The greatest quest for the anti-ageing formula is I believe getting closer. The advances in vitamin supplementation - lifestyle changes and most of all the recognition of weight bearing exercise and the effect it has on releasing our natural growth hormone which helps keep us young with great skin tone, less body fat, more energy and a great zest for life. This natural hormone diminishes as we pass 25 years of age with increased levels of body fat, the system gets sluggish and skin and hair losing its vibrancy. Science has now proven that with light weight training and cardiovascular work we can simulate the release of natural growth hormones with 3 hours of progressive movements done on a weekly basis, plus slightly changing our diet to eat less of the high glycine foods, for example white bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, sweetcorn and sugar, beer etc. These foods slow down our progress. Our diet programme and exercise routine will be included over the next few issues so just follow the simple tests and see how you fare out.
Diagnosing your ageing rate
1. Skin Elasticity Test: Loss of skin elasticity starts to be significant around age forty-five and is a result of the underlying deterioration of the connective tissue, such as collagen and elastin, under the skin surface. The loss of skin tone contributes to the wrinkling and loose skin around the jowls and neck. To do the test, pinch the skin on the back of your hand between the thumb and forefinger for five seconds. Then time how long it takes to flatten out completely. Average rates per age: between forty-five and fifty years - five seconds; sixty years, ten to fifteen seconds; seventy years - thirty-five to fifty-five seconds. There are large individual variations, so don't take this test too seriously. Use it mostly as a gauge to see how you are doing.
2. Falling Ruler Test. This is a test of your reaction time, which falls off sharply with age. Slow reaction time is what kills off old animals in the jungle and old people in city streets when they fail to step out of the way of a quick turning car. To do the test, buy an eighteen-inch wooden ruler. Have someone suspend the ruler by holding it at the top (larger number down) between your fingers. The thumb and middle finger of your right hand (use your left hand if you're a lefty), should be three and a half inches apart, equidistant from the eighteen inch mark on the ruler. The person lets the ruler go without warning and you must catch it between your fingers as quickly as possible. Do this three times and average your score. (For instance, if you catch it at the three-inch, six-inch, and six-inch marks, your score is three plus six plus six, divided by three, which equals five). The average score at age twenty is the eleven-inch mark, descending to six-inch mark at age sixty.
3. Static Balance Test: This is a test of how long you can stand on one leg with your eyes closed before falling over. There is a 100 per cent decline on average from age-twenty to age eighty. To do the test stand on a hard surface (not a rug) with both feet together. You should be barefoot or wearing an ordinary low-heeled shoe. Have a friend close by to catch you if you fall over. Close your eyes and lift your foot (left foot if you are right-handed and right foot if you are left-handed) about six inches off the ground, bending your knee at about a forty-five-degree angle. Stand on your other foot without moving or jiggling it. Have some one time how long you can do this without either opening your eyes or moving your foot to avoid falling over. Do the test three times and take an average. A young person can usually hold a one-legged, eyes-closed stance for thirty seconds or more, while an old person usually falls over within a few seconds.
4. Visual Accommodation Test: This test shows you why most people by the time they are forty-five are reaching for their half glasses or bifocals. With age, the lens of the eye becomes progressively less elastic, resulting in presbyopia, or nearsightedness. While this is not as accurate a test of visual accommodation as your eye doctor can do, it will give you some idea of the effect of age on your vision. To do the test, slowly bring a newspaper to your eyes until the regular-size letters start to blur. Have someone measure the distance between the eyes and the paper with a ruler. At age twenty-one, this distance will be within four inches; at thirty years, within five and a half inches; at age forty, nine inches; at age fifty, fifteen inches; at age sixty, thirty-nine inches. Do this either without glasses or with glasses corrected for distance (not reading glasses). It is not how well you can read the print, but at what point it starts to blur.
These are only guidelines, so check with your physician or trainer to improve on all these tests. It can be achieved
Ageing agony
For years people have been claiming to be too old for exercise even in their 30s. This is absolute nonsense. Age is no barrier when striving for improvement. The benefits outweigh any small effort you put in namely: looking good, having lots of energy and an overall sense of well-being.
