a great article from a great web sight. Some of the most powerful drugs that we can take is the food that we eat.

Last week my partner and a friend both told me, almost simultaneously, that I had a few gray hairs coming in on the side of my head. Instead of realizing I often think that men with some salt-and-pepper are sexy and maybe I, too, could be sexy, my first thought was to panic and think I had to color my hair and maybe go blond … again. Then I came to my senses and remembered getting older isn’t a bad thing. It happens to everyone. But can everyone age gracefully? Is there such a thing as “gayging” gracefully?

As gay men, we worry about getting older more than our straight brethren. We go to the gym, eat healthier, use moisturizer and then fret we don’t look good enough. We complain we’re too fat or too frumpy and then go eat a big piece of chocolate cake and wash it down with a beer.

Of course this doesn’t happen to everyone; but it’s a pervasive attitude in the gay community. Especially among a sect of gays who primp until the cows come home. There are some gay men who put everything into their looks and attempt to use that to get ahead in life. Then one day, people don’t pay as much attention.

What happens when our looks start to fade and the magic slips away, when those once-sexy “smile lines” turn to serious wrinkles and our once-flat stomachs start to move south and protrude? Is there still hope for love and acceptance beyond our outer layers? There comes a time in every gay man’s life when he has to ask himself: Am I too old for Abercrombie? Generally speaking, yes. And if you don’t think to ask, then you are. And yes, you look ridiculous.

There’s nothing wrong with aging. As gay men, hell as men, we have an advantage. Men tend to age better

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – More active men seem to have a rosier outlook on life, new research from Finland shows.

Dr. Maarit Valtonen of Kuopio University Hospital and colleagues found that men who spent less than one hour a week doing moderate to vigorous leisure-time physical activity were 37% more likely to report feeling hopeless than men who logged at least 2.5 hours weekly.

Feeling hopeless has been linked to worse heart health and greater risk of dying, the researchers note, independent of the effects of depression. To investigate whether physical exercise might influence hopelessness — just as it has been shown to help reduce depression — the researchers surveyed 2,428 men, 42 to 60 years old, about their mood and physical activity levels and tested their fitness.

The men reporting the highest levels of hopelessness had “more pronounced features” of the metabolic syndrome, a cluster of symptoms that boosts risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes. They were also less active and less physically fit.

The men who got at least 2.5 hours of moderate activity each week were significantly less likely to be hopeless than men who were active for an hour or less weekly, and this association remained even after the researchers adjusted for age, socioeconomic status, smoking, and other relevant factors. Vigorous physical activity had a particularly strong effect.

When the researchers adjusted for depression, the link between hopelessness and activity remained. But while low levels of fitness were also tied to greater likelihood of feeling hopeless, further analysis found depression was the responsible factor.

Many people, including those who aren’t depressed or otherwise mentally ill, feel hopeless, the researchers note. The current findings, they say, suggest that “hopelessness and depression are overlapping, but distinct entities.”

The findings also suggest that being active can help “ameliorate or protect against feelings of hopelessness” even if a person’s fitness levels don’t improve.

SOURCE: BMC Public Health, online June 25, 2009.

physical activity remains the number one tool to fight depression

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