Regular exercise, even initiated late in life, can help fight the effects of aging. Healthy older individuals can substantially increase both strength and endurance with exercise. Some of the physical declines associated with aging, including a gradual decrease in the number of muscle fibers, are thought to be genetic in origin and irreversible. However, others — including reductions in muscle fiber size due to inactivity — are reversible through exercise.

The Texas team examined the results of dozens of studies assessing the benefits of exercise in elderly populations. Among their findings:

– one 1989 study involving individuals in their 70s found that those who exercised regularly regained an average 22% of lost lung capacity within a 6-month span. This achievement effectively restored the exercisers’ daily lung function to levels experienced in their 50s.

– in a 1994 trial, subjects 75 years of age or older increased muscle strength up to 21% after 3 months of resistance training. The Texas authors believe this increase is linked to re-expansion in the size of existing muscle fiber.

– in a study published last year, 40 elderly women used weighted vests during exercise to improve balance, strength and power. The result? All three factors improved “significantly,” according to the Galveston authors.

They conclude that even frail patients of very advanced age can improve muscle strength.

Exercise has even wider benefits to health. Studies repeatedly show that regular, moderate-to-vigorous exercise can help prevent or delay the onset of hypertension, obesity, heart disease, osteoporosis, and the falls that lead to hip fracture. In fact, the authors point to the results of one 1995 study, which found that “(elderly) women who spent less than 4 hours per day on their feet had nearly double the risk” for hip fracture compared with exercising women.

A lifetime of regular aerobic and resistance exercise “is the ideal.” However, the initiation of exercise in adulthood is also beneficial. And they note that although vigorous exercise may provide more cardiovascular benefits, moderate physical activity is nearly as beneficial and conveys less risk of injury. In other words, any form of exercise — even in advanced age — can serve as primary prevention to maintain good physical health.

Behavioral Medicine 1999;24:157-168

Can you really fight wrinkles from the inside out? Yes and there’s a fruit that can help. It’s papaya. What makes papaya so perfect? Easy. Vitamin C. Papaya has loads of it, and getting lots of vitamin C may mean more youthful skin — fewer wrinkles and less thinning and dryness. A recent study in women over 40 confirmed it.

The Mysteries of C

Vitamin C is a natural friend to skin. The nutrient is essential for making collagen, the protein fibers that give skin its strength and resiliency. And being a powerful antioxidant, C also disarms free radicals that would otherwise chip away and weaken collagen. (Did you know? Vitamin C helps protect skin from this sun scourge, too.

More Food for Your Face

A little extra vitamin C isn’t all it takes to plump your complexion. Here are a few more food tips that can help keep your face fresh:

• Munch on walnuts. In the vitamin C study, researchers also noted that diets rich in linoleic acid — an essential fatty acid in walnuts — meant moister, plumper skin. (Bonus: Walnuts will make this happy, too.)
• Ease up on fats and refined carbs. Scientists found both were linked to aging skin. Discover the dark side of processed foods with this article.
• Think whole grains. The magnesium and B vitamins you get from them help with the regeneration of skin cells. Find out what foods are mostly whole grains.
• Keep the fruits and veggies coming. To stay smooth and healthy, your skin needs a whole slew of antioxidant-rich produce. Like this root vegetable.

Read this article for a complete chart of healthy food choices for your skin.

Real Benefit: Eating a diverse diet that includes 4 servings of fruit per day can make your real age as much as 4 years younger.

Source: Dietary nutrient intakes and skin-aging appearance among middle-aged American women

Is there a right way to check your breasts for early signs of cancer? Many women remain confused as experts now say there is no evidence that rigorous monthly “self-examination” — widely recommended in the United States — reduces breast cancer deaths. Plus, it can lead to unnecessary biopsies.

Two large studies looking at a total of more than 388,000 women found that death rates from breast cancer were the same among women who rigorously self-examined as those who did not, while there were almost twice the number of biopsy operations in the self-examination group.

According to some experts, the best way for a woman to check her breasts is not to follow a strict examination routine, but to get to know what is normal, and feel them regularly for signs of any changes.

Sources:  BBC News

In this video, Dr. Mercola interviews Dr. William Grant, Ph.D., internationally recognized research scientist and vitamin D expert, reveals the important role vitamin D plays in your health.

Dr. Grant, whose background is in atmospheric sciences, has applied the ecologic approach to the study of dietary and environmental links to chronic disease. He has worked at the level of senior research scientist at such notable institutions as SRI International, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the NASA Langley Research Center.

