LIVING WELL

RUTHAN BRODSKY

Special to The Jewish News

Above:
Fred Kandel
works out at the
Kahn JCC
Health Club.

Right:
Lincoln Racey
gets his exercise
on the JCC
treadmills.

12/25

1998

L4 Detroit Jewish News

Exercise and
strength
training will
beat the
stereotype of
frail senior
citizens.

here's no stopping chrono-
logical aging; the longer
you live. the higher the
number.
Biological aging, on the other
hand — that physical deterioration of
the body and mind — can be delayed
by exercise.
Research validates that an appro-
priately designed fitness program,
which includes cardiovascular and
strengthening components, can slow
and even reverse some physiologic
decline. It's never too late. Even frail
and sedentary older people can regain
through exercise some of the function I
lost through decades of inactivity
Eighty-two-year-old Sarah Levitsky
is proof positive. Some time ago, she
underwent bypass surgery but now
exercises regularly.
"Keep exercising and get yourself a<
good doctor who cares about you,"
advises Levitsky, who finds her joints
become stiff when she doesn't exer-
cise. "That's incentive enough
because it's too hard to move around.
Exercise is what keeps me going."
Her routine includes walking on a
treadmill for 10-20 minutes or riding
the bike at her cardiologist's rehab
center two or three times a week, and
walking at a neighboring shopping
mall on other days.
Massive amounts of research data
on aging keep pointing to a healthy
older America. During this century,
life expectancy in the United States
increased from 47 years in 1900 to
76 today By the year 2050, the aver-
age American will live about 83 years.
That's good news for the millions
of baby boomers heading into their
50s. The population of people 65 and
older will double by 2040, and those
over 85 will come close to tripling by
that time.
The not-so-good news is that a