alcanoe

For me it was the fitness "egg". Through college I was a couch potato due to chronic Asthma. The result was that after a few years of a high pressure job I developed high blood pressure at 26. My doctor wrote me a prescription for bp medication. I asked if I got on drugs now, what was he going to do for me when I got in my 40's? He said not to worry about. I gave him back the prescription and went home and happened to picked up the latest Readers Digest and read an article written by Billy Grahms doctor. Grahm had had fainting spells. His doctor reasoned that it must be stress and had him jogging. Problem went away. I figured I'd try it and three months later had my pressure measured. It was perfect. I've been doing strenuous aerobics ever since (42 years) and about 30 years of weight training.

I got a new doctor and as luck would have it I got one that had just gotten out of the Air Force. Tyndall, the AF base east of town was apparently the site of some of those 5000+ AF "volunteers" that were participating in the initial research by Dr. Kenneth Cooper who created the jogging craze. My new doctor apparently had done some work with cooper on the project and was now an avid jogger.

Until I had time to bike regularly which did not occur until I retired at 58, the jogging paid of in being able to have a very active lifestyle and do fun things. I also had far more energy than ever and far more than most folk except the other physically fit ones. You also gain a far more positive outlook which makes life in general more fun.

I would agree that the majority will not exercise for health. Some of that is a lack of maturity. Most of that however is due to the lack of information and misleading information like health claims for drugs and advertising. Government policies (the USDA nutrition triangle is a joke) promote obesity and disease, the medical profession lacks any formal training in nutrition, physical fitness and prevention vice cure, Then there's conflict of interests in the medical profession, including the research community, with the medical companies, the meat and dairy industry and the grain industry.

However, there is light at then end of the tunnel. In the first two chapters of Spark is described a school system in Illinois (20,000 students) who have redesigned their gym classes to emphasize individual high aerobics activities vice team actives. Each student wears a heart rate monitor while in gym class and they keep records. Not only have these kids realized far greater health, but their test scores have dramatically improved. On the standardized tests which are used for comparison with foreign students, these kids now score near the top. Florida's Governor Crist is trying to get the same system installed across the Florida school system.

It is now known that regular and strenuous activity builds neural networks. It's the same process I described in an earlier post on this thread. If you stress your brain (thinking) with these additional networks, you gain intelligence.

Personally, I've found being fit, having limitless energy and being relatively quick mentally as a lot of fun. It also saved my life and possibly my mind when I suffered a shredded inner layer of a carotid artery in my early 50's. That's according to the three neurologists who pulled me through. I had a 20% chance of survival and a near zero chance of escaping brain damage. How well I escaped that last part is debatable according to my old boss.

Al

bigjim1

Re-running. So what about all the damage to the joints in later life? Surely it is all about what makes you happy. Now tell me why women live longer as the majority of heavy exercisers are men.

Jim

Terrierman

This is really big news. Exercise is good for you? Who knew?

Yen

More than anything else -- almost even more than riding -- I enjoy feeling good, strong, healthy, and fitting into my clothes too much to let it all go, so even if my activities were boring, I'd do them anyway. There are no words to adequately express the difference in how I feel now compared to how I felt 4 years ago when I was sedentary and overweight.

I went to a meeting the other day with 2 co-workers. One of them (about 10 years older) led us to the elevator to go down ONE FLOOR to the meeting. I said "We're taking the elevator?!? " He explained we'd have to walk a little further if we took the stairs. He asked if there's some reason I don't want to take the elevator.... I explained that I just always take the stairs because it's good exercise. He said it's not much exercise going down stairs. Sigh..................

I'm reading "Younger Next Year" and I'm almost constantly reminded of my dad -- he stayed active (physically and socially), then BAM it was all over in an instant at 88 (like the graph illustrates in the book). But all 88 years were good, healthy, active years.

jiminos

all the studies are important, i suppose. they provide work for scientists. they provide evidence that exercise is something that the potatoes should consider. those of us who are already riding are probably not the primary audience for the study... we already know or at least strongly suspect that exercise has benefits.

that said.... riding is fun. i look forward to every ride... well, almost every ride. when i feel good, it helps me feel even better. when i am not feeling well, the rides help. my daily ride is my mindless escapism. i prefer not to clutter my mind with facts when i am riding. it is a time for cleansing.

