Rejuvenating patients-one step at a time.

Abstract

We are watching a vast natural experiment: Take millions of Americans off farms, off manual labor. Give them desk jobs, cars, and televisions. Add sanitation and antibiotics to increase life span. Then sit back and watch what-and how-the people do. You know the results from epidemiologic studies and from your own practice: The average American lives a long time, but he or she is sedentary, fat, unfit-and, often, chronically ill. The worst impact is on the older adults who have accumulated a lifetime of this comfortable but ultimately disabling lifestyle.