European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 25, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Monday november 25, 1985 the stars and stripes Page 3 keeping fit aerobics expert likes tougher army test stories by Brenda Hoster staff writer Schwet Zingen. Germany or. Kenneth Coop or founder of the . Military s aerobics program in the late 1960s, approves of the army s new physical fitness lest standards because the new scores Are More  no longer will a Soldier be Able to just pass the lest without a previous exercise program he said. Standards in All three army physical fitness test events sit  push  and the 2-Milc-run were increased. Cooper and his wife Millie stressed the importance of a fitness program at a seminar sponsored by 1st personnel come s morale welfare and recreation division. By fitness i mean cardiovascular fitness said the 53-year-old father of aerobics. This Type of fitness comes from exercises that strengthen the heart lung Sand vessels he added. Cooper recommends any one of 31 exercises from running and swimming to cycling and racquetball. He developed the aerobics Point system while serving in the air Force As a senior flight surgeon. He said he left after 13 years because the air Force could t Sec the Benefit of his system. He founded the aerobics Center in Dallas in 1970. Today the air Force army Navy secret scr ice several foreign military organizations Many . Corporations and More than 500 universities and Public schools use this program. His ability to retrieve facts and figures belter than most computer Banks allowed Cooper who runs an average of three Miles four times a week to cite Statis tips for getting your shoes to fit by american forces information service there ire More Bones in the human toot than to Iny other single part of the body. That s one reason Why bid shoes Are bad news poorly fitted cheaply Nade bargain shoes Are no bar gala at nil. Here Are some tips that win make you and your feel fed better la the Long run shop for shoes the cad of the Day when your feet Are a Little swollen. Always ask to hate Yew feet Meas wed a gnat shoe is no Good if it does t lit a ugh romped toe Box at least in inches ugh prevents blackened Raner s  a flexible a sole helps prevent Achilles Tendon problems. A studded sole absorbs Shock and provides traction. A web padded Tongue prevents inflammation and irritation to the top of your foot a Wetth Bokko a baffles pad it he bed pre Wentt irritation of the cubes Tendon. Make sure de pm i ugh Eaf a abort pad in i to your Tel a Art Heel counter provides Hind foot Sec but " Bereles or rounded Beds help you tics aimed at jolting the audience. Less than 24 percent of the adult population was involved in a conditioning program in 1968, Cooper said. That figure has now increased to 59 percent. We had 100,000 joggers in 1968. We now have 34 million joggers age 18 years or  however medical specialists were concerned about an increase in the number of deaths from heart attacks due to this running and exercise explosion. Cooper quoting a Wall Street journal article said deaths from coronary heart Dis ease began rising sharply in the 40s, reached a Peak in 1968 and then mysteriously began drop  that s the year my first Cooper Book aerobics was published there s nothing mysterious about that he said jokingly. Since 1968, deaths from heart attacks have decreased by 27 percent and deaths from strokes by 36 percent. Deaths from hypertension arc Down by 40 percent he said. Jim Fixx s death sent Shock Waves across the coun try. And i spent some 100 hours answering phone Calls and press queries. The primary question was. How could jogging kill Jim Fixx my answer was jogging did t kill Jim Fixx heart disease did. Let s keep things in proper perspective i advised the press. You have 1,000 people about to die you treat them All with a medication and 999 survive one Dies docs that mean the medication is bad if jogging is so bad i asked the press Why is it that when we jumped from 100,000 joggers in 1968 to 34 million in 1984, Why Aren t the streets full of dead jog Gers to the contrary deaths from heart disease began dropping precipitously in response to the exercise move ment of the late 60s and 70s. Cooper s new Book running without fear addresses what he Calls the Jim Fixx syndrome. He Laid dedicated runners often mistakenly think their changed lifestyles and running programs have immunized them against coronary problems. Cooper said he is pleased that americans Are More involved in fitness and urged those who Aren t exercising to take what he called inc Pride  stand naked in front of a full length Mirror and look at yourself he said. And for those of you who Don t think you can face it you May put a bag Over your head with Eye holes in it. Then turn sideways and look again. Next jump up and Down on one fool. What do you think of yourself one of the most precious things we have in our lives is our health he said and All most of us have to say when it s too late is if Only Cooper s wife urged women to gel serious about a fitness program and also to give up cigarettes. The co author of aerobics for women told her audience it s Lime for women to get out of the ice warmer Leotard idea of exercising. I Don t mean these Are bad things to Wear but thai women All too often take a lackadaisical attitude towards their program. 