Medicine: Vigorous Middle Age

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Dr. Thomas Kirk Cureton is a man of 49 who says he feels 35. It is no idle boast. He can prove it with physical-fitness tests in which he ranks consistently next to Track Stars Gil Dodds, 32, and Craig Dixon, 25.

Dr. Cureton, director of the Physical Fitness Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois, has spent the last five years testing the physical condition of 2,000 "middleaged" men (26 to 60, by his classification) from a dozen or more professions and trades. He has put more than 500 of them through a physical build-up course, and retested them at the end of it for signs of improved breathing, heart action, muscular flexibility, strength, hardness, endurance. His conclusion: cardio-vascular ailments among the middle-aged would be negligible if such people would just exercise more, eat right.

Reduced to its simplest terms, the Cureton cure consists of 1) regular, rhythmic exercise (e.g., a half-hour swim or a twomile walk each day), to strengthen the body's big muscles and promote the flow of blood back to the heart; 2) a diet of more green and yellow vegetables, no excess fats, starches or sugars, and "not too much of anything." Dr. Cureton stresses the fact that this is not a reducing regimen, nor is it for sick men. The purpose is to tone up the cardio-vascular system, strengthen the heart, improve the digestion, clear the mind. For busy men who say they have no time for such diversions, Dr. Cureton cites the case of a male patient whose tests indicated a life expectancy of six years. After six months of the

Cureton workout, he had a life expectancy of 21 years.

Can a man grown flabby from sedentary life overdo it when he starts exercising? "Most of them," says Dr. Cureton, "quit long before their hearts stop them." At first the middle-aged softy may develop sore muscles because his circulation is sluggish. But provided that he is not ill, the condition disappears as soon as his strengthened heart begins pumping more blood.

The best testimonial to the Cureton method is the 165-lb., 9 in. physical therapist himself. Seven years ago, at 42, he dropped in at the Air Force's Chanute Field, took the training obstacle course on a dare, broke the course record by eight seconds. The record still stands. "My father, a sedentary worker," says Dr. Cureton, "died much too young, at the age of 60. My mother, now 75, swims in the ocean every day."