Benefits of exercise

For seven years, Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon tramped all over Florida looking for the Fountain of Youth and never found it. He was so close, too. He was just looking in the wrong place. He should have looked inside his sneakers.
At least that’s my take on recently released studies regarding the benefits of exercise for older people.
Just reading the stuff rattled me out of my comfortable corner of reading escapism literature. The avalanche of health news on exercise repeatedly poked and prodded me to get up and get moving every time another MD discovered that even grandmothers benefited from a bit of brisk movement.
According to the prodders in the research department, a bit of walking blesses the doer with youthful wonders such as improved strength, endurance and cardiovascular health plus, it helps control granny’s blood pressure. “In addition, exercise may reduce the risk of falls and fractures in older adults,” said Janet Vittone, M.D., a geriatrician at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.
It’s folks like Vittone who will keep grandma from knitting everyone a new sweater for Christmas while grandpa settles deep into his lounge chair to watch hours of televised sports. According to the exercise-is-good-for-you gurus, regular physical activity helps ward off the characteristics of aging: loss of strength, heart disease, high blood pressure, mental decline and some forms of cancer.
The Cancer Research Center in Seattle found that moderate exercise reduces the risk of breast cancer 20 percent. The findings are based on data from a study that linked hormone use to breast cancer, heart attacks and strokes. They suggest that exercise may help counteract the slightly increased risk of breast cancer faced by longtime hormone users, said lead researcher Dr. Anne McTiernan of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.
Better yet, exercise is a great way to shed a few pounds and to keep the old ticker moving – plus it also reduces the risk of the loss of mental skills – especially in grandmothers – although the reasons for the gender difference are unclear. The findings come from a five-year study of Canadian men and women aged 65 and older. The study revealed that those who exercised were less likely to develop Alzheimer’s, other forms of dementia or to see a drop-off in their mental abilities, according to the March issue of Archives of Neurology.
The more grandma exercises, the better it is for her brain. Fantastic news in an aging society … of couch potatoes. All we have to do is get up off our duffs, tie on those Fountain of Youth sneakers and get moving.
Enough already, I thought as I shoved aside one more research reminder. I have a hard time fitting it into my schedule of late. About the time I thought that, this proverb popped up on my computer screen: “Those who do not find time for exercise will have to find time for illness.”
All right, all right. I am kicking back the rocker and heading for the closet. I know my Fountain of Youth sneakers are hidden back in there somewhere.