Go jogging-and eat carrots – to boost longevity once you hit 70!

Another study has found that exercise – like jogging, walking, or swimming- and consuming vegetables could increase your lifespan once you hit 70. The study, published by Emily J. Nicklett, et al, in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, followed more than 700 women in their 70’s in the Pittsburgh area, over a 5-year period.

“The present study found that physical activity and total serum carotenoids are strong and independent predictors of survival in older women living in the community. This offers preliminary support for the hypothesis that a diet high in fruit and vegetables, as reflected by high total serum carotenoid concentrations, combined with high physical activity would each demonstrate a protective association with 5-year mortality independent of one another. Therefore, exercise and nutrition should both be analyzed when assessing the health and projected life span of older women. Programs and policies to promote longevity should include interventions to improve nutrition and physical activity in older adults.”

The most physically active study participants -in other words, the ones who exercised the most – were nearly twice as likely to survive over the 5-year period as were the sedentary ones.

The authors conclude that even though they’ve shown that exercise and carotenoid intake will prolong life,

“…further work is required to validate and extend these findings in other populations so that appropriate groups can be targeted for interventions that incorporate diet and physical activity. The implications of this work are that interventions should combine improvements in diet and physical activity—rather than examine changes in isolation—to improve survival in older populations.”

Should Joggers Pace for the Long-Term?

If you train and compete hard in the early part of your life, does that leave less gas in the tank in the latter part of your life?

That’s the interesting question raised by Gina Kolata in her NY Times Health blog this week:

“There are no definitive data on this question, but there are some suggestive findings, said Dr. Vonda Wright, an orthopedic surgeon and exercise researcher at the University of Pittsburgh.

Dr. Wright’s study of senior Olympians — athletes age 50 and older who participated in the National Senior Olympic Games, a track and field event — found what she considers a surprisingly small rate of decline in performance until age 75: just a few percent a year in their times. After that, though, the athletes slowed down considerably.

She asked the athletes when they began participating in sports. In her survey, 95 percent said they were active in sports when they were teenagers and 85 percent said they were active as young adults.

But the survey did not ask what sports they played when they were younger — the same sports or different ones from those they were competing in now — or when they began to compete (it is likely that many of the women, growing up before Title IX, did not compete when they were young). Both factors bear on whether late-blooming athletes have an advantage as they get older.”

Her piece goes on to quote another researcher who suggests that VO2Max rates drop more rapidly in older people who were once athletic compared to those who were sedentary.

There was a maxim around my home when I was growing up (which applied to everything from alcohol, to food, to exercise): “everything in moderation”. My gut tells me it could serve us exercise addicts well.

There’s no arguing that accumulated injuries and  psychological fatigue are factors. But does the human body also come with a maximum number of lifetime kilometres? If Anton Krupicka circles the globe three times before he turns 50, can he expect to do it again after the age 50?

As a sports journalist, I’ve been inspired by the stories of so many athletes, from the Olympic backstroker who won gold in Barcelona in 1992, to the 85-year-old triathlete who won his age category gold at the World Masters Championships 1999. That the swimmer never swan again after the Olympics and the triathlete only began his training in his late 50’s surely have affected my view on this.

Kilimanjaro or bust!

This Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons image is from the user Chris 73

Former Olympic swimmer Dan Thompson begins his trek in Tanzania Thursday, and I’m wondering why I didn’t think of that myself?
What’s best way to draw attention to a local cause? Would you climb Kilimanjaro to save the pool down the street?