JUST TAKE FIVE


A Guy’s Guide to Staying Vitally Healthy by Judith Fertig


it still rings true today. Today’s health experts further add, “get moving” and “see your doctor at least once a year.” Adopting this short, easy-to-do list of habits as a guiding principle can be key to a healthier and happier life, and add more years to accomplish your bucket list. The good news about male longevity is that much of it is under our control. Dr. Robert Butler, gerontologist,


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psychiatrist and author of The Longevi- ty Prescription: The 8 Proven Keys to a Long, Healthy Life, received a Pulitzer Prize for his work on aging. A found- ing director of the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health, he also started the nation’s first department of geriatrics, at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, in New York City. In his early 80s, Butler was still regularly walking around Central Park before putting in 60-hour weeks doing work he loved as head of International Longevity Center–USA (ilcusa.org). Butler maintained that genes account for only 25 percent of our indi- vidual health and said, “Our environment and personal behaviors account for the rest.” For him, it was simple things like welcome hugs and laughter that


40 Phoenix


ncient prophets understood the wisdom of living by the adage, “Eat, drink and be merry,” and


added pleasure and length to life. Of course, learning something new helps the brain stay active. Butler lived the essence of active right up until his passing a year ago at age 83.


A Simple Prescription So, what are men up against today? According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (cdc.gov), the leading causes of death for men are heart disease; cancer (especially pros- tate); injuries; chronic lower respira- tory diseases; stroke; diabetes; suicide; influenza and pneumonia; kidney disease; and Alzheimer’s disease. But men can take a preventive approach to these conditions. Here are five pro- active, enjoyable ways that work:


EAT. The simple everyday act of healthy eating can have long-term, holistic benefits for not only overall health and weight management, but for preventing prostate cancer. In 2010, nearly 218,000 men in the United States were diagnosed with prostate cancer, a largely curable challenge when caught in its early stages, according to the American Cancer Society. But why not eat well to prevent poten- tial cancer cells from becom- ing a bigger problem? “All of us have micro- scopic cancers growing in our bodies all the time,” says Dr. William Li, founder and head of The Angiogenesis Founda- tion, in Cambridge, Massachusetts (angio. org and the user-friendly


EatToDefeat.org). Angiogen- esis is the process our bodies


Get a Move On: Five Reasons to Exercise


by Judith Fertig


The research is in. Getting off the couch and moving away from TV, video and computer screens pays off in more ways than one.


Helps maintain a healthy weight: Everyone knows that the more active we are, the more calories we work off, and the more our weight stays at a healthy number on the scale.


Improves brain function: “The decline the brain experiences late in life is not inevitable; it can be affected by things like habitual exercise,” asserts Dr. Eric Larson, of the Group Health Research Institute, in Seattle. Larson and his team of researchers published a pivotal study in the Annals of Internal Medicine showing that older adults that exercised at least three times a week were 38 percent less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease. The the- ory is that exercise not only increases blood flow and oxygen to the brain, it may also reduce the abnormality known as brain plaque that has been associated with Alzheimer’s.


Helps prevent diabetes: A study in The New England Journal of Medicine found that moderate exercise led to a 50 to 60 percent reduction in the risk for developing diabetes, and delayed the onset of Type 2 diabetes among those already at high risk.


Lowers blood pressure: After review- ing 15 studies on exercise and high blood pressure, the American College of Sports Medicine concluded that moderate exercise decreased blood pressure in approximately 75 percent of individuals with hypertension.


Keeps us going: The good news is that exercise—especially the short, intense bursts in circuit or interval training— helps maintain and develop muscles, strength and stamina, according to a recent study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.


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