The other day, I got a postcard from Cenegenics Medical Institute, “the world’s largest age management medicine practice….” Their treatments are highly personalized, state of the art, and therefore not inexpensive; I have no doubt that their patients feel the results are worth every penny. The card advertises that “the Cenegenics Program of nutrition, exercise, and hormone optimization (when clinically indicated) can make you look and feel years younger!” [Emphasis theirs] Specific benefits may include decreased risk of age related disease, improved muscle tone, decreased body fat, increased energy, increased sex drive, and sharper thinking. So let’s look at that list a little more closely.

Decreased Risk of Age-Related Disease: Studies show that exercise can reduce the risk of age-related brain changes, age related vision loss from cataracts and macular degeneration, retard the development of chronic kidney disease, reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, and reduce the risk of various kinds of cancer.

Improved Muscle Tone: Obviously, anybody can improve their muscle tone through exercise.

Decreased Body Fat: Another very obvious benefit of exercise is losing body fat.

Increased energy: It has been demonstrated over and over again that regular exercise can give you the feeling of more energy (and less fatigue!).

Increased Sex Drive: Oddly enough, there’s plenty of evidence that exercise can pump up your sex life. Maybe it has something to do with that hot body you’re cultivating? Maybe it’s just the hormonal changes exercise causes? Maybe both.

Sharper Thinking: Guess what else can do that? Exercise! Not only does exercise reduce the risk of age-related brain changes, exercise helps the memory, helps prevent brain deterioration, and helps us think better.

So regular exercise does all the things we want out of an anti-aging program — except maybe prevent wrinkles, and it might do that too. And I absolutely promise that a good exercise program is cheaper than a Cenegenics comprehensive anti-aging consultation. It turns out that exercise may just be the best medicine to stay healthy and Age Against the Machine.