It’s no myth that on average, weight goes up and fitness levels go down as we get older. But there’s nothing that says you have to be average – especially as being average in the area of middle age fitness is putting yourself at significantly higher risk of illness and even death.
The largest-ever long-term study of physical fitness change in United Stated clearly illustrated the correlation between aging, weight, and fitness. The study, conducted by the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research, monitored over 2,000 men and women at four research sites across the United States, starting when the participants were 18 to 30 years of age. The participants’ fitness levels were tracked for twenty years as they moved from young adulthood into middle age … and the news wasn’t good.
As age increases, fitness and activity levels plunge …. and risk factors soar
As the participants aged, their physical activity dropped by an average 18 percent. This change set off an alarming domino effect: by the end of the study the participants’ physical fitness levels had declined by an average 28 percent and their weight increased by an average 20 percent. According to the researchers, these changes put the participants at significantly greater risk of illness and death.
KPNCDR Associate Director for Clinical Research Stephen Sidney said the study unmistakeably showed the importance of staying physically active as we grow older. Noting that though we can’t control aging, he stressed that our level of physical activity definitely is something we can control. And the degree to which we do maintain fitness in middle age can play an enormous role in determining our health and well-being for the rest of our lives.
Mid-life fitness clearly shown to reduce risk factors
In recent years science has shown that a host of natural aging-related changes once considered inevitable can be reduced, delayed, or offset by maintaing a healthy weight and moderate-to-high physical activity level. Slowing of the metabolism, loss of muscle tone and bone density, reduced flexibility, and even cardiac ailments and irregularities have all been shown to respond dramatically to a regular regimen of increased physical activity. Higher levels of fitness also correspond to lower incidence of non-insulin dependent diabetes, osteoprosis, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular disease.
And it’s not just the body that benefits from middle age fitness – it also significantly reduces the risk of dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease, depression and other mood disorders.
The encouraging news is that it seems it really is never too late to start. A regular regimen of physical activity leads to increased fitness at any age, resulting in remarkably positive physical and mental health improvements in even the very old.
