Another reason to move away from white bread
A study by researchers at Tufts University suggests that moving from a high-glycemic diet to a low-glycemic diet can help halt the development of age-related macular degeneration.
High-glycemic diets contain starches such as those found in white bread, while low-glycemic diets include starches found in whole grains.
High-glycemic diets release sugar in the bloodstream more rapidly than low-glycemic diets do.
Researchers at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts said the study in mice suggests that highglycemic diets are associated with the development of such characteristics as the loss of function of cells in the eye, while a low-glycemic diet is not, and switching to a low-glycemic diet even arrested retina damage.
The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
— Tufts University
Still, she hadn’t set foot in the water for almost 30 years — until two years ago — as she concentrated on raising her two children and a teaching career.
“I was struggling with vertigo, an imbalance in my inner ear was causing dizziness, and a doctor here in Las Vegas thought swimming might help alleviate my symptoms,” she says.
As it turned out, swimming has. She says the movement of her head back and forth in the water while doing strokes “has really helped me get over it.”
Even more important, she says, is the energy she now has to work with her children at Roger Bryan Elementary School in the Clark County School District.
“Even my aide noticed that I had much more energy since I started swimming again,” she says.
Aitken is well aware of research done at Indiana University Bloomington’s Counsilman Center for the Science of Swimming, which has examined the effects of long-term participation in vigorous activity on “optimal aging.”
That research, which Professor Joel Stager says has shown a “20-year offset” in the rate of physiological function decline by swimmers in their 60s, used a battery of tests to measure the blood pressure, muscle mass, blood chemistry and pulmonary function age markers of swimmers participating in the 2004 U.S. masters championships with the same age markers collected on the general population. (Masters in this case means swimmers older than age 18.)
Measured age markers typically decline by 0.5 percent to 1 percent per year beginning around age 35, according to earlier research.
Data collected by the team found that regular and intensive swimming substantially delayed the decline of measured age markers. While Stager said there was a decline in the rate of physiological function decline in all lower age ranges, the most signifi- cant decline came among those in their mid-60s.
“The rate of change as far as declines in physiological function — due to aging, we think — seems to accelerate in a person’s mid-60s,” Stager says. “If we could postpone this by a decade or two — as we’ve seen happen with older masters swimmers we tested — we’d be talking about tremendous increases in quality of life. … Not necessarily living longer, but living better. You can’t be Father Time, but it appears you can slow your decline.”
Aitken says now that she’s swimming again, she “feels 20 and I act 20.”
Hecker, who learned to coach swimming after answering an ad on his California junior college bulletin board, says he’s not surprised by research showing that regular swimmers seem to age particularly well.
“You get the maximum benefit out of your effort,” he says. “I’ve got people in their 50s who move like teenagers. You can train someone harder in water. … There’s not a lot of stress on your legs and knees. It’s a great cardiovascular exercise. It should surprise no one.”
Contact Paul Harasim at pharasim@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5273. Follow @paulharasim on Twitter.