Twice the exercise lowers RealAge

Q: I am making sure I get 150 minutes of physical activity a week — and sometimes more — by walking at lunchtime and after dinner when I can, playing sports on the weekends (pickleball and swimming) and using light hand weights for upper body conditioning while I am watching TV. But now that I’m 50, it doesn’t feel like quite enough. What else can I do?

Bob G., Kansas City, Kansas

A: You are doing great ... everyone in America should do what you do. But, yes, doing a little more is even better. A newly released 30-year study of more than 116,000 folks reveals that if you do two times more than the recommended 150 minutes of physical activity, including two strength-building sessions weekly, you’ll slash your risk of dying during the next three decades by 26% to 31%. That translates to getting in around 60 minutes of walking a day, in addition to enjoying two 20-minute strength-building sessions a week (using your own body weight or stretchy bands).

When we look at what this amount of exercise does to your ActualAge or RealAge, we see that it makes you 8.1 years younger than your calendar age. So, you’d be only 42, Bob.

But your control over your future doesn’t stop there. Another very powerful step to take is to eliminate added sugars and syrups from your diet. As Dr. Mike points out in a recent newsletter at michaelfroizenmd.substack.com, a sugarrich diet may shorten your lifespan because of sugar’s ability to cause a build-up of a natural waste product, uric acid. It also increases cardiovascular risks and leads to blood sugar spikes. The good news? Randomized controlled trials show that controlling blood sugar at all ages, even after age 80 substantially reduces allcause mortality, strokes, heart attacks, kidney dysfunction, cognitive dysfunction, and immobility.

We applaud your goal of extending your healthy longevity. To discover even more ways to live longer stronger, check out Dr. Oz’s blogs at www.iherb.com/experts/dr-mehmet-oz.