With the body, as with the brain, it’s very much “use it or lose it.” Yes, it actually is as easy as it sounds, yet in so-called “first-world countries” comfort and convenience, touted as the epitomes of our advancement and superiority* (self-appointed, of course), actually deprive the human body of one of its most basic needs for health and proper development at all ages: physical exercise.
What is then blamed for our ailments and diseases is a combination of poor genes, a DNA sentence, and plain bad luck. While these play a part, I argue that they are secondary to a sedentary day-to-day and other lifestyle “choices”–the extent to which these are choices could be argued–which are rarely considered the deciding factor in mainstream medicine.
Whatever the case, physical activity, together with proper nutrition, forms the foundation on which health rests. Without exercises, of any sort really but that includes combinations of cardio, resistance training, and flexibility, age-appropriate, of course, physical health becomes a gamble and an unnecessary one at that.
The good news is that human beings can easily thrive until what’s commonly referred to as old age–but should actually be more appropriately termed “the silver years of wisdom”–as long as they/we eat healthful, nutritious food and move their/our bodies.