Article on Netscape.Net - August 20, 2004

Best (and Cheapest) Way to Hide Your Age 

Forget the expensive facial creams and the
out-of-the-way weekend spa trips. If you want to
feel and look younger, all you need to do is
exercise for 30 minutes a day most days of the
week.

Regular exercise not only reduces the risk of heart
disease, diabetes, and even cancer, but also will
keep you feeling and looking younger as you age,
reports HealthDayNews. Best of all, it's never too
late to dip into this fountain of youth.

The problem is that not enough people are doing it--especially those over 65. Only 11 percent of seniors engage in strength training two or more days a week and only 6 percent meet the national objectives for physical activity. Even minimal efforts at exercise will offer big payoffs. "Many of the chronic health conditions we experience as we age come from disuse rather than aging, and exercise can retard the onset of many of those conditions," Colin Milner, head of the International Council on Active Aging, a trade association of more than 3,500 organizations that specializes in senior fitness, told HealthDayNews reporter Kathleen Doheny.

This means YOU. When you hit the big 5-0, you start to lose 12 percent of your muscle strength and 6 percent of your muscle mass every 10 years. Weight training can reverse this--in just two to three months, according to University of Maryland kinesiologist Ben Hurley. You'll never regain the strength you had at age 18, but you can become much stronger--be it to carry your groceries without straining or to run a marathon.

Fitness is not just for the young. "I think people are starting to understand you don't stop moving when you hit 40 or 50," Dr. Jack Higgins told HealthDayNews. Higgins is vice president for health promotion for Fifty-Plus Lifelong Fitness, a Palo Alto, California-based organization devoted to the promotion of physical activity for adults at midlife and beyond. "Much of what happens with aging, what goes wrong with the body, is due to under use rather than wear and tear," he said.

He recommends starting out with walking and then adding strength training, such as using weight machines or free weights.