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When you fulfill this prescription you will feel 10 to 20 years younger and do things you haven't been able to do for many years. When I talk or write about this I sometimes feel like I should be standing on the back of a horse drawn wagon in the middle of the Wild West hawking my snake oil remedy. This is not a hoax. This prescription works. How much would you be willing to pay for this remedy, one hundred dollars, perhaps a thousand, if you had the money, maybe ten thousand? What is the price you would pay for what I'm offering? Put your money away, I'm not selling you anything except an idea. What this prescription contains each of you can have at a cost you will determine, not me.

Exercise for Healthier Aging

This speaks of the many aspects of staying in shape. Most of us know of the benefits of running or walking. We eke out the time we have, sharing it with our jobs and families. But if all we do is one thing, run, walk, or bike, we're shortchanging ourselves. Good health needs cross training and resistance training (weight training).

A study conducted at the University of Colorado at Boulder looked at 11 men and women aged 70 to 92. These elderly people, average age of 80, spent six months in an exercise program that involved pumping iron. Under close supervision they lifted weights that for them were fairly heavy. By the end of the study all the participants showed considerable gains in balance and strength, some of the women more than doubled their strength in certain areas. Dr. William Simpson, Professor of Family Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina says, "If we stay active, many of the things that supposedly decline with age really don't decline." Study after study bears this out. For example, researchers measured the effects of aging on 756 athletes aged 35 to 94, who participated in events such as rowing and swimming and track and field during the 1985 World Masters Games in Toronto. Terence Kavanagh, M.D., Director of the Toronto Rehabilitation Center and principal author of the study says, "We found some people in their late sixties and seventies who had about the same cardiopulmonary fitness as you would expect form sedentary 25 year olds." When compared to sedentary people their own age, they averaged twice the cardiopulmonary fitness. Plus, they had more lean body mass and stronger cardiovascular system. But what is most astounding is the amount of effort that went into getting them in such good shape. Most trained less than 7 hours a week in preparation for the games. That's less than one hour a day. They were people who were interested in having a good time and weren't fanatical trainers in any sense. It seems that even moderate exercise can push functional aging back 10 years. Exercise can help you to live longer but more importantly, at least to me, you can live healthier.

Many people become disabled at 65 and die at 85. Those who keep active seem to remain healthy until they die. The quality of life remains high.

A Prescription for Youth

Studies show that the signs we traditionally link with aging, increased body fat, weak muscles, a shrinking skeleton are all simply a result of being less active as we grow old. This is the prescription for staying healthy and growing old gracefully. Will you use it?

Aging is in your Mind and your Muscles

Research shows that aging is not a product of time...

Arthritis studies during the last ten years consistently show that low-impact exercise such as swimming, biking or walking improves muscle strength, builds stamina and allows joints to move better with less pain and swelling. It allows some people to cut back on anti-inflammatory drugs. Plus, exercise can replace feelings of fatigue and depression with new energy and a sense of hope and control.

Give your joints a lube job. We know that without movement the fluid in our joints dries up. Movement produces synovial fluid, the oil for our joints. There are many exercises you can do even if you have arthritis. The magic formula in any arthritis exercise program is to increase joint flexibility, muscle strength and stamina without stressing your joints. When you're in pain it takes a great deal of gumption to get going. The good news is once you get going you will not want to go back. The benefits of a changing lifestyle are many. You will look better, feel better and have more energy. You will have a more positive outlook on your life. You will feel better about yourself.

Ω Learn more about exercises and treatments for Arthritis

Osteoporosis is a disease that affects mostly women after the age of 35. Up until that time the body is building bone; after 35 women begin to lose bone mass. By the age of 65, the average woman can lose one-quarter of her bone mass. Over her lifetime a woman can lose 35 to 60 percent of her bone. But, exercise and weight training can reverse that trend. It seems that the bones that are most susceptible to breaking gain bone mass. Once you begin any exercise program you must stick to it. Repeated studies show that people who have increased their bone mass through exercise, lost bone density if they stopped.

Wellness begins with a Positive Attitude

A woman from California who took up downhill skiing at 30 and classical ballet at 40 and now spends her time mountain climbing, says, "Everyone thinks I've been to a spa. It sometimes startles me when I remember I'm over 50. The concept of old just doesn't relate to my life. People say, ‘Gee, you look good for 50', and I always think, ‘This is what 50 is supposed to look like." What is your vision of what you should look like at 50, 60, or 80 and 90? You will most likely become your vision. You will need to form your vision before anything will change.

If you feel comfortable with it, close your eyes take a couple of deep breaths, let your mind settle, find a peaceful place. Think of how you would LIKE to look in 5, 10 or 20 years; how you would like to feel, what you would like to be able to do. Think about this, it's your ideas and dreams of what and where you would like to be that will count. Some of you may know where you want to be while some of you may need more time to form your ideas, your vision. But you need a vision. None of us can get to where we want to go if we don't have a destination. All of this is self-care. Taking care of you. For whatever reason, we put ourselves on the bottom of list and we rarely have enough hours in our day to get to the bottom of that list.

It's easier to do what we like to do. Perhaps that's running, for me it is. On the other hand weight training can be a bore. I do it because I have a bad back.

I was out of work for almost a year. I could not sleep for more than an hour at a time. I would wake up in pain. My incentive is to remember what that time in my life was like. If I take a week or two off, I begin to feel the old pains. I would rather feel the new pains of sore muscles than the old pains. Also, I know I feel stronger and have more energy when I lift on a regular basis.

Each of us needs to find our own motivation and vision. We know that exercise on a regular basis will keep us healthier and happier into our mature years. Are you willing to find, or make the time to do what is necessary?