Don't be stupid, exercise!

Science and technology have already done so much to improve both the length and quality of our lives that we sometimes take their advances for granted. We baby boomers are the healthiest, wealthiest and longest-lived generation of all that have preceded us, yet we often ignore the wisdom that all our knowledge has to offer.

And if we don't smarten up, we're going to end up . . . well. . . not smart.

We already know that stroke and heart disease are the top causes of death for our generation. We already know the risk factors, the conditions that increase our statistical chances of falling to these top killers.

But as a group, we smoke in high numbers, we are overweight and sedentary, we cope with high blood pressure and high blood cholesterol through drugs. We prefer the stress of overwork to the worry about not having enough money.

So, for far too many of us, the result is the onset of serious illness, years of suffering and expense, and an early death. And so much of it is easily and inexpensively preventable — through regular exercise.

This is not news. We already know this.

But now, we are learning that another scourge of aging that we boomers will all eventually have to face — the onset of senility — can be pushed back easily and inexpensively through exercise. But will we be smart enough to take advantage of it?

Last week, the Ontario Brain Institute released a report that compiled the lessons learned in 55 medical studies on the effects of exercise. The process is called data mining; it's the latest scientific method to avoid the expense of re-inventing the wheel.

Their researchers strongly recommend that the Public Health Agency of Canada's guidelines maintain the standard of 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week. That comes to half an hour of exercise, five times a week. They define “moderate to vigorous” as something that makes breathing harder while still allowing a person to sing. If you can't sing, just call it vigorous.

That's the minimum, not the full prescription. And yet, 85 per cent of Canada's adults don't meet that minimum.

Now, this would not be news if the call were made to prevent heart disease and stroke. We already know that a program of regular exercise can do this.

This study recommends exercise to push back the onset of senility. 

If you asked people of a certain age which they feared more, having a heart condition, or losing their entire identity to Alzheimer's, what's the answer you're most likely to get?

As a society, we spend an awful lot of money building more continuous care beds for seniors with dementia (which can begin as early as the mid-50s). If we realize that one in seven of those beds would not be needed if people just exercised more, would we as a generation exercise more? Would 85 per cent of us still not get the minimum prescription? How smart would that be?

If you're like me, and don't spend your free time reading the scientific reports of data miners, allow me to recommend a good book. The Secret Life of the Grown-up Brain by Barbara Strauch makes you feel positively grand about being middle-aged.

If you study the data, she says, there is no such thing as a mid-life crisis or the empty nest syndrome for the vast majority of people in their middle years. Rather, middle age is the happiest, least-stressed, most productive time of life. The first third of the book alone is worth buying it.

But it's the last third of the book that will make you want to keep it on your e-reader so you can refer to it again and again.

Strauch interviewed the people who discovered that our brains do not need to decay as we age. Contrary to a century of medical belief, we really do grow new brain cells all through our lives. Especially in that part of the brain associated with memory, the dentate gyrus.

What's the trigger that produces these new brain cells? Exercise. Regular, moderate to vigorous exercise.

The mechanism that accomplishes this is not known, but it's convincing enough that Strauch reports the hallways leading to the labs where this research continues is strewn with bicycles. Everyone involved in the studies bikes, runs or plays squash, and seem to easily defeat fellow players 20 years their junior.

Plus, they're smarter than their sedentary, overweight peers.

As a generation, what do we do with this information? Well, one thing we shouldn't do is put up barriers to getting our participation numbers up. Swimming pools, recreation paths, ski trails — and yes, even bike lanes, where needed — are far cheaper than long-term care beds. And more fun to have.