Health-and-Fitness online information.

While having strong genes is certainly a plus, the real secret to staying youthful and healthy is living with passion and joy. It's mainly about your attitude--loving yourself and the gift of life enough to adopt the resolutions and rituals that keep mind and body strong and emotions in balance.

Learning how to live your best life at any age is an art the fit and fine women on the preceding pages have obviously mastered. You, too, can enter the prime of your life in peak form. Here's how:

STAY FIT

* Commit to exercise. While everyone ages differently, geriatricians agree that nothing ages us faster than illness. It wears down our body, depleting its vitality. Although no regimen we follow will guarantee that we'll never face a serious health challenge, committing to a regular exercise program is one of the most important life-preserving steps we can take. Working out consistently reduces the incidence of heart attack, stroke, diabetes and high blood pressure, the leading causes of illness and death for Black women. A 30-to-60-minute aerobic workout--running, walking, biking, playing tennis--four to five times a week goes a long way toward increasing your life span, and the best news is that it's never too late to get started. Of course, before beginning any exercise regimen, it's best to check with your doctor first, especially if you haven't worked out in a while.

* Pump iron. We begin losing muscle mass around age 35, so as we get older, weight-bearing exercises become even more critical. They help build bone density and strength, both of which are essential to preventing osteoporosis. (And yes, Black women are vulnerable to this disease.) An added benefit: Lean muscle is metabolically more active, meaning that it burns more calories--even at rest.

# posted by Medical Information : 2:20 AM