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Keeping Older Athletes in the Game

The Pittsburg Post-Gazette, 10/31/07

Abstract:

You are more likely to be killed by your couch than by a stroke or an accident, says Dr. Vonda Wright, an orthopedic surgeon at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

There are 35 diseases, collectively known as Sedentary Death Syndrome (SeDS), associated with a sedentary lifestyle, she said. Each year, about 250,000 Americans die from them. Only heart disease (650,000) and cancer (550,000) kill more.

Since only 28 percent of Americans exercise regularly, an estimated 60 percent of the population is thought to be at risk for SeDS. The term was coined by Dr. Frank Booth, a professor at the University of Missouri. SeDS will add up to $3 trillion to the nation's medical bills by the end of the decade, he predicted in 2001.

Among the ailments clustered under the SeDS umbrella are arthritis, type 2 diabetes, breast cancer, colon cancer, and osteoporosis.

Exercise can lengthen your life by more than three years, said researchers at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam in the Netherlands...

...Exercise also vastly improves the quality of life, especially for senior citizens, said Dr. Wright.

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