Aging, Physical Activity, and Disease Prevention

Although no amount of physical activity can stop the biological aging process, regular exercise can counteract some of the adverse physiological, psychological, and cognitive consequences of aging [1]. Age and physical inactivity are primary and secondary (indirect) risk factors for a long list of adverse chronic conditions [2, 3], whereas increasing physical activity from midlife to old age results in reduced rates of chronic disease and death [3, 4]. Our Call for Papers was driven by a growing body of evidence showing strong associations between physical inactivity and age-related chronic disease, as well as reductions in risks or incidence of chronic disease with exercise training [1]. Despite the overwhelming evidence for the role of physical activity in reducing the incidence of mortality, morbidity, and quality of life in chronic disease, a relatively small portion of the population are physically active worldwide [5] and even fewer older adults exercise regularly with sufficient intensity, duration, and frequency to receive optimal benefits for disease prevention [1]. Physical inactivity is especially prevalent in highly developed countries [5]. For this reason, more research is needed to understand and overcome barriers for habitual exercise and sport participation (see 3rd paper in this issue). A recent study ordered reasons for participating in exercise programs and found that social aspects followed by the intent to improve physical fitness and/or prevent chronic diseases ranked among the highest reasons in older adults. With the increasing number of elderly, especially in the highly developed countries, it is important, yet challenging, to offer attractive and accessible physical activity programs to elderly. Qualified supervision, medical evaluations, and evidence-based individualized exercise prescriptions are also important for older sedentary adults, particularly those with underlying cardiovascular disease [6]. Besides cardiovascular and metabolic disease prevention, physical activity might also help reduce the risk of dementia [7, 8] and maintain cognitive function [9]. Since the risk of dementia is strongly associated with age and the number of adults surviving to advanced age will increase markedly in the near future, preventive measures become increasingly important. In this context, there is even some evidence that biological aging of the brain might be slowed down and that brain areas most affected by the aging process might benefit most from regular exercise [10]. This special issue covers a wide array of topics on the aging and physical activity and their relationship to disease and disability prevention. The papers show how aging and …