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Aging News & Information
Never Too Late for Elderly to Improve Their Health,
Stop Major Diseases
‘Many elderly people feel that it is too late for
them to improve their health, but that is simply not true.’
 Dec. 14, 2007 – The author of a new study of
scientific data about senior citizens claims he has an important message
for the elderly: It's not too late to improve your health through diet
and exercise, even if you've had an unhealthy lifestyle in the past!
Published in the November issue of the American
Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the report surveyed scientific literature
and found that adults, 65 and older, can have significant health
improvements with simple and realistic lifestyle changes. It found that
risk can be reduced for many diseases—including obesity, cancer,
cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis.
"I think this is an extremely important and
positive message," says the paper's lead symposium editor, Dr. Richard
S. Rivlin, professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and
attending physician at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell.
"Many elderly people feel that it is too late for
them to improve their health, but that is simply not true."
Dr. Rivlin analyzed how the elderly can ward off
risks to their health late in life by improving body composition -
lowering fat and boosting muscle mass. Adhering to a low-calorie and
low-fat diet - high in vegetables and fruits - with a regular exercise
plan, can help the elderly stave off the diseases of aging.
"When measures to combat chronic disease are
started in one's 60s and 70s, there are still definite benefits," says
Dr. Rivlin.
"But older adults must realize that there is no
quick fix. They must change their lifestyles."
Specific findings:
● Lowering high blood pressure or hypertension—a
major risk for cardiovascular disease—through improved diet and exercise
had more dramatic health benefits for the elderly than for any other age
group. Control of hypertension could potentially prevent one-fifth of
coronary heart disease cases in men, and 30 percent in women.
● Older adults who adhered to a low-calorie diet
with regular exercise had lower rates of cancer. In one study, risk was
reduced by nearly 50 percent.
● Benefits of weight training include increased
ability to burn calories and prevention of osteoporosis.
● Calcium and vitamin D supplements for seniors
helped slow rates of bone loss and reduce the number of bone fractures.
"Our study reviews and presents the most up-to-date
information showing the influence a healthy lifestyle may have on
cardiovascular disease, cancer and osteoporosis," says Dr. Rivlin.
"I also believe that the risk for other diseases,
like diabetes and pulmonary disease, can also be avoided through later
intervention. But, the earlier, the better."
Information included in the report was culled and
updated during a symposium of peer-reviewed, selected proceedings of a
Harvard College 50th Reunion, held in Cambridge, MA, June 6–9, 2005.
Other contributors include, Dr. Robert S. Blacklow,
co-editor, Department of Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Dr.
Robert S. Lees, Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of
Technology; and Dr. Kilmer S. McCully, Department of Veterans Affairs
Medical Center, West Roxbury, Mass.
For more information, patients may call (866) NYP-NEWS.
About NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell
Medical Center
Located in New York City, it claims to be one of
the leading academic medical centers in the world, comprising the
teaching hospital NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medical
College, the medical school of Cornell University. NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill
For more information, visit
www.nyp.org
and
www.med.cornell.edu.
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