Local speaker reveals real road to ‘Fountain of Youth’

It was Abe Lincoln who said, “It’s not the years in your life, but the life in your years,” and Dr. Samuel Correnti, gerontologist and clinical physiologist, drove that point home with a powerful message for all of us.

In a low-key, but inspiring lecture Tuesday at Canoa Hills called “Life Extension Techniques for Seniors: A Short List of Essentials,” Correnti outlined lots of proof to support one simple, straightforward suggestion—get going right now, cause it’s not too late.

The fountain of youth is flowing within each one of us, but we have to tap into it, Correnti says, and he practices what he preaches.

Celebrating his 80th birthday by bench-pressing 220 pounds, the former Beverly Hills (Calif.) psychotherapist and longevity research specialist still maintains a 32-inch waist with hikes and walks, consistent intense resistance training, meditation and a nap, and healthy daily “grazing.”

Up by 4:30 a.m. and in bed by 9 p.m., no medicines, pasta, bread, or sweets. He’s never had anything in his body replaced or removed. His standing heart rate is 60 beats per minute, and he says he can recover to that in a minute and a half after a 120 bpm aerobic rate.

The former circus trapeze artist, vaudeville acrobat, and WWII Navy gunnery striker, who won four all-around gymnastic championships in his college years, lives here when he’s not in Italy and Switzerland, where he spent years studying mountain people and their secrets of long life.

The old folks he observed “could dance all night,” were still sexually active, revered by the young for their wisdom and “the heritage in their heads,” and maintained some sort of “spiritual connection” and something meaningful to do each day.

Downplaying the “gene factor,” placing it a distant fourth among the “biomarkers” he says can predict longevity, he hammered home two of the top three, diet and exercise—no surprises there.

“Intentionality,” as he dubbed it—the drive, the will, the attitude—is the other.

“We have a sense about where we are going down that common road, and we have taken the measure of the years we have already lived,” said Correnti, explaining that most folks in their 50s through 70s, which is pretty much most of Green Valley, have a vivid understanding of what has happened to their bodies each step along the way.

Losses of muscle and bone mass, sex drive, and lung capacity aren’t necessarily as irreversible as loss of height, hearing, memory, for example, Correnti pointed out.

“We know we are on a downward slope,” Correnti admits, what gerontologists call the decay curve, and although taking a peek into assisted living facilities can give us the “Ebenezer Scrooge Christmas ghosts scare,” just like the old miser’s “second chance,” it’s not too late to do something about it.

“There are realistic options about how to slow the decay and flatten the downward slope out a little,” he said.

Simple caloric restriction, he said, is critical, “the easiest to understand,” he put it, “and yet the most difficult to follow.”

“Start with eliminating pasta, potatoes, and bread,” he began, “and change how we eat, what we eat, how quickly, how we prepare it,” he continued.

“Overeating over-stimulates the immune system, which quickens aging.”

Instead of the traditional three meals a day, he suggests “grazing,” five or six snacks daily of nuts, raw vegetables, fruit, and other light, healthy alternatives that take us away from our sit-down meat and potatoes and sweet-tooth indulgences.

Though women suffer hormonal changes, worry about weight gain, and men lose strength, become resigned to “acting their age,” Correnti cautions all of us not to lose tenderness, intimacy, boldness, zest for the rest of life.

“Old age is not a disease,” he said firmly, “so our bodies can still be awakened and we can still feel vitalized by exercise.”

Citing four separate studies, one which he did himself in 1990 along with his research of longevity factors among High Alps populations in Italy and Switzerland, Correnti believes that “disuse,” as he put it, has become the most overriding reason why most Americans can’t tap into their “fountains.”

“Disuse is equated with aging,” he said, “causes degeneration of bone and muscle structures, and quickens the decay curve.”

If a tiger got loose, he mused, our evolution might summon the adrenaline rush and resulting strength and quickness to escape, but we ignore the potential we all possess to keep that natural reaction alive in us every day.

Although aerobic activity, such as biking and walking are important, often neglected resistance training is the key to keeping our bones and muscles strong even into the last years, he said, emphasizing that bone destruction, especially in women, leads to immobility and risk of falls and fractures.

“Think of our need for muscle mass and muscle strength as the single most important determinant in our longevity,” Correnti said, suggesting we must understand our slow-twitch (endurance) and fast-twitch (strength, firmness) muscle fiber needs, and how to address them both.

Repeating the movement to the point of muscle failure, he said, is key to getting the maximum return on building those fibers.

Genes in a muscle that is “overloaded” sense the challenge and respond by altering the quantities of proteins the muscle produces.

“If we push ourselves to failure,” he said, “by squeezing out one last repetition, we may engage 100 percent of the fibers.”

So, doing eight repetitions of the leg press, for example, with good form and hefty resistance isn’t as beneficial as doing 19 repetitions of the same exercise with lighter weight so that the muscles can’t complete number 20, even with maximum effort.

Just keep it simple and consistent, said Correnti, who also emphasized mental challenges and a smile to greet the new day.

He takes foreign language classes while in Europe each summer, studies a little opera, is learning to play the saxophone, and laughs a lot.

As Lincoln said, we have to put life into our remaining years, or the fountain may run out of water before we know it.

Mike Touzeau is a freelance writer.