Preventive Maintenance for Future Well-Being.

• Position: Brief Article

Young adults may feel healthy, but, like a new car that is neglected, they are in for often needless trouble in later years, warns Wes Alles, director of Stanford (Calif.) University's Health Improvement Program. The good news is that, with a little "maintenance," people will be able to feel even better as they prepare to feel great as they get older.

"In young people, the lifestyle risk factors that lead to chronic disease have not had time to show themselves, leaving the individual with the false impression of good health. Younger people with risk factors such as increasing weight, high blood cholesterol, or elevated blood pressure shouldn't regard themselves as being healthy--it's just that they are not sick yet."

Studies have shown that a sedentary person typically gains about two pounds a year after age 30, Alles notes. "People may experience some slowly developing effects that they rationalize as `not having the old energy level,' or `work is making me more tired every year.' During the next 20 to 30 years, if left unchanged, most people who eat too much and don't get enough exercise will develop significant health problems that otherwise probably...