How to Prevent Aging

I just finished reading a fascinating article in exercise.  We all know that exercise is important for our health.  It helps keep the weight off, improves our energy level, and reduces stress.  But now there is new evidence that exercise positively affects almost every internal system in the body, from your brain mass to muscle deterioration all the way down to the cellular level.   There was an interesting experiment done with mice where a group of them with a genetic mutation accelarating aging was split in half, one half with no exercise, the other with daily exerices.  The half without exercise had died within a year, their fur gray and scraggly and an overwhelming loss of muscle and brain mass.  The half exercising were still going strong as the other mice were dying, circumventing their genetic mutation.  It is suspected that the exercise affected the cells at the mitochondrial level.  (For more details, refer back to the article, I am not a scientist after all.)   Exercise is needed by an ever growing number of Americans who are not taking care of their bodies.  Without exercise, they will most surely die at a younger age, incapable of leading as full a life as someone who exercises.  All that people need to start doing is getting outside and going for a walk once a day, yet most choose to sit in front of the TV and eat junk food.  It is quite said that we have an "obesity epidemic" that is being treated with gastric bypass surgery, medications for high blood pressure and cholestorol, and an ever ready supply of junk food to satiate our every craving.  Getting healthy is quite simple, but unfortunately it does take some effort.  All that is neaded is a healthy diet and exercise, not medications and surgery.  We all have the capacity to control our actions.   Getting up and walking is an easy way to start.  (Going from the TV to the fridge and back does not count.)  I urge even if it is just to prevent graying hair and brain loss; do a little walking every day.  It will relieve depression and leave you with more energy in the long run.  Do something for yourself for a change.  (And smile!)