Does Exercise Really Stave Off Aging?

Does exercise really stave off aging? Or is that just the wishful thinking of elderly fitness freaks?  This article in RedNova News quotes Dr Mike Stroud, the author of "Survival of the Fittest: Anatomy of Peak Physical Performance," and the man who
accompanied Sir Ranulph Fiennes on each of his seven marathons during
their week-long challenge in 2003, asserting that "evidence suggests that if you stay active, the rate of physical decline is halved." Unfortunately, little of that evidence is presented in the story, although there are a few citations of research that document the decline of strength, speed and endurance, starting from, yikes, our mid-teens. The story does mention the research doctors Darren McGuire and Benjamin Levine of the
University of Texas, who in the 1960s made a detailed record of the physical fitness of
five healthy men in their twenties. They returned to the same men in
the late 1990s, when they were in their early fifties. The results showed that their heart rates had indeed
slowed, but that this was offset by an increased volume of blood pumped
by the heart. The conclusion, therefore, was that aerobic capacity and
fitness declined not because of the heart’s failings but because the
muscles become less able to use the oxygen-carrying blood.
No one knows exactly why, and one gets the impression that more or less knowledge would not alter Stroud’s convictions.
"You’re just as trainable in middle age as you were in youth," he tell us. "It doesn’t take much effort to get the bloke confined to the
office and the house on to the hills. Yes, aging is a real process.
But the body’s trainability is fantastic."  Read more.