It’s no myth that on average, weight goes up and fitness levels go down as we get older. But there’s nothing that says you have to be average – especially as being average in the area of middle age fitness is putting yourself at significantly higher risk of illness and even death.

The largest-ever long-term study of physical fitness change in United Stated clearly illustrated the correlation between aging, weight, and fitness. The study, conducted by the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research, monitored over 2,000 men and women at four research sites across the United States, starting when the participants were 18 to 30 years of age. The participants’ fitness levels were tracked for twenty years as they moved from young adulthood into middle age … and the news wasn’t good.

As age increases, fitness and activity levels plunge …. and risk factors soar

As the participants aged, their physical activity dropped by an average 18 percent. This change set off an alarming domino effect: by the end of the study the participants’ physical fitness levels had declined by an average 28 percent and their weight increased by an average 20 percent. According to the researchers, these changes put the participants at significantly greater risk of illness and death.

KPNCDR Associate Director for Clinical Research Stephen Sidney said the study unmistakeably showed the importance of staying physically active as we grow older. Noting that though we can’t control aging, he stressed that our level of physical activity definitely is something we can control. And the degree to which we do maintain fitness in middle age can play an enormous role in determining our health and well-being for the rest of our lives.

Mid-life fitness clearly shown to reduce risk factors

In recent years science has shown that a host of natural aging-related changes once considered inevitable can be reduced, delayed, or offset by maintaing a healthy weight and moderate-to-high physical activity level. Slowing of the metabolism, loss of muscle tone and bone density, reduced flexibility, and even cardiac ailments and irregularities have all been shown to respond dramatically to a regular regimen of increased physical activity. Higher levels of fitness also correspond to lower incidence of non-insulin dependent diabetes, osteoprosis, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular disease.

And it’s not just the body that benefits from middle age fitness – it also significantly reduces the risk of dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease, depression and other mood disorders.

The encouraging news is that it seems it really is never too late to start. A regular regimen of physical activity leads to increased fitness at any age, resulting in remarkably positive physical and mental health improvements in even the very old.

The idea that aging automatically leads to sleep problems is a myth, according to the experts. People over 50 don’t necessarily sleep any worse (or any less) than we ever did. But we do sleep differently.

A milestone 2003 study conducted by the National Sleep Foundation took a close look at the sleep habits of Americans between the ages of 55 and 84 and came to the encouraging conclusion that people over 55 may actually sleep better than adults aged 18-54. According to the NSF study, a higher percentage of older adults are sleeping 7-9 hours per night (56% vs. 51%). And as an added bonus, the 32% of older adults who nap during the day get an average of 41-51 minutes of supplemental sleep time.

This is excellent news, because the idea that older people need less sleep is also a myth. The National Institute of Health says that while sleep needs do change over the course of a lifetime, the big change comes long before middle age. Children and adolescents need more sleep than adults, but older adults need about the same amount of sleep as younger adults.

Then why aren’t I sleeping as well as I used to?!

Maybe it’s your sleep schedule. According to NIH, sleep patterns change throughout life and one of the most significant pattern changes happens when we hit the “older adult” category. People over 50 tend to become sleepier earlier in the evening (which explains why you keep nodding off in front of the TV) and wake up earlier in the morning.

Unless we understand and adjust to natural sleep pattern changes it’s easy to feel that we’re just not “sleeping right”. If you keep sleeping through the 11 o’clock news but find yourself tossing and turning in the wee hours, try moving everything back a bit – go to bed somewhat earlier and rise earlier – an easy fix to the feeling that “I can’t stay awake till I go to bed, but then I can’t stay asleep!”

But it could be more than how you set your alarm clock. The NSF study shows a powerful correlation between the quality of sleep and overall health, both mental and physical. The better one’s overall physical health, the better the quality of sleep. And the greater the incidence of depression and negative life outlook, the more likely the occurrence of sleep problems.

Of course, actual sleep disorders do occur in all age groups and being over 50 is certainly no guarantee of immunity. NIH Senior Health says sleep-disordered breathing (such as snoring and sleep apnea) and movement disorders like restless legs syndrome are the most common sleep disorders in older adults.

An insidious sidenote: worrying about the quality of our sleep can be a significant factor in lowering it. Older adults do tend to be more concerned about the quality of sleep than younger adults, and when that concern gets out of hand it can result in what amounts to performance anxiety. The more time we spend talking to ourselves and others about how we just never sleep well anymore, the more we’re programming ourselves to sleep badly.

Americans 50 and over control 70% of all US wealth, bring in $2 trillion in annual income, own more homes than any other age group, account for 50% of all discretionary spending, and purchase 41% of all new cars.

16 million over-50s exercise at least three times a week.

People over 50 spend more per capita on groceries, over the counter and other health products, and travel and leisure than any other age group.

Adults 50+ spend an average of $7 billion online annually (Source: SeniorNet).

People over 50 represent 27% of the US population, and more than 50% of them live in the following nine states: California, Texas, New York, Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan and New Jersey. (Source: US Census Bureau)

Population of Americans over 50 using internet in 2006: 58.2 million. Estimated population of Americans over 50 using internet in 2011: 68.3 million (Source: Tech Crunch)

Adults 50+ account for 80% of all luxury travel spending (Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project).

