Healthy Aging, With Nary a Supplement By JANE E. BRODY

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Healthy Aging, With Nary a Supplement By JANE E. BRODY

The Great Recession, so I'm told, has been great for one segment of the economy

— the makers of pills and potions that offer the promise of keeping people

healthy. A middle-aged woman remarked as she perused the supplement shelves in

my local health food store (I was buying bulgur): " I can't afford to get sick. I

lost my job and I have no health insurance. "

Each year millions of people fall prey to false promises that this, that or the

other formula or fortified food can protect their hearts, prevent cancer,

improve memory, strengthen their bones, uncreak their joints, build their

muscles, even enable them to burn extra calories without moving.

The desire to achieve a healthy old age is laudable indeed, and will be even

more so in the future. According to a projection of the century-long rise in

life expectancy published in The Lancet in October, more than half the children

born since 2000 in wealthy countries can expect to celebrate their 100th

birthday.

If so many of us are destined to become centenarians, it is all the more

important to be able to enjoy those years unencumbered by chronic disease and

disability. There is no virtue in simply living long; the goal should be to live

long and well.

But while much is known about how to raise the odds of a healthy old age, only a

minority of Americans incorporate into their lives what is likely to give them

the biggest bang for their buck. Like the woman in the health food store, they'd

rather rely on supplements of vitamins and minerals, fish oils and herbs,

perhaps washed down with pricey antioxidant juices.

Unfortunately, sound evidence for the benefits of most such products is sorely

lacking; in some cases the best scientific evidence has shown no benefit, and in

a few cases has even shown harm. Human chemistry is far more complex than

visionaries thought just two decades ago, when reputable scientists pushed for

fortifying foods with substances they believed would prevent cancer and heart

disease.

The Longevity Diet

After decades of government guidelines and advice from friends, family and

physicians, Americans have made some improvements in their eating habits. On

average, we consume less red meat and saturated fat and somewhat more whole

grains, fruits and vegetables. Our processed foods were recently stripped of

artery-clogging trans fats, thanks to a campaign that challenged the food

industry to better protect American hearts. And our pigs (though, alas, not our

people) have gotten much leaner in recent years.

But, and this is a big but, we are a long way from consuming the kind of diet

most closely linked to a low risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, stroke and

dementia. That diet need not be strictly vegetarian, but it should emphasize

plant-based foods over the meat and other products that come from animals that

eat plants. The closer to the earth we eat, the healthier — and leaner — we are

likely to be.

Most of the evidence for the assumed health benefits of specific nutrients comes

not from stuffing people with supplements but rather from observing the effects

of eating foods rich in these nutrients. Supplements of antioxidants failed to

protect against disease the way a diet rich in fruits and vegetables seems to.

Rather than isolated nutrients, combinations of them, along with other perhaps

unidentified substances in foods, are now thought to confer the observed health

benefits.

You have no doubt heard much about the so-called Mediterranean diet, and with

good reason. This eating style, in its classic form, is most closely linked to a

healthy body and mind as people age: a lower risk of heart disease, high blood

pressure, stroke, diabetes, breast cancer and Alzheimer's disease. It is loaded

with nutrient-rich vegetables and fruits, beans and grains, fish and shellfish,

but relatively little meat and poultry. Olive oil is the primary fat for cooking

and eating, even replacing butter as a smear on bread.

But the Mediterranean diet does not come in a pill or potion. You have to eat

the foods to reap the rewards. Consider also taking supplements of two nutrients

in otherwise short supply — calcium and vitamin D. In addition to protecting

bones from age-related decline, vitamin D in amounts of 800 to 1,000

international units daily for middle-aged and older adults may improve muscle

strength (and thus reduce the risk of falls and fractures), help prevent several

common cancers, counter depression and enhance cognitive function, various

studies have suggested.

The second crucial ingredient is regular physical exercise. I know, you've heard

this song before and you know you should do it, but ... fill in the blank: you

hate exercise, you have no time, the weather is lousy, the children are sick,

you're injured, you don't get enough sleep as it is. It's easy to find reasons

not to exercise.

It's time to stop making excuses and make regular physical activity an integral

part of your life, like eating, sleeping and brushing your teeth. You don't

decide every day to do these things, you just do them. Likewise with exercise.

Move for Good Health

The single most effective activity, studies have found, is an aerobic activity

like brisk walking — about 30 minutes a day. If you can't get out of the house,

walk inside. Go up and down stairs, walk the hall, walk from room to room, walk

in place. If walking doesn't suit you, try dancing to music.

In a 2006 study of people aged 60 to 79, those who were assigned to walk briskly

three days a week for 45 minutes a day experienced an increase in the brain's

volume, especially in regions involved in memory, planning and multitasking.

Even people already afflicted with chronic ailments — heart or lung disease,

arthritis, diabetes, depression, early dementia — can reap significant health

benefits from exercise, studies have found.

Americans have yet to learn what Hippocrates, the father of medicine, recognized

in 400 B.C. " All parts of the body which have a function if used in moderation

and exercised in labors in which each is accustomed, become thereby healthy,

well developed and age more slowly; but if unused and left idle they become

liable to disease, defective in growth and age quickly. "

So get off the couch and make this year the year you discover the joys and

benefits of movement.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/12/health/12brod.html