Fat 2 Fit: Yes, Exercising and Eating Right Wards Off Disease

Macular degeneration, Alzheimer's disease, and common colds are just three of the illnesses you can keep at bay by getting fit.

By: Carole Carson | Source: AARP.org | 2008-11-05

If you need more reasons to exercise and eat carefully, here are several. First, recent findings published April 2008 in the British Journal of Ophthalmology suggest heart disease and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) share common risk factors, such as high blood pressure, extra weight, and circulatory problems. If the results are correct, then exercise could reduce AMD.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin studied this theory in nearly 4,000 people, ages 43 to 86. The results indicated that by exercising three or more times a week, the participants in the study reduced their risk of the occurrence of macular degeneration by 70 percent.

Certain diets also can reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease. In a recent study at Columbia University, published in the Annals of Neurology in June 2006, researchers found that people eating a "Mediterranean diet," consisting mostly of vegetables, fruits, cereals, and some monounsaturated fish, low-fat meat and dairy products, cut their risk of developing Alzheimer's disease by as much as 40 percent.

Another study, published in Neurology in 2006, found that consuming two servings a day of vegetables significantly slowed the mental aging process. Nearly 4,000 people in the study (ages 65 and older), who ate three vegetable servings a day, had a 40 percent reduced rate of mental decline.

Last, in a year-long study reported in November 2006 in the American Journal of Medicine, researchers found in a study of 115 overweight women that the incidence of common colds was cut in half for those who exercised 45 minutes a day, five days a week. Their conclusion: Exercising improves immune function.

So there you have it. Maintaining a healthy diet, weight, and regular exercise remain the best health-promotion and disease-prevention tools we have in our medicine chest. And these are the ones we can most easily incorporate in our own lives, starting today.