Japan has the highest rate of middle-age suicides (44% of Japanese suicides are middle aged) while the Philippines has the lowest at 12%. The US comes in tied with China at 27%. However, middle-age suicides in the US are currently at the highest rate in the past 25 years. (Source: US Centers for Disease Control)

There are expected to be 57.8 million baby boomers living in the year 2030, 54.9% of whom will be female. (source: US Census Bureau)

40 percent of people between 45 and 60 anticipate that their adult children will move back in with them. 30 percent anticipate that their parents will move in with them. (Source: Met Life)

14.2% of boomers are divorced. 12.6% of boomers never married. (Source: US Census Bureau)

20% of single men over 50 say sex on the first date is fine. 2% of single women over 50 are OK with sex on a first date. (source: AARP)

Four out of five boomers see work as playing a role in their retirement years, with only 20% anticipating retiring and not working at all (Source: AARP)

And the most encouraging statistic of all: There are now 70,000 people over 100 years old. By 2050, demographers estimate there will be 834,000. (Source: University of Nevada)

Yesterday you couldn’t recall the name of that restaurant you enjoyed so much. This afternoon you searched frantically for your keys for 15 minutes before you realized they were in your pocket. And more often than you’d like to admit, you find yourself standing in the middle of a room wondering what on earth made you go there.

What’s going on here? Are you really losing your memory?

The not-so-great news is that if you’re a normal person over 50 you probably are a little more “forgetful” than you were 20 years go. But the absolutely excellent news is that it’s 100% normal and doesn’t mean you’re losing your memory.

A lot of what we tend to identify as middle age memory problems actually has more to do with the way we process information than how well we remember. Around midlife the brain’s frontal lobes become less adept at automatically blocking out information that isn’t important to the task at hand. Distractions like noise, being interrupted in the middle of something, etc. can be more difficult to ignore or overcome, and that makes it harder to maintain attention or focus. In distracting situations our short-term memory (which is what’s responsible for prioritizing information) may be overwhelmed by all the input.

The result? What we generally call “forgetfulness” – misplacing things, being unable to recall names, or finding it difficult to learn something new. Annoying as these events are, they’re temporary, not seriously life-disrupting, and don’t mean you’re losing your intelligence or are on the road to dementia. Middle age memory can occasionally be maddening, but it’s nothing to worry about.

Serious memory loss, which is often defined as memory loss that affects your ability to carry out everyday life activities is rare in midlifers. Generally associated with conditions like Alzheimer’s Disease and dementia, serious memory loss actually affects a relatively small percentage of the elderly. It has been estimated that only 15% of older Americans experience serious memory loss, and less than 20% of people over 65 experience even mild cognitive impairment.

Fortunately there are many things mid-lifers can do to keep our brains sharp. Studies have shown that the most effective memory-maintainer is exercise for both body and mind. If you continue to challenge yourself mentally your brain literally continues to grow. An active brain produces new connections between nerve cells, which helps your brain store and retrieve information more easily no matter what your age. Challenging yourself physically with exercise and activity increases blood flow to the brain, promoting cell growth and offsetting normal age-related cellular decay.

With more than 8,000 people in the US turning 60 every day, interest in anti-aging therapy is at an all time high. New products, treatments, and technologies claiming anti-aging properties appear every day.  But what exactly does anti-aging therapy mean?

Anti-Aging Medicine – Focusing on Age-Related Disorders
Medically speaking, anti-aging refers to the detection, prevention, and reversal of age-related illnesses.

Progress in anti-aging medicine, a relatively new field, has been very rapid. In recent decades many of the once-standard perceptions about aging have been overturned as new treatments and techniques proved effective.

Anti-Aging medicine includes the following:

- Recognizing the impact of lifestyle on aging
- Detecting and treating conditions like diabetes earlier, at a pre-clinical level
- Using anti-aging antioxidants to repair and prevent cellular damage
- Antioxidant vitamins like vitamin K, vitamin E, and vitamin C
- Antioxidant supplements like COQ10, resveratrol, and glutathione
- Hormonal supplements like DHEA and HGH

Anti-Aging Science – Focusing on the Aging Process
The scientific community tends to see anti-aging more in terms of tackling the aging process itself, with research on how to delay, prevent, or reverse aging. Though research on controlling the aging process is ongoing, to date no method for doing so has been established.

Anti-Aging in the Marketplace – Buyer Beware!
Consumer interest makes claims for anti-aging a valuable addition to any product. Be wary of extraordinary claims, “secret formulas”, or any product that promises what sound like impossible results.

The Free Radical Connection
These compounds, known as free radicals, are atoms that have an uneven number of electrons, and are therefore unstable. Free radicals attempt to correct their unstability by scavenging other molecules, and in the process they damage the cells with which they interact.

It is believed that oxidation damage accumulates throughout life, and that cellular damage by free radicals plays a major role in the aging process.

Antioxidants to the Rescue
Antioxidants are vitamins, minerals, and enzymes that can counteract the damaging effects of free radicals. By definition, an antioxidant is a substance which gives up electrons easily, and thus can function to neutralize free radicals and prevent them from damaging cells.

Medical research has shown that many of the general health and fitness declines associated with aging show a positive response to antioxidants.

Some of the most powerful anti-oxidants, such as Co-enzyme Q-10 and Glutathione, are produced within the body. Unfortunately research has demonstrated that the body’s production of these natural antioxidants decreases sharply as we age.

A number of vitamins have significant antioxidant properties. Vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, and vitamin K are all potent antioxidants, but because the body does not produce any of them, they must be metabolized from a diet rich in antioxidant food or dietary supplements.