthens the heart and con-