Why it's never too late to exercise. Ask anyone to guess which age group is least likely to be meeting recommended physical activity guidelines, and they'll opt for children.
So here's a statistic that may surprise you: in 2007, 72% of boys and 63% of girls aged 2-15 met the '60 minutes a day, every day' target. Grown-ups (aged 16-64) didn't fare so well - with 40% of men and just 28% of women achieving the recommended level of physical activity for adults (five or more sessions of 30 minutes' moderate activity a week). But it's older people who sit firmly at the bottom of the class. Can Exercise Keep You Young? We all know that physical activity is beneficial in countless ways, but even so, Dr.
Mark Tarnopolsky, a professor of pediatrics at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, was startled to discover that exercise kept a strain of mice from becoming gray prematurely. Getty Images But shiny fur was the least of its benefits. Physical activity linked to lower rates of cognitive impairment. Engaging in regular physical activity is associated with less decline in cognitive function in older adults, according to two studies published Online First by Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
The articles are being released on July 19 to coincide with the International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease in Paris and will be included in the July 25 print edition. Aerobic exercise may reduce the risk of dementia, researchers say. Any exercise that gets the heart pumping may reduce the risk of dementia and slow the condition's progression once it starts, reported a Mayo Clinic study published this month in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
Researchers examined the role of aerobic exercise in preserving cognitive abilities and concluded that it should not be overlooked as an important therapy against dementia. The researchers broadly defined exercise as enough aerobic physical activity to raise the heart rate and increase the body's need for oxygen. Examples include walking, gym workouts and activities at home such as shoveling snow or raking leaves. "We culled through all the scientific literature we could find on the subject of exercise and cognition, including animal studies and observational studies, reviewing over 1,600 papers, with 130 bearing directly on this issue.
We attempted to put together a balanced view of the subject," says J. Exercise Improves the Sleep Older Adults. FYI Health Tip Exercising daily helps you sleep at night!
Quality Of Sleep Impacted By Physical Activity. Clock Turned Back on Aging Muscles, Researchers Claim. Scientists have found and manipulated body chemistry linked to the aging of muscles and were able to turn back the clock on old human muscle, restoring its ability to repair and rebuild itself, they said today.
The study involved a small number of participants, however. And the news is not all rosy. Importantly, the research also found evidence that aging muscles need to be kept in shape, because long periods of atrophy are more challenging to overcome. Older muscles do not respond as well to sudden bouts of exercise, the scientists discovered. And rather than building muscle, an older person can generate scar tissue upon, say, lifting weights after long periods of inactivity. The findings are detailed today in the European journal EMBO Molecular Medicine. More research would be needed before any anti-aging products might result from the work, however. Cheating Father Time: 50-year-old can be every bit as fit as someone 30 years younger, but exercise is key. Who is likely to be fitter: a lazy 20-year-old or an active 50-year-old?
New research from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's K.G. Jebsen Center of Exercise in Medicine provides statistical evidence that the 50-year-old can be every bit as fit as someone 30 years younger. But exercise -- how much, and how intense -- is the key, say K.G. Jebsen Center researchers. Middle-aged exercise buffs who might be discouraged by the effects of aging on their overall fitness can take heart in research from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's (NTNU) K.G.
The study shows that by increasing the intensity of your exercise, you can beat back the risk of metabolic syndrome, the troublesome set of risk factors that can predispose people to type 2 diabetes, stroke and cardiovascular problems. Largest fitness database in the world Age and fitness The underpinnings of the K.G. Time had not been so charitable to these men. Don't Mess With Ernestine Shepherd. Taut abs and rippling muscles aren't exactly the stuff grandmothers are known for.
But then again neither are marathons and cell phones that play the theme to "Rocky. " At 73, Ernestine Shepherd is in better shape than most people decades her junior. Up at 3 a.m. every morning, she spends her days running, lifting weights and working out other senior citizens at the Union Memorial United Methodist Church in Baltimore. She also works as a certified personal trainer at her gym. Seniors Can Still Bulk Up On Muscle By Pressing Iron. Hide captionSandy Palais, 73, of Arizona started lifting weights about 10 years ago after she was diagnosed with osteoporosis.
Jason Millstein for NPR Sandy Palais, 73, of Arizona started lifting weights about 10 years ago after she was diagnosed with osteoporosis. As we age, our muscle mass decreases at surprising rates. According to Dr. Physical fitness trumps body weight in reducing death risks, study finds. If you maintain or improve your fitness level -- even if your body weight has not changed or increased -- you can reduce your risk of death, according to research reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
In a study of 14,345 adult men, mostly white and middle or upper class, researchers found that: Maintaining or improving fitness was associated with a lower death risk even after controlling for Body Mass Index (BMI) change.