Aging Well With a Generous Daily Dose of Gravity

I imagine that most of us don't worry so much about dying but about what comes just prior to that part of life. Like my friend Tom Rogers used to say: "I want to be healthy till I drop dead!" Aging well and retaining dignity and independence is what it's all about. 

The human body is a gift. We owe it to ourselves to take good care of it and in fact we have more influence over this body than we might believe.  Not feeling your best is no fun and often very costly. In contrast, a healthy body and mind help you feel good and look young. At times, you may for instance get down on yourself about what you’ve eaten or having been relatively inactive. It’s important that you be aware of this and make choices that better support your wellbeing. Although medications have their place, practical, non-medicinal solutions are readily available as well. There is much to be learned from previous generations.

Modern Times and Technologies
Many modern technologies have contributed to robbing us of good health. They crept up on us before we quite realized what was happening.  Although the TV remote control, your car, your computer and the washing machine make your life and work easier, they also reduce your need to move. 

Designed for Gravity
Your body was designed to live and move in gravity which, in turn, makes movement effective. We’ve learned from astronauts living in space how important using gravity is to wellness. In spite of hours of strenuous exercise while in the microgravity of space, astronauts lose stamina, balance, coordination, and muscle and bone strength 10 times faster than on earth. These are all changes you experience on earth as you age, only much more slowly than our astronaut friends. Yet if you asked a doctor about the effects of gravity on human health they would probably look at you blankly. There is nothing in the medical textbooks about gravity.

At NASA we learned that you can produce similar changes on earth by lying in bed continuously.  With the greater inactivity prevalent today from extended periods of sitting and lying down these accelerated age-like changes can be hazardous to your health.  The simple answer for us living on earth is to move more in ways that use gravity.  Children do this spontaneously. Before the advent of Jane Fonda's videos or Gyms and Wellness Centers, our grandparents did it naturally in the course of the day.

Mother Nature's medicine to aging well in technology-rich modern times is a generous daily dose of gravity. For your body to be well and strong it is crucial to use and challenge gravity by moving about throughout the day, every day.