Editorial: Age is just a number

If age is wearing on you and you feel you just can't do the things you once could, two stories from last week show how exercising both your mind and your body can help you keep your edge.
The first story came from The Washington Post and noted that more older Americans are exercising than ever before. Sixty-four-year-old Diana Nyad's 110-mile swim from Cuba to Florida showed what people can do if they set their minds to it, but more to the point, the Post story noted that, according to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, the percentage of older Americans who are exercising has increased to 16 percent from just 6 percent in 1998.
That's a big increase, and even if you haven't exercised a lot in the past, starting a routine can help you improve your health at any age.
Another story the same day from Bloomberg News noted the benefits of video games to help sharpen memory in older adults.
According to the story, researchers had 60- to 85-year-old players use a video game in which they had to race a car around a track and, at the same time, respond to displays of different shapes and colors that appeared on the screen.
According to the story, after just 12 hours of training, "the elderly players improved so much that they could beat people in their 20s who were trying the game for the first time."
As more and more baby boomers come up on retirement age, more also seem to be taking a greater interest in maintaining their health, and their quality of life, in their golden years.
Accomplishments such as Nyad's, and research such as that done with the video games, helps show that those efforts can pay off. In many cases, your attitude and how you handle growing old play a greater role in what you are able to accomplish than the actual number of years you've checked off the calendar.