.... and there's something kinda fun and cool in looking down at the cyclocomputer and seeing that you are going 30 miles an hour on a flat stretch of road UNDER YOUR OWN POWER!!! it's a feeling of pure accomplishment and unbridled joy!

be well,

jim

alcanoe

That's been my goal since I started exercising; the "BAM" exit strategy.

Al

Pat

Jim,

You never took looked at comparitive physiology have you. You can graph size of an organism against life span on semilog paper and get a straight line. The notion is that increased metabolic rate is inversely related to age.

Elephants fall pretty much on the line. They do not have a long life span, given their size.

But 2 groups of vertebrates are much more long lived than their size and metabolic rates would predict. One of these groups happens to be turtles. I think the galapagos tortoises have the longest lifespans on the planet. I have also heard that they live so long that no one has really been able to get a decent estimate on their lifespan.

The other group is on of the champions of high energy, fast moving life styles: birds. A large cockatoo which is the size of a large squirrel (which has a life span of about 7 years) can live well over a century.

It seems that turtles both have some sorts of adaptations that promote astonishing longevity (in birds it can be 10X what one would predict).

There have been studies on oppossums on lifespan. It seems that oppossums suffering high predation reproduce young and die of old age young. But populations of oppossums that are protected from predation seem to live longer or are selected for longer life spans. So it seems as if there are variations that allow for selection of longevity.

By the way, people are decent on lifespan but not extraordinary like tortoises and parrots. So if you want to live long and prosper, you chose the wrong species.

Pat

Women do not always have longer life expectancies than men. In the 19th century, women had much shorter life expectancies. This was the result of a significant mortality rate in childbirth.

In the 20th century, women live a fair bit longer. I think most of the difference is explained by the fact that women have superior fat metabolisms than men. Men get killed by strokes and heart attacks in excess to women. I have read that the gap is getting smaller because men are taking things like lipitor.

Sometimes what seems to us as a law of nature actually isn't.

xgi

I have lost 122 pounds by just working out. my body and heart is strong i can out run all 11 of my grandkids all day long. not one can touch me on the big hills with my bike

maybe i'll live longer maybe i'll get hit by a bus but have fun that's what's important

Yen

Regular exercise doesn't necessary give you a longer life... mostly, it gives you a better quality of life. You're able to do more, for longer, keep up with the grandkids, keep the mind sharp. It's not a guarantee you'll avoid every disease, but it significantly slows the downward progression and provides better resistance to health and disabilities overall.

bigjim1

knew that I had slipped up somewhere. yet don't think birds are a goo anology. they do not support the heavy exercise theory. They glide during much of their flights, rather like the cyclist cruising downhill. The albotross spends much of it,s life on the wing but it does not flap them that much. The question of the ladies living longer has not been answered. Do you think it can have anything to do with the constant motion concept. Cleaning, cooking, kids demands etc? Whilst we are out hammering the bike for an hour then spending 3 hours watching the magic box? Hmmm.
Jim

brigadon

After Pat raised this issue about the choice of participants in this type of study I wrote to the office of the authors who kindly sent me a copy of the original research paper. Unfortunately, I can't post it here for copyright reasons. It didn't give any useful information about the choice of participants but referred to earlier reports of this study which has been continuing for 20 years.

An earlier report by Prof. Fries of the same study describes the selection of participants in great detail:

https://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/pag...geindex=1#page

A word of warning, this stuff is very heavy going for anyone not familiar with scientific jargon, but it's clear that the authors are very conscious of the problems in analyzing disparate groups and have gone to great lengths to reduce the effects of bias.

There has been a surprising number of studies done on this topic. A Google search for "compression of morbidity" (which is what we're talking about) gives 49,500 results. All studies of this subject (apparently) point to the same conclusions, that moderate to vigorous exercise after age 50 is good for you and will delay the onset of aging related medical conditions. One writer claims that not one published study points to any other conclusion.