1 see them putting their cigarettes out just before they walk in the door for  she also said american women need to heed cigarette smoking warnings. The men Are catching on our women Arent she said. Why be stress tested according to or. Kenneth Cooper a Pioneer in the testing method stress testing determines the absence or presence of obstructed coronary artery disease. The level of cardiovascular fitness and a Means of prescribing a Safe exercise program. Whether someone who has suffered a heart attack is Likely to a hot further problems. Members of Cooper s aerobic Center who arc 40 years or older Are required to take such a test every three years. The army now requires soldiers age 40 and Over to receive a physical examination and from there it is deter mined whether a stress test is necessary. Cooper who advises the army on physical fitness matters Saio we re expecting to Start stress testing soldiers at the age of 40 and then will continue to do so every three years. It s a plan thai has t been implemented yet but that s our goal. Although exercise stress testing has had its critics since Cooper helped his first patient on the Treadmill More than a decade ago he has defended such methods saying that the majority of errors Are not from the testing but the manner in which the test was  myths of invulnerability or. Kenneth Cooper on myths of invulnerability facing runners myth no. 1 i could t have heart disease and run the Way i run without symptoms. My response to that myth is that the heart is masterful at disguising its problems. You could have severe heart disease and not know ii until that first and fatal moment. Myth no. 2 for me stress testing would be worthless because there Are too Many false negatives and Loo Many false positives and physicians won t know How to interpret the stress cardio ram of an athlete. This one Cost Jim Fixx his life. 1 Don l know if i would have picked up his problem on a stress lest but we certainly picked it up on patients with less of a problem than Jim s. I feel pretty confident that we would  myth no. 3 people who run marathons Don t die of heart attacks. Jim Fixx ran 20 marathons. There is nothing known to Man totally completely protective against coronary disease whether it s Medicine surgery or Marathon  myth no. 4 i Don t have to worry about a Strong history of heart disease in by family. I m running i be changed my lifestyle and exercise can overcome even bad heredity. You can t ignore that major risk Factor a Strong family tendency towards heart disease unless you could pick your  increased longevity attributed to lifestyle changes or. Kenneth Cooper says the dramatic decrease in deaths from cardiovascular disease and unprecedented in crease in longevity Are due to the following factors change in cigarette smoking habits in 1968 we had approximately 50 percent of oar adult males smok ing regularly. That figure now is less than 30 percent. Unfortunately our american women Haven t changed much during that time. Roughly 32 to 33 percent Are still smoking. And now we re finding a rapid increase in deaths from lung cancer occurring in our women. Many times 1 hear people say i be been smoking too Long for it to help me to quit from the standpoint of heart disease that is not True. Many studies have shown that if you Stop smoking in As Short a period of time As six weeks to six months you can drop Back into a Low risk category. In 1985 More people will be indirectly killed As a result of tobacco use than All american casualties in All the wars of the Century 350,000 deaths As the result of what Man is doing to himself. The worst health Hazard we have in the world today is cigarette  belter control of High blood pressure hypertension we know that with medication we can control the blood pressure for the majority of a aliens. But there s no Medicine i know of that i use that does t have some Side effects. Early detection of hypertension can help control this problem usually with loss of a few pounds and proper diet such As restricting the Salt intake in the body and decreasing the consumption of alcohol. We know that exercise docs two things it tends to protect you from developing High blood pressure and very effectively controls High blood  change in dirty in 1970 it was estimated that the Middle aged american male age 45-55, had a cholesterol level of 245. It should be 200 and preferably less than 180. In 1985 thai figure dropped to 215. For every one percent decrease in the cholesterol level there is a three percent decrease in incidents of sudden death from heart attacks. Cholesterol docs have an effect As far As heart disease is concerned. There s a direct relationship Between your level of cholesterol and your level of fit  change in exercise habits this is indicative of our jump from less than 100,000 joggers to the 34 Mil lion joggers. The whole exercise movement was exploding from the "70s to the "80s."