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June 2nd, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda FRIDAY, June 1 (HealthDay News) — Women in their 70s can gain more
years by following advice they may be giving their grandkids: exercise and
eat your fruits and vegetables.
So finds a new study that helps confirm healthy living can extend life,
even in the retirement years.
“This is one of those findings that sounds like common sense,” said
study lead author Emily Nicklett, an assistant professor of social work at
the University of Michigan School of Social Work, in Ann Arbor.
“But while it may seem obvious, it’s important to go back to the basics
in terms of understanding that diet and exercise can strongly predict
mortality among older adults,” she said. “Promoting healthy diets that
include fruits and vegetables, together with some form of simple physical
activity like walking, can make dramatic improvements in terms of health
outcomes.”
Nicklett and her colleagues published their findings in the May issue
of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
The authors noted that U.S. seniors over age 65 are the fastest-growing
slice of the country’s population.
In the study, Nicklett’s team focused on more than 700 women between
the ages of 70 and 79 who were living independently in their communities
and enrolled in two related physical disability studies.
The women were asked how much they engaged in physical activities such
as structured exercise (i.e., walking or strength training), household or
outdoor chores, or pastimes such as bowling or dancing.
The women’s nutrition was measured via blood samples that measured each
participant’s total level of carotenoids. These plant-based compounds are
thought to be an accurate indicator of an individual’s fruit and vegetable
consumption, the researchers explained.
All the participants were then tracked for five years, during which
time nearly 12 percent of the women died.
The researchers found that the most active women had the best survival
prospects, and so did the women who consumed the most fruits and
vegetables.
Breaking it down, the team observed that the most active women had a 71
percent lower death rate during a five-year period compared with the most
sedentary women in the study.
“And we’re not talking about dramatic activity when we talk about
exercise,” Nicklett stressed. “We’re not talking about rugby players.
We’re talking about something as simple as walking around the block, which
is the way most women in our study burned the most calories.”
The women with the highest carotenoid levels faced a 46 percent lower
chance of dying during the five-year follow-up period versus those with
the lowest fruit-and-vegetable intake.
And because the study also was designed to explore the impact of
exercise and nutrition together, the team found that women who were both
the most physically active and the highest consumers of fruits and
vegetables were eight times more likely to be alive after the study’s five
years of follow-up, compared to women who scored lowest on both
counts.
“In terms of public health, this finding raises the question of, ‘How
do we encourage a healthy lifestyle that boosts longevity?'” Nicklett
said. “And that can mean looking into whether there are enough safe places
for these women to walk, or whether or not they have access to fresh
fruits. It’s really about going back to the basics.”
Lona Sandon, a registered dietician and assistant professor of clinical
nutrition at the University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas, agreed that
although the findings were “not particularly surprising,” they are an
important reminder that “exercise and eating healthfully is good for
you.”
“We already know in other age categories that eating well and staying
active is good for us,” she said. “So it makes sense that it should then
also apply to us as we get older.”
“As to what it is exactly about exercise and fruits and vegetables that
helps women to live longer lives, that is not exactly clear,” Sandon
cautioned. “Maybe if you stay more physically fit you remain more
functional and are less likely to fall and break a leg or hip, for
example. Or perhaps exercise and good food keeps your immune system
healthier. Or it could be the socialization involved when exercise is done
in groups. Or maybe all of the above.”
More information
There’s more on healthy aging at the U.S National Institute on Aging.
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