As for the credibility of this type of study, Pat is quite correct in warning that great care needs to be taken that they do not contain built-in flaws. This paper and others I came across all freely admit to this and other difficulties in the designing of studies of this kind and are careful to describe their results as suggestive of an association between exercise and health benefits in the elderly, rather than scientifically proven conclusions.

Dchiefransom

This is what I've run into many times in talking to others. Lots of joint damage later in life from running. Maybe a better title for the paper would have referred to cardio exercise as being better for people.

DnvrFox

jff@stanford.edu

Dear Professor Fries,

Your Research and "Elderly"

I found your research regarding exercise and morbidity most interesting.

However, I am concerned over the use (overuse) or terms such as "elderly," "senior," "older," and the like.

They have no specific meaning, and are generally defined in the eyes of the beholder. So, a 20 year-old might define "elderly" as someone who is 50, and someone who is 50 might define "elderly" as 70, and someone 70 might define "elderly" as someone 80.

How about using phrases such as "Over 65" or "Over 80" or whatever is appropriate to the subjects studied?

I am,

Yours truly,


Denver C. Fox, Ed.D.
Someone who is 68, bicycles 125 miles per week, swims 3 miles per week, weight lifts several hours per weeks, and enjoys walking and singing (a very aerobic exercise, also) and who is definitely NOT "elderly."

Please also see our large 50+ bicycling forum composed of others similar to me.

https://www.bikeforums.net/fifty-plus-50/

BikeArkansas

I will bring up another aspect to fitness. In about a month I will have reached two years of riding a bicycle. The changes for me have been big. A total weight loss of 30+ pounds, a different body shape and I am no longer on any medicine. All of this has been expressed by others on this forum. This other aspect of fitness is a feeling that I am viewed differently by people I come into contact with during both business and personal contacts.

I am asked constantly about my "new" body. "What did you do." "Tell me how to have a fit body like yours at age 59." These are the types of comments I get. Even more so are the ones that do not comment, but seem to approach me differently. There are so many people in our country that are so out of shape. A person at our ages in good condition is actually "refreshing".

Am I the only one that has seen this, or is this a normal experience?

ollo_ollo

Very interesting. Wonder what the results would be if we combined regular exercise with lower caloric intake? https://starbulletin.com/2004/08/31/news/story4.html

alcanoe

It's an old concept, There is a group of believers that are nearly starving themselves to live longer. Animal studies have shown some promise. The problem I have with it is the relative risks of all-cause age-adjusted mortality for both fit and non-fit men is higher for lean men (< 16.7% body fat) then it is for normal and obese men (> 25% body fat). It's like 30% higher than for normal men. Not a good sign. This is from fig. 9.9, Physical Activity and Health (edited by Bouchard, Blair & Haskell).

Dr Ratey (MD) indicates in Spark that fasting may cause sufficient cell damage to stimulate the body's repair process like exercise does. Once initiated, the repair process also repairs the age-related decay and hence less degenerative disease and a longer life span.

I can't imagine living with that low an energy level. It would be tough to exercise suffiently hard to get into carb burning (vice fat burning) intensity which is beneficicial from a health/longevity perspective. Those (too) lean non-fit individuals have twice the relative risk of dying than the fit (too) lean individuals (fig 9.9).

Al

oilman_15106

Similar article in our rag today - Pittsburgh Post Gazette - "Experts Agree: Run Long, Live Long".

The one thing that I thought was interesting was this: "You have to exercise a lot - at 60 to 85% of you max heart rate for 40 min or more 5 times a week - to reduce significantly your risk of death."

Honey, I need to ride at least 5 times a week according to the experts.

JoeMan

For more and detailed information go to I Tunes and download the free podcasts titled Fitness Rocks. This podcast is hosted by a MD and has scads of interesting interviews with health researchers and reviews of credible studies. Basically for a male its exercise for 199 minutes a week. Its easier for me to maintain my HR while running rather than biking. I run and swim to support my biking.
Run for your life and exercise as if your life depended on it!