A lot has been said about the tremendous value of exercise in boosting overall health but exercise can also be used to reduce the risk and complications of specific health problems. Of course, exercise is not the panacea: there is still controversy about the role of exercise in preventing common diseases such as breast and prostrate cancer and stroke. But physical activity can make a major difference in the risk of some diseases.
Coronary Heart Disease
Beyond doubt, physical activity cuts the rate of coronary heart disease. The greater the "dose", the greater the effect. The more physical activity you participate in, the lower your risk. Couch potatoes are 80 percent more likely to develop coronary disease than the most active people.
High Blood Pressure
Exercise cuts the risk of getting hypertension in half, and also helps lower existing high blood pressure. Just as in the case of overall conditioning, a little exercise goes a long way. Even moderate amounts of physical activity reduce blood pressure in people with hypertension. While exercise does produce meaningful reductions in blood pressure, it rarely solves the entire problem on its own. Medications and other treatments may be needed in addition to physical activity to bring blood pressure into a desirable range. Physical activity should be considered as an important adjunct to the treatment of hypertension, not as a sole remedy.
Colon and Rectal Cancer
The bulk of scientific evidence shows that an increase in physical activity protects against colon cancer - but not against rectal cancer.
Diabetes and Related Problems
Many older people have what's known as "type 2" or non insulin - dependent diabetes. This form of the disease is generally treatable with diet and oral medications rather than with insulin injections. By the age of sixth-five, about 40 per cent of the population has high blood sugar and many have a condition known as Syndrome X, or insulin resistance syndrome. This is usually accompanied by a large potbelly, high blood pressure, and high blood fats. What does all this have to do with exercise? Physical activity cuts the risk of all these health problems, thereby cutting the risk of heart disease and stroke. Many people are surprised to learn that both weight lifting and aerobic exercise help reduce these risks. For many years, aerobic exercise alone got all the credit.
Arthritis
Many people believe that exercise causes arthritis by placing stress on the joints. But in fact moderate regular exercise often relieves arthritis pain and disability - particularly the pain of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. These days, exercise is used as a key tool in the treatment of severe arthritis. Again, both aerobic and resistance exercises are helpful.
Osteoporosis
Osteoporosis, or loss of bone density, is a major cause of disability in post-menopausal women. It can lead to painful and even life threatening fractures. Weight-bearing exercise such as walking, dancing, or lifting weights has long been viewed as a potential means of counteracting the age-related reduction in mineral density that occurs after menopause. The hope was that exercise would protect bones and decrease the likelihood of fracture. However, despite the substantial amount of research in this area, the jury is still out on the value of exercise alone in thwarting the age-related reduction in bone strength. We believe that physical activity offers some benefits and that the more intense the activity, the greater the gains. But to keep up a running theme, a little goes a long way. One recent study in women aged fifty to seventy found that bone density increased in both the hip and spine with twice-weekly strength training over the course of a year.
Falls and Balance
There is more to preventing fracture than reversing age-related reductions in the strength of bones. In general, you don't fracture your hip if you don't fall. While physical activity including both aerobic and resistance exercise may be of value in improving bone strength, it may make an even greater contribution by improving balance and strength, and promoting the ability to walk and climb stairs without assistance, thereby cutting the risk of falls. The equation is a simple one: exercise equals better strength and balance, which equals fewer fractures. And happily, variety is the spice of life.
Nutrition in Old Age
Its well known that many children eat poorly, replacing milk with soft drinks and trading their sandwiches for sweets at school. Many older people eat poorly as well - for a variety of reasons. A combination of long-term bad habits, sometimes poverty, dental problems, and often lack of knowledge about the nutritional requirements of ageing all play a part.
For most older people, the same general nutritional guidelines proposed for younger adults continue to make sense. There are, however some specific age-related changes and health older persons should be aware of and that might change one's nutritional requirements over time.
Calories
Over time, ageing men and women progressively lose muscle mass, which means that it takes fewer calories just to live and function normally. The so-called basal metabolic rate, that is the energy we use to perform basic body functions drops by about 10 per cent by the age of seventy five years. Add to that the fact that older people are less physically active and the result is substantial decline in the caloric needs of older adults. This means that you either have to eat less to maintain your weight or exercise more so you can consume the calories you are used to having.
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