Senior Voice -

We’ve all heard or even been told that getting old is something we have to live with and getting sick, feeble and diseased just comes with the territory.

Well, I for one am going to fight it every step of the way and I am not going to settle for aging as an inevitability.

Dr. Frank Shallenberger shares my philosophy or, maybe better said, I share his -- he’s more famous than me even though I might be a few years his senior. A pioneer in alternative and anti-aging medicine, Dr. Shallenberger claims that you don’t have to grow old biologically at all. He says that in the world of medicine, aging is defined as a decrease in the ability of the body to function effectively. So, there is a difference between chronological age – how many years you’ve been alive – and biological age, which refers to how old you are from a functional standpoint.

Aging happens. Muscles tighten up and limbs, especially legs, stiffen. And, surprise!, movement isn’t quite as easy as it used to be. Not to mention joints and their related stiffness and tightness.

The question is, why? And how can I stop it from happening?

Dr. Shallenberger says that the answer lies in your cells. When you are young, your cells produce a lot of energy. But when you reach your 30s, your cells start to produce energy less efficiently. In fact, the efficiency of your cells declines in a steady, predictable, pattern for the rest of your life. Your cells will lose enough efficiency that the loss begins to affect your organs. Your heart doesn’t work as well. Your liver doesn’t work as well. Your brain doesn’t work as well. And so on.

Eventually when the functioning of your cells is so compromised, diseases begin to set in. Diseases like diabetes, arthritis, dementia and heart disease. If you don’t intercede and fast, you’ll become frail, feeble and weak.

Yikes.

As a fitness trainer, I see the aging process on a daily basis up close and personal. I have “kids” that have been with me for years, exercising regularly, consistently and progressively and they just don’t seem to grow older. Most of them realize that what they are doing is actually keeping them from succumbing to the ravages of old age. Yes, exercise plays a huge role in keeping your body young, supple and energized.

My guru Dr Shallenberger says you don’t lose energy because you age; you age because you lose energy. Said another way: You don’t get old and stop playing—you stop playing so you get old.

Think about it: Every cell needs energy to function. So doesn’t it make sense that the less energy your cells have, the poorer they function? And the poorer your cells function, the poorer your whole body functions?

Oxygen therapy

The first thing that I would recommend to you if you haven’t been moving much is EWOT, Exercise With Oxygen Therapy. You can ride a bike or a sit-down stepper while breathing 8 to 10 liters of oxygen per minute for 15 minutes, three times per week. This is an eight-week program. The therapy gets down to your base cells and revitalizes them.

EWOT is a way to get much needed oxygen (energy) into your very base energy cells, your mitochondria. The mitochondria are the basic energy cells of your body and as they get old, from lack of oxygen, they become feeble and lazy so the result is that you have no or less energy.

As we restore that energy (oxygen) back to those cells, you’ll find yourself more able to do the things that you’d kind of given up on. Some of the things that you might notice are that you sleep better and you might not need that two-hour nap in the middle of the afternoon.

While exercising with oxygen, you’ll discover a much brighter outlook and even decide that you want to become a bit more social. Remember how it used to be?

I could go on and on with story after story of people who have found that EWOT has helped them take the next leap to health and wellness, whatever that might be.

Bonnie Murphy is an Anchorage fitness instructor and owner of Bfit and Well studio. Contact her at 907-229-7652 or visit http://www.bfitandwell.com.