No magic pill for living longer
January 23, 2005
By Craig Stoltz
Daily exercise, nutritious foods top experts’
lists
In addressing the topic of aging well, we wanted to
do a story not on the illnesses associated with aging,
but with how to prevent those illnesses: heart disease,
dementia, diabetes, high blood pressure, arthritis,
osteoporosis and any number of cancers. We braced for
a story exploring the leading edge of genomics, customized
pharmaceuticals, advanced multidimensional imaging and,
we figured, something or other about nanotechnology.
Alas, we were disappointed – or disabused. A
majority of the most conclusive research studies we
found on prevention of age-related disease kept pointing
to the same things: get lots of exercise and enough
sleep. Eat plenty of fruit, vegetables, lean protein
and whole grains; go easy on the fat, sugar and junk.
Don’t smoke at all, and don’t drink alcohol
a lot. Relax.
Although drugs, supplements and other purported “anti-aging”
magic bullets get a lot of attention, the power of simple
lifestyle change is well-known in the disease-prevention
community.
“Prevention” of illness isn’t really
possible, of course. Research shows that certain things
you eat or do can substantially reduce your risk of
getting, say, Alzheimer’s or heart disease. But
many other factors influence whether you get sick or
not: family history. Environmental exposure to things
we can’t avoid or haven’t identified. Subtle
relationships between genes and environment. Obscure
biological processes not yet discovered. In many cases
these things are the most powerful determinants of illness.
Trouble is, you can’t do anything about them.
Until we understand the biology of disease better,
all we know for sure is that a very short list of behaviors
appears to reduce – sometimes substantially –
the likelihood that you’ll get sick and die too
early. As the following report shows, we’re basically
talking about the eat-right/exercise-often/live-clean
stuff you’ve been trying to deny, ignore or avoid
for most of your life.
As a helpful reminder, we detail some of the most powerful
recent findings connecting lifestyle habits and reduced
disease risk. We hope it inspires you, or at least usefully
annoys you.
Be active
• Walking and dementia –
A September study published in the Journal of the American
Medical Association found that elderly women who walked
at least six hours a week or did similar activities
had a 20 percent lower risk of cognitive impairment
than their least active peers. Another September JAMA
study found that older men who walked less than a quarter-mile
per day had almost twice the risk of developing dementia
as men who walked at least two miles per day.
• Exercise and diabetes –
The Diabetes Prevention Program clinical trial published
in 2002 found that people at high risk for type 2 diabetes
cut their risk by almost 60 percent by exercising (about
30 minutes a day) and losing weight (5 percent to 7
percent of body weight).
• Exercise and osteoporosis aerobics
– Walking, weight-bearing or resistance exercises,
particularly if they’re performed for more than
two years, can improve osteoporosis and reduce fractures
in women after menopause, according to a 2004 review
of literature by the Cochrane Library. Endurance exercise
programs lasting six months to two years can prevent
or reverse bone loss in postmenopausal women by almost
1 percent per year, according to a 1999 analysis of
published studies appearing in Osteoporosis International.
• Exercise and colon cancer
– The Surgeon General’s 1996 report on physical
activity and health, citing more than 30 studies, concluded
that physical activity has a protective effect against
the risk of colon cancer. While the association is strong,
whether it is because of the activity or the resulting
weight loss is unclear.
Eat smart
• Diet and high blood pressure
– A federal study showed that a reduced-salt diet
and the DASH diet – rich in fruits, vegetables,
fiber and low-fat dairy, and lower in fats, saturated
fats, red meats, sweets and sugared beverages than a
typical American diet – both reduced blood pressure
substantially in all demographic groups studied. The
two diets together were even more powerful.
• Calcium and colon cancer –
A July National Cancer Institute analysis of 10 previous
studies concluded that people who get about 1,100 milligrams
per day of calcium from food and supplements were 21
percent less likely to get colon cancer than those getting
500 milligrams per day. Among foods alone, drinking
more than eight ounces of milk every day was associated
with a reduced risk of colon cancer, too.
• Diet and heart disease –
A diet composed of seven types of food – fruit,
vegetables, garlic, wine, fish, dark chocolate and almonds
– among people 50 and older was linked to a 76
percent reduction in cardiovascular disease, according
to a study in the December issue of the British Medical
Journal. The meal plan added an average of 6.6 years
to life expectancies.
Control your weight
• Obesity and heart disease
– Framingham Heart Study researchers found that
obese men were 1 1/2 times more likely to develop coronary
heart disease than lean men; obese women were twice
as likely to develop heart disease as lean women, according
to findings published in the American Journal of Cardiology
in 2002.
• Weight gain and stroke –
A 1997 study published in JAMA found a “direct
relationship” between weight gain and stroke risk
in women.
Don’t smoke
• Smoking and cancer, heart disease and
death – As if we had to tell you: Tobacco
accounts for an estimated 30 percent of U.S. cancer
deaths, including the vast majority of lung cancer fatalities.
Smoking increases the risk for cancers of the throat,
mouth, pancreas, kidney, bladder, cervix and more. Smokers’
risk of developing coronary heart disease is two to
four times that of non-smokers. Smokers have twice the
risk of sudden cardiac death as non-smokers.
Get enough sleep
• Sleep and heart disease –
Harvard researchers, publishing in the Archives of Internal
Medicine in 2003, reported that women who got eight
hours of sleep per night had the lowest rates of coronary
heart disease among studied groups. Those who slept
five hours or less per night had a 30 percent greater
risk than the eight-hour group; six hours was linked
to an 18 percent increased risk.
Control your stress
• Stress and heart disease –
A 2002 study of older adults published in Psychosomatic
Medicine found that men with the chronic stress of caregiving
for an ailing spouse were twice as likely to develop
heart disease as other men.
Source:www.fortwayne.com
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