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Photograph courtesy of David L. Brown Productions
Legendary surfing pioneer Woody Brown, 89, is one of the subjects of the award-winning film 'Surfing for Life,' co-produced by David L. Brown and Roy Earnest.
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It's never too late to begin living an active, healthy life
By Rita Baum
It is time to be old, to take in sail. Take in sail? Emerson's words are contrary to the recommendations of today's fitness experts, and are not heeded by many older Americans. Certainly not by Woody Brown, the 89-year-old surfer, who plays a starring role in a new award-winning film, Surfing for Life. Woody and fellow surfer Rabbit Kekai, age 79, were among the first to ride Waikiki's 25-foot waves. Active all his life, Brown now lives in Hawaii with his wife and 11-year-old son. In addition to surfing, he keeps busy teaching and volunteering at the local adult day care center.
What's the moral of the story? Maintaining a positive attitude and staying physically and mentally active improves your chances of living a long and happy life, without serious health problems or dementia. Yet in spite of the evidence confirming the benefits of exercise, only 22 percent of people over age 65 make any effort to change their sedentary habits, putting themselves at risk of heart disease, obesity, diabetes and other maladies.
A study described in the New England Journal of Medicine sampled 72,000 women between ages 40 and 65, and found that women who walked briskly three hours per week cut the risk of heart attack by 30 percent, while walking five hours each week cut the risk by more than 40 percent. Add to that heavy housework or gardening once a week, and the risk of heart attack is cut by 50 percent. Studies of men produced similar results and also showed evidence of better balance and reduced risk of falls or the development of a slowing or shuffling gait.
Bicyclist: Betty Olsen
Even people who have been sedentary most of their lives reap immediate health benefits when they start exercising. Campbell bicyclist Betty Olsen whose story "The Long Ride" appears in the book, Chicken Soup for the Golden Soul, doesn't espouse Emerson's philosophy either. She is living proof that it is never too late to start exercising.
Instead of "taking in sail," she started bicycling at age 60. Since then, Betty has ridden across the United States three times, along with other trips ranging in length from 6,000 miles to 10,000 miles in various parts of the world. Betty has a strong heart, low blood pressure, and takes no medications. She rides with others in a bicycle group, all of whom have become close and supportive friends.
Experts say that people who exercise at even a fraction of Betty's level reap the benefits of better health. Along with a balanced, low-fat diet, exercise helps maintain a reasonable body weight.
Excess weight and obesity are linked to both cancer and heart disease. Extra pounds also stress the lower back, knees and other weight-bearing joints, and are hazardous to those suffering from osteoarthritis. Mayo Clinic experts say that exercise is also the cornerstone of back pain prevention and management.
Sometimes it takes a wake-up call to get people off the couch. Anne Rogers said she was a couch-potato until age 45, when her mother had her first heart attack at age 69. The risk that she could experience a similar fate has lurked in her mind ever since, particularly since her grandfather also died of a heart attack at age 70.
Anne started hiking with the South Bay Sierra Club, starting with the shortest hikes, and graduated to serious mountain climbing by age 59, along with her hiking husband, 17 years her senior, whom she met on a Sierra Club hike. She has hiked the Pyrenees and the Grand Teton Mountains. But her greatest hiking feat was climbing most of the way up Mount Kilimanjaro.
Today, at ages 86 and 69, the husband and wife team are in good health with strong hearts. They say that hiking is self-rewarding and gives them a positive attitude and zest for life.
Keeping Active: Resources for senior fitness.
Although most of us are in our physical prime at age 25, we can slow the aging process with good habits and accelerate it with bad ones. We don't have to become Olympic-caliber athletes to reap the benefits of exercise.
Movement of every sort improves the odds of living a long, healthy, active life. The dog can be walked further and faster, stairs can be used instead of the elevator, the lunch hour can be used for a walk, and we can park farther from the mall. In addition to the physical benefits and increased life expectancy, the payoff will be alleviation of anxiety, tension and stress.
The worst part of being sedentary is that it is cumulative, putting us at risk of becoming even more sedentary with age. For older people, mobility is a key to independence, confidence, variety and a more thorough enjoyment of everyday life. Restriction of movement can eventually threaten our desire for independent living and personal autonomy, not to mention increasing the likelihood of falls and injuries, all of which bring us closer to the need for formal or informal care.
The best way to start any exercise program is to ease into it slowly. If you suspect you are not up to it, start with a visit to your doctor.
Walking is considered one of the most beneficial and convenient ways to exercise, especially as the pace increases to an aerobic level. Extremely sedentary individuals might start with a walk around the cul-de-sac two or three times a day, gradually building up to longer walks.
Other methods for keeping fit are plentiful: jogging, swimming, dancing, hiking, bicycling or using fitness equipment, either at home or at a gym. The goal is to gradually build up to a total of three hours of aerobic exercise over a week's time. This benefits the heart and lungs by improving the body's ability to use oxygen.
Nursing-home residents need exercise, too. If they are assigned to a wheelchair and never encouraged to walk, they eventually lose the ability to do so at all, simply because their muscles can no longer function as intended.
Sixty-five-year-old Oscar-winning actress Sophia Loren walks one and a half-hours each day. At this year's Oscar awards, Tom Hanks is reported to have said to her, "Miss Loren, you are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen." Getting in shape doesn't mean we'll acquire the physical attributes of movie stars. The rewards are much greater than that: feeling and looking better well into our golden years.
Rita Baum is a Los Gatos resident. She has a master's degree in gerontology and has worked in the field of aging for more than 20 years.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
