Physiological ageing is inevitable - getting fat and lethargic isn't

Much of what happens to the way we age is stashed away in our DNA and down to luck. But, there are some things that we can do give ourselves a helping hand.

Two no brainers - don't get fat and exercise.

Unfortunately, most older people do neither.

All the work that Kim Walker and I have done, in researching the way that physical ageing impacts marketing, shows how obesity and lack of exercise accentuates the effect of ageing.

Muscle loss happens to us all but exercise can slow the effect. The decay of the skeletal structure happens to us all but it made much worse when you stress it with 10s sometimes 100s kg of extra weight.

This research from Stanford gives the gory details of what a bad physical state we are in and getting worse. From the perspective of marketing, all the more reason to understand physiological ageing. Dick Stroud