Natural Bodybuilding Slows the Aging Process as it Maintains Both Mental and Physical Health, Resulting in Longer Life Expectancy

A huge concern amongst Americans today is how they will maintain a healthy lifestyle physically and mentally as they age.  While there are many answers to this question that have proven to work, such as proper dieting and exercise, natural bodybuilding is one preventative measure that will help to maintain mental and physical health with age to the fullest extent.

Bodybuilding and intense weightlifting may be considered a sporting subculture, as it simply is not a mainstream sporting practice, but perhaps it is something that more people who are concerned with their bodies as they get older should look into.

When bodybuilding is performed the right way, naturally, individuals benefit in countless ways, short-term and long-term.  Concerning old age, natural bodybuilding and weightlifting has shown to profit both men and women, as they maintain more muscle strength and joint health and better mental health, along with a general healthier look and feel.  If performed unnaturally, with the use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) such as steroids, the long-term negative effects are endless.  Natural bodybuilding is an extremely helpful preventative step that will slow the aging process dramatically.

Natural Bodybuilding Supports the Maintenance of Mental Health Throughout the Aging Process, Especially Increasing Memory

As the body begins to age, there is an increase in potential risks for declines in mental health.  According to a national poll by Research!America and PARADE magazine, 62 percent of Americans are more afraid of losing mental capacity than losing physical ability.  To this majority of Americans, an answer to this concern is natural bodybuilding and weightlifting.

Intense weight training and aerobic exercise at younger ages can help to prevent potential declines in mental well-being.  According to an article in the March 2006 issue of the journal "Obesity," bodybuilding and intense training improves the brain's adaptive capability, which implies the prevention of possible age-related mental issues such as decline in cognition, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s dementia, stroke, and depression.

While intense weightlifting at younger ages takes preventative steps to mental health maintenance with aging, Alexandra Sifferlin explains in her article that it is never too late to start weight training, as it “helps improve memory and reduces the frequency of those momentary hiccups we call ‘senior moments.’”  She explains with the results of four successful studies that later-aged adults can benefit from weight training programs.  Every study was able to prove that the weight training programs do result in increases in memory and overall brain function.

Natural Bodybuilding Improves Physical Health With Age, Prolonging Joint Health and Life Expectancy

Physical health, another concern that comes with the aging process, can be maintained with the help of natural bodybuilding.  Improving physical health through bodybuilding and intense weightlifting can result in a prolonged life expectancy.  The accompanying graph shows years of life gained based on amounts of physical activity such as weightlifting (100 percent being the recommended amount of physical activity per week).

The graph, used based on results from a study conducted by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), proves that people who get the recommended level of physical activity have a life expectancy 3.4 years longer than those who do not get the recommended amount.  People who get more than the recommended amount gain even more years of life.  More intense and more often physical activity, such as natural bodybuilding and vigorous weightlifting, corresponds to longer life expectancy.

University of Maryland Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach, Seth Diters, explains that natural bodybuilding will keep an aging body much healthier structurally, being able to maintain balance and posture with less extra effort.  When the body ages, bone, muscle, joint, and tendon structures tend to weaken, so natural bodybuilding can help slow this natural declination, allowing the bodybuilder to stay stronger, and in general, healthier for a longer amount of time.

He also mentions, “joint health should be able to be maintained longer,” which would immensely benefit an aging person’s body.  Joint health is a crucial aspect that requires much attention as the body ages.  Healthy, well-maintained joints will help prevent pain and discomfort in the body, considerably decreasing risk for arthritis.  Coach Diters finally states, “You should definitely just stay in overall better shape longer, which would promote a longer life…natural bodybuilding would help every aspect of a person’s life as they age.”

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Bullying in City Public Schools is an Issue that Continues to Devastate Far Too Many Victims

This article discusses bullying in city public schools, such as schools in New York City.  It gives a wide variety of statistics showing and explaining that bullying is a severe issue that can cause many problems in young teenagers such as depression, self-harming, and harming of others.  Importantly, it also describes the negative effects that bullying has on bully victim's education.  

University of Maryland Assistant Geology Professor Vedran Lekic was Awarded the Packard Fellowship for His Seismic Research

In recognition of his efforts to integrate computer science and geological studies, Vedran Lekic joined the ranks of 17 other early career U.S. scientists and engineers who were awarded a Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering last week.

As a doctoral student at the University of California, Berkley, Lekic formulated higher-resolution images of the Earth’s mantle structure, stemming from his creation of a global seismic velocity model. Not only is the model able to give geologists a better understanding of plate tectonics, but it also helps explain the movement of continental plates and their evolution, Lekic said.

Lekic’s research is based on ground vibration recordings, which he and his students use to detect the scattering of seismic waves across the North American tectonic plate. In conjunction with the National Science Foundation’s EarthScope Facility network, the data is collected from the 49 states and Puerto Rico and makes up about 3.8 million square miles, Lekic said.

“EarthScope is kind of like our Apollo mission, but not as costly,” Lekic said.

Lekic has already used the seismic information to investigate why and how the crust moves over the Earth’s mantle. As of now, the deepest any machine has been able to dig was about 12 kilometers into the Earth’s crust, a minuscle fracture of the roughly 6,730 kilometers it takes to get to the Earth’s core. Using the seismic information helps geologists see the shapes and sizes of the Earth’s layers.

From this data, Lekic is creating a map that will not only cover all 48 contiguous states, Alaska and Puerto Rico, but also dive deep into the Earth’s crust and core.

Along with Seismology Research, Lekic is Working in the Field of Neutrino Geoscience

Other than his seismology research contributions, Lekic is also a forerunner in the new geological field of neutrino geoscience.

“We are both interested in the energy that moves the tectonic plates and creates the magnetic shield around the planet,” geology professor William McDonough said.

Lekic and McDonough are attempting to harness that energy to create another way to build a model of the Earth.

“What we do is comparable to how an ultrasound let’s us see through our bodies,” Lekic said. “But this lets us see through the Earth.”

Neutrinos are a type of electrically neutral subatomic particle that are created during radioactive decay or some kinds of nuclear reactions. The particle, which was only discovered geologically in 2005 and physically detected for the first time last year, moves through every kind of object, McDonough said.

“It sounds magical; it’s like a particle that exists but you can’t really see,” Lekic said of neutrinos.

The Packard Fellowship Gives Lekic Opportunities to Thrive Even More in His Field

“If you look at the field of those who get it and try to figure out from their research summaries and letters which are the strongest candidate, it’s a difficult task,” said Franklin Orr, chairman of the Packard Fellowship panel. “We always run out of fellowships before we run out of wonderful people to give them too.”

“The great thing about this fellowship is its flexibility to go chase a really good idea to wherever it leads,” said Orr, a Stanford University professor. “It is an incredibly valuable fund and gives the researchers an opportunity to take off with a good idea instead of waiting a year or more for federal money.”

The Packard Fellowship Award Gives Lekic Extensive Funds to Continue his Research

Lekic is now one of five alumni faculty members who have received the award while at this university, and he will be given access to unrestricted funds of $875,000 over a five-year period to support his extensive research on Earth’s inner structure.

Now that a large fund has been granted to his work, he hopes to spend more time plotting the seismic information in graphs and models so that he may better understand the Earth, Lekic said.

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