That's the end.

Hi everyone, it's Gretchen Reynolds, your guest host for the week. Welcome to Radio

Headspace and a Thursday. If you've been listening this week, you know that my reporting

is all about the benefits and science of exercise. And part of what's so interesting

to me is how physical movement can significantly improve our quality of life as we age and even

help us live longer. So today, we're talking about aging. I'm going to share how exercise

can give us a better chance to feel good with each birthday, some interesting facts about

why our bodies were meant to move, and some tips on using movement to thrive as we get

older.

So why does exercise have an effect on how we age? One theory that scientists have been

developing is called the Grandparent Theory. And it says that when we were hunter-gatherers

thousands of years ago, children were more likely to survive if they had grandparents

who were really active. That meant the grandparents could help bring food, they could watch

the children. They had to be very smart, they had to be very strong, they had to be able

to still walk and move around. The more active older people were, the more likely their

children and grandchildren were to survive. And so being an active older person became

really important for the human species. But then we managed to begin to believe that older

people should not be active or could not be active, and that almost certainly is just

not true. People who are active as they get older, and that means starting in your 40s,

are so much less likely to develop almost every chronic disease that is associated with

aging. And that includes diabetes, heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, high blood

pressure, weight gain, almost any condition that we associate right now with being older

...