The Fountain of Youth is Real
If you track information on aging and fitness…and if you’re here, you maybe do…you are probably frustrated by the research summaries that begin with: “1,000 volunteers, aged 25-30…” Our wholly unsubstantiated theory holds that fitness research focuses on younger people because much of it is funded—directly or indirectly—by shoe and apparel companies that see free-spending...
An article about arteries. And runners. And tribes.
No young person thinks about their arteries, nor should they. But arterial health looms large as one ages and larger with each year. That’s why Gretchen Reynold’s piece in the New York Times might be of interest. The details are fairly straightforward: Researchers tracked the arteries of sedentary people who, God knows why, decided to...
Going on a beer run: the debate continues
The debate over the health impact of booze, and beer in particular, flows on. On one hand, as we’ve noted before, there are multiple risks and benefits associated with alcohol. And “a woman might find the risks and benefits shift over time, with the cancer risks of drinking dictating abstinence in a woman’s youth...
Fauja Singh, the Harold Stassen of road racing
Fauja Singh, the baddest 101-year-old vegetarian marathoner on the planet, has maybe possibly (but not really) retired from competitive racing. Singh, who turns 102 on April 1, finished last weekend’s Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon’s 10-kilometer (6.25-mile) race in 1 hour, 32 minutes, 28 seconds—half a minute faster than he ran it last year...
Did Fauja Singh just taunt India’s PM?
Fauja Singh, the world’s only 101-year-old marathoner, has said he’ll hang up his sneakers next month. At this point, some men might start organizing their ribbons and trophies, or writing notes to supporters, or staring out over a brightly lit city from a high balcony. Reflecting. Or, like Singh, they might use that last month...
Fauja Singh: don’t want to look, can’t turn away
When you’re, say, 50, it’s easy to feel like you’re dull. Uninteresting. You can feel invisible. So when you find something that puts you in high relief, that gives you an identity—especially if you excel at it and it demonstrates what a complete badass you are—you’re going to hold on to it. No. More...
Can seniors run barefoot? (Redux.)
If you’ve lived long enough, you’ve learned to be skeptical. Maybe cynical. You may even have crafted a few homemade conspiracy theories that you’re reluctant to divulge because everyone knows what conspiracy theories mean. (They mean you’ve taken the first step on the meandering trail to someone’s-been-sneaking-into-my-apartment-and-moving-my-reading-glasses-and-car-keys.) You might even think that Nike’s huge advertising...
Flabby old heart no impediment to wrecking knees, hips
“We always worry about marathoners who are sort of dropping dead, if you will, and having a heart attack during the marathon,” says Dr. Davinder Jassal as he explains the purpose of his recent study and, simultaneously, gives us our favorite quote of the month. Jassal (an associate professor of medicine, radiology and physiology at...
Saturday mash-up: July 14, 2012
It’s the weekend, it’s the summer, it’s all about food and drink and what it does to us. Some good, some not so. The world’s favorite 101-year-old marathoner Fauja Singh will carry the Olympic torch next weekend. If you thought nothing could be sweeter than watching that (still-unrecognized-by-Guinness-but-nevertheless) world record-holder stride through the streets of...
America’s toughest athlete is a vegan
Whatever you think of Bill Clinton, you have to give him this: the guy doesn’t mess around with his health. He had heart issues (a quadruple bypass followed by stent surgery); he did the research; he talked to people (because if you are a former president everyone takes your calls) and decided to go on...
Exercise might make you less fit
It’s been a painful week for exercise. First, a review of six studies of physical exercise found that 10 percent of the subjects—people who exercised regularly—actually experienced a decline on one of four common measures of heart disease (blood pressure, insulin, HDL cholesterol, and triglycerides). Seven percent scored worse on two measures. So, for reasons...
Marco Olmo is to the Alps what Caballo Blanco was to the Copper Canyon
Writing about the real and perceived risks of long-distance running for old people, we were reminded of the triumphs of Marco Olmo, the 60-year-old Italian excavator operator who won the grueling, 166-km (with 9,400 meters of climbing) Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc. Actually, he won it twice, in 2006 and 2007. He’s well known in Europe...
