Conclusion

National and international attitudes and policies focused on improving the health of older people must be directed towards good nutrition and improving lifestyles. Exercise is no substitute for poor lifestyle practices, such as excessive alcohol consumption, smoking, overeating, and poor dietary practices. Attention must be directed to the importance of creative movements, posture, perceptual motor stimulation, body awareness, body image, and coordination. However, the importance of physical activity is too valuable to be limited to the young and healthy. Exercise, sports, and other physical activities must include all ages without regard to their frailty or disabilities.

The laws of nature rule the human body. Chemical and biological laws affect food metabolism, neurological transmissions within the nervous system and the target organs, hormonal influences, and all other growth, maintenance, and performance activities. Mechanical influences occur at the joints according to the same laws that return the pole vaulter to earth. Food, water, air, and environmental factors interact with work and societal demands. Human life is an interplay of external and internal processes and energy and, according to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, the system will move towards increased disorder over time (56). In terms of the universe, the first law of thermodynamics states that the total energy of the universe is constant. The second law states that the total entropy of the universe is increasing. The measure of a system's disorder is referred to a entropy and Eddington said, "Whenever you conceive of a new theory of unusually attractiveness, but it does not in some way conform to the Second Law, then that theory is most certainly wrong" (57).

Everyone inevitably grows older. Delaying the process of disorder by keeping the subsystems of the organism at a low level of entropy does not flaunt the Second Law but rather exploits it. Logically, consumption of proper food, sleeping or resting sufficiently, and engaging in an appropriately amount of intense physical activity should keep the tissues and organs functioning maximally. To extend and improve the length and the quality of life depends on an increased awareness of human anatomy, biology, and physiology with continuous research efforts in these and other areas which impact human life. The aging process cannot be overcome, but it should be possible to negate many of the debilitating aspects of it. The Declaration of the United States of America is the only document of any country in history which includes the statement of "...pursuit of happiness..." and this concept should apply to the health and quality of life for all peoples, regardless of location, and at every age -- even during the twilight years.