Big medical news out of Dallas, courtesy a University of North Texas professor and the Journal of the American Medical Association. Turns out, from 1979 to 2001 some 2,600 men and women, whose average age was 64, took part in something called the Aerobic Center Longitudinal Study at the Cooper Clinic, which, of course, is part of the Cooper Aerobics Center on Preston Road. The goal of the study was to find out whether exercise or weight loss was more important to the well-being of "older adults."
Well, today the research was released in the JAMA, and Dr. Steven N. Blair of UNT, who's also a board advisor for the International Council on Active Aging, and his researchers have concluded that, yup, you're better off exercising than losing weight, should you have to make the choice. "Fitness and fatness are two different things," Blair tells The Baltimore Sun today. "You can be fat and be fit -- and if you exercise, you are going to get some protection." Awesome. Time to talk to Taco Bell. --Robert Wilonsky