More recently, Dr. Grant has uncovered exciting potential for the use of vitamin D in the prevention and treatment of a number of high-incidence cancers found in Western populations. He is the director of the Sunlight, Nutrition and Health Research Center (SUNARC), an entity devoted to research, education, and advocacy relating to the prevention of chronic disease through changes in diet and lifestyle.

Dr. Grant has also authored or coauthored over 60 articles in peer-reviewed journals, edited two books of reprints, and contributed half a dozen chapters to other books.

New research shows that to get an optimal vitamin D supplement from the sun at a minimal risk of getting cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM), the best time of sun exposure is noon.

That means that common health recommendations given by authorities in many countries — that sun exposure should be avoided for three to five hours around noon and postponed to the afternoon — could be wrong and may even promote CMM.

This is in part because the action spectrum for CMM is likely to be centered at longer wavelengths than that of vitamin D generation.

Source: Advanced Experiments in Medical Biology

As you age, it’s common for your arteries to function less efficiently. If your arteries are healthy, they should be “relaxed” or dilated. This means they are less stiff. Age stiffens them. But researchers recently found that a powerful nutrient can relax your arteries and restore their function.

Research has linked accumulation of ceramides to stiffening arteries. Ceramides are fatty deposits that form when undesirable fatty acids hook to a long-chain base. Acids are naturally attracted to their opposites — bases.

Researchers thought that ceramide accumulation might be due to age-related loss of glutathione in endothelial cells (inner lining cells of your arteries).

So, in this study, the researchers measured relaxation in the aorta of experimental old rats. They found that glutathione levels in the lining cells were 30% less than in younger rats. The researchers gave the rats the trademarked form of ALA.

The results were impressive. Arterial relaxation improved. So did glutathione levels. What intrigued me the most was that ceramides levels fell as well. This has far-reaching implications for just about every human health condition.

I’ve told you in the past about the many incredible health benefits of ALA. I’ve also told you about phospholipids, which can soften stiff arteries. My colleagues and I have seen stunning reversals of conditions such as neurological degeneration, autism, Parkinson’s disease, and more. And now we know that ALA can have a similar impact.

Now we learn that ALA reduces ceramide and restores arterial health. The researchers also found that it restores nitric oxide metabolism, which is critical for arterial dilation. I can only say, “Wow!”

There are two types of ALA on the market. The generic ALA and the trademarked variety. I personally don’t feel you need to spend significantly more money for the expensive trademarked form. I’ve found the cheaper ALA simply marvelous. I typically recommend 100-300 mg daily. I think that ALA should be at the top of the list in most anyone’s anti-aging and preservation of health program.

I just found two new studies confirming the amazing health benefits of one of my favorite spices. According to these two new studies, this spice can literally save your heart – especially if you take statins to lower your cholesterol.

The two animal studies show that turmeric (a.k.a., curcumin) can prevent heart failure. In one study, curcumin both prevented and reversed heart enlargement both in test tube heart cells and in living mice. Heart enlargement is a step toward heart failure.

In the second study, researchers were able to confirm the first. They examined curcumin’s effects in living animals with two different heart-failure models. One group had hypertensive heart disease and heart disease salt-sensitive rats. The other had surgically induced myocardial infarction in rats. In both groups, curcumin prevented heart failure. It did so by preventing increases in both heart wall thickness and diameter.

When you consider the epidemic of heart failure we’re seeing today, these studies are huge news. This epidemic is sure to grow with the escalating use of heart failure-promoting statins. Another fact about curcumin that I absolutely love – and you will too – is that it’s dirt cheap. It’s available at any grocery store. And all you have to do is add a tablespoon of curry powder to your meals every day and you’ll get plenty. My wife and I use lots of curry.

Have you ever wondered why some people drop dead of a heart attack when they seemed so healthy? Researchers are discovering why this happens. And, not surprisingly, it has to do with the type of food you eat.

A new study followed 12 healthy men. The researchers gave each of them a high-fat meal. Then they did a blood test for endotoxins. Endotoxin is an inflammatory class of compounds that are in your intestinal bacteria. “Endo” means “within” (meaning your gut). And these gut bacteria are highly toxic, thus the name endotoxins.

Then the researchers tested their blood again four hours after eating, and after smoking three cigarettes.

