Younger Next Year

長寿

Younger Next Year: A Man's Guide to living Like 50 Until You're 80 and Beyond (Random House Large Print)
Fortune 01/05 Younger Next Year , Seven ideas for not getting old before your time: a scientific guide to living like 50 until you’re 80.
http://www.fortune.com/fortune/articles/0,15114,1012319,00.html

It is better than that. Most of us can be functionally younger every year for the next five or even ten years. That sounds like cruel nonsense or hype, but it's true. Limited aspects of biological aging are immutable. Like the fact that your maximum heart rate goes down a bit every year, and your skin and hair get weird. But 70% of what you feel as aging is optional. No joke. No exaggeration, even. There's a new, tough game out there. And congratulations, you are eligible to play. You just have to learn how.

We are in the midst of a revolution in the science of aging. It is part of a larger revolution in our understanding of how our bodies work at the cellular level, and it has opened the door to healthy aging. The science behind this revolution is vast and extraordinary, coveringfields as diverse as cell physiology, protein structure, biochemistry, evolutionary biology, exercise physiology, anthropology, experimental psychology, ecology, and comparative neuroanatomy. Definitive conclusions from this research are still emerging, but the basic lines are clear enough that men and women from 40 to 90 should act on them now. If they do, they can live radically better, happier, healthier lives than their parents, grandparents, or anyone else in all of biological time.

As it turns out, health is biologically more complicated than disease. In disease, the train has gone off the tracks and the laws of physics take over. The crash is terrifying and destructive, but the science is simple. Health is the reverse. It has carefully designed control mechanisms to keep the train on the tracks. The science of those mechanisms—the blueprint for our bodies—is phenomenally complex. Luckily for us, the controls are simple to operate. You need to understand only two basic background points about the evolution of your biology to take charge of your health.

「Aging is inevitable」だけれど「decay is optional」は可能というのがこの本のメッセージ。

Harry's Rules
1. Exercise six days a week for the rest of your life.
2. Do serious aerobic exercise four days a week for the rest of your life.
3. Do serious strength training, with weights, two days a week for the rest of your life.
4. Spend less than you make.
5. Quit eating crap!
6. Care.
7. Connect and commit.

これが、50代からひどく衰えていく典型的アメリカ人に向けて書かれている7つのルール。日本人がごく普通に、日本人らしい食生活をして、健康に気遣いながら、適度の運動をし、金銭的ストレスなく、人との交流を保ち、そこそこ何か生き甲斐のある生活をしていれば、「Aging is inevitable」だけれど「decay is optional」は可能、と解釈すればいいのかな。
(2)の「serious aerobic exercise」には、Precorのelliptical fitness crosstrainer
http://www.precor.com/cpr_efx.php
http://precor.jp/cpr_efx.html
http://www.precor.com/cpr_efx_tips-whybuy.php
http://precor.jp/cpr_efx_tips-whybuy.html
がなかなかいいと思う。