Fauja Singh, a pleasant unassuming Sikh farmer from India has crossed a threshold over which no man before him has ever stepped.  He ran a  26.2 mile marathon at age 100 years and 6 months. On Sunday October 16, 2011 Fauja Singh ran the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 8 hours 11 minutes and 5.9 seconds. Though at a distance of 35 k it looked like he would be forced to stop, like [...]

It is well understood that aerobic fitness is associated with increased lifespan in people. In middle aged and older adults, those who have the least capacity to exercise on a treadmill are the most likely to die in the following years. Researchers decided to take this idea one step further and intentionally breed lab rats to create high aerobic and low aerobic capacity species.   In what they call [...]

An interesting study recently published and covered in the New Yok Times demonstrated that a substance found in chocolate improves exercise capacity. The substance called epicatechin was fed to middle aged mice. A control group got plain water. In each group mice were assigned to regular exercise or no exercise. After a treatment period all groups were given a maximal treadmill exercise test. It [...]

Sarcopenia refers to the loss of muscle cells and strength which occurs with age in otherwise healthy individuals.  In fact sarcopenia is a major contributor to age related frailty and associated conditions such as falls, fractures, gait problems and death. It has remained unclear why muscle cells deteriorate and die with age.  Brand new research out of Columbia University appears to identify the [...]

Frailty is operationally defined as the amount of health problems an individual reports,, whether real or perceived. It is generally regarded as a state of the elderly which is not surprisingly associated with mortality or risk of dying. In the latest research, scientists explored whether the degree of frailty an individual possesses increases their risk of death even at earlier ages. The cohort of [...]