They found that endotoxins increased by 50% after the high-fat meal regardless of whether they had smoked cigarettes or not. High fat also impaired their ability to clear the endotoxins. That means they will hang around longer. This is important information.

A simple high-fat meal increases this toxic chemical in your blood. These chemicals will lead to endothelial damage in your blood vessels. All of these can cause you to die from a heart attack after eating a high fat meal.

A new study to be published in late July 2008 announced that a high consumption of soy products in elderly Indonesians is associated with poor memory. The media will run with this premise without closely examining the rest of the study. That’s too bad, because soy may not be causing dementia. Declining memory may be due to low levels of a common nutrient.

In this study, researchers studied over 700 Indonesians and concluded that the oldest study participants who ate a lot of soy had increased dementia. The conclusion was: soy should be limited in people over 65.

Soy is high in phytoestrogens – estrogens that come from various plants like whole grains, beans, and flax seed. But you never hear that these foods could contribute to memory loss. The researchers of this study admitted that phytoestrogens may offer neuroprotection to some people – like the young and middle-aged. But it could be contraindicated in people over 65.

At the same time, they found that tempeh, a fermented soy product made from the complete soybean, is associated with improved memory. So they’re not saying that all forms of soy are harmful. Just those that are not fermented.

How could fermented soy foods be helpful and other soy products be harmful? The clue may simply be a common nutrient found to be high in fermented foods and low in older folks: folate (folic acid). “It may be that the interaction between high levels of both folate and phytoestrogens protects against cognitive impairment,” said Professor Eef Hogervorst, head researcher of this study.

Folic acid is found in dark green leafy vegetables and in many supplements. Until we have studies to confirm this connection between folate and soy, I suggest you simply make sure you’re eating plenty of green veggies, especially if you’re eating a lot of non-fermented soy (tofu, soy milk, etc).

Meanwhile, there’s another food group to consider if you want to avoid dementia: These same researchers found that a diet high in fruit lowered the risk for memory loss. No surprise there. Just make sure you’re eating plenty of fruit too.

If you or a loved one struggles with depression, even major depression, there are two  supplements you must take to feel better. New evidence suggests these supplements can greatly enhance your mood and sense of well being.

With the first supplement, researchers studied 60 subjects with major depression. Each had a score of 15 or more on the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating scale. Doctors commonly use it to assess the severity of a patient’s depression.

The researchers randomly assigned the subjects to three groups. They gave the first group 1,000 mg of the omega-3 fatty acid eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). They gave Group 2 the drug fluoxetin (commonly known as Prozac®). And they gave Group 3 a combination of both. The study lasted eight weeks and they evaluated the subjects every two weeks.

Now get this. The EPA alone reduced symptoms by 56%, beating the drug’s improvement of 50%. However, in the group taking both, symptoms improved by a whopping 81%.

It’s not surprising that EPA beat Prozac. We’ve known for years that omega-3s are very effective for mood disorders. But I was surprised to see that both of them together gave far superior results. What’s sad, though, is that you won’t ever hear Big Pharma touting the latter. It would be too threatening to reveal that a nutrient could make their chemical more effective.

What this tells you is that depression is indeed a chemical disorder. I’m sure that with a little research, we might find out what other natural nutrients we can combine with omega-3 to totally replace Prozac. Could it be something as simple as tryptophan, the amino acid that gets converted to serotonin, the neurotransmitter enhanced by Prozac? Don’t count on government or Pharma ever telling you about it though.

The other supplement that can help your depression surprised me when I first heard about it. But it makes sense. It’s probiotics. You know them as the beneficial germs (like acidophilus) that help your digestive tract.

It turns out that they can help your mood as well as your gut. A study on 124 adults (mean age 62 years) found that drinking a probiotic-laden milk improved their mood. Those in the bottom of the “happy” scale were much higher on the scale after taking the probiotics.

If you have depression, consider taking omega-3s and a probiotic. Omega-3s have many health benefits in addition to improving mood disorders. And beneficial organisms provide some beneficial nutrients. More importantly, they modulate your immune system, which is literally an extension of your brain. So it makes sense that they can help your mood.

Yes, you can get probiotics from dairy. But this is one area where I definitely prefer supplements over the food. Most milk today isn’t a whole food. It’s pasteurized and homogenized, and many of the cows receive hormones and antibiotics that get passed through to their milk. And these can cause their own health problems for many. So find a good probiotic to boost your mood.

Here’s a more aggressive approach for